Not with surprise, this time.
This time there’s something else as I advance on him.
“NOT PERSONAL?!” I scream. “You are a person whokidnaps civilianswhen someone annoys you, like a common thug! Youlie and you lie and you lie and you make everyone else do your work so you can pretend your hands are clean! You steal from an entireworldand have thegallto claim it as your due. Well if right is a matter of what a person can claim, Evram—“ I point my wand at him, all alone, his guards fallen around us ”—then you’re about to be real fucking surprised when the person in the right is the one standing over your dead body.”
Then a hand covers my wand hand, and Nariel says in my ear, “No.” And then to Evram, without looking, Nariel points his other hand and says, “Don’t you fucking move, orIwill end you.”
The grand magus does not fucking move.
“Sierra,” Nariel says, “I know what this means to you. Iknow. But if you kill mages right now, any of them, your sister will never be safe again.Think.”
Think, Sierra,think.
If I kill the mages now, High Earth’s first priority will be retribution. If they can’t get revenge on me, they will take it on her, having determined her an effective target to engage me. And what was true before is still true: I can’t protect her yet.
For all my genius, I can’t protect her yet.
There is not enough power to maintain the kind of shields on her that would stop a concerted effort from Evram or a cohort of battle mages and still let me anchor magic in this world—and without the anchors to power them, any shield I put on her will fail.
The safest place for her is right where they think they want her.
I’m breathing hard, my hand clenched over my wand, as I dare to slowly move my gaze to Brook.
“You will be safe,” I promise her, and I almost don’t recognize the coldness in my voice. “Iwillsave you.”
And I almost break when, without hesitation, my sister, who has just watched me nearly kill a man in a rage, nods without hesitation. As though ofcourseshe won’t be contained for long.
My eyes cloud with tears, but through them all, I can see hers, and they are fierce.
She would be right to blame me, and maybe she does. But she trusts me. And she trusts this decision.
I turn back to Evram and can’t find any words.
So it’s Nariel who croons, “If Brook Walker comes to any harm in your care, I will not keep Sierra from your throat a second time.”
Evram’s gaze flicks to his, his face ashen.
Nariel says, in a voice that is deathly gentle, “Go now. We’ll see you at the next place.”
And he does, and I watch my sister vanish in front of my eyes before the tears spill out and I collapse, screaming my rage into the silent forest.
I didn’t win this round after all.
Chapter 9
The silence after the grand magus leaves is oppressive.
The mist of the Cloud Forest settles like a shroud. Distantly, the birds still chirp.
There are still bodies on the ground, unmoving where I dropped them. Since I didn’t banish them, High Earth will be able to reuse the same portal. Evram—no, probably Destien, fresh and freshly sanctimonious—will be back to collect them. We have to go.
I don’t move.
I’m just kneeling in the dirt, breathing hard, my vision blurred through tears that are dripping down my face.
Then my whole field of vision is filled with Nariel, kneeling down directly before me.
I don’t know what to say to him.
