Sidrick’s swallow was audible as he said, “There isn’t a beast out there whose name, court origin, magic source, weaknesses, and disposal method I couldn’t tell you. But as the Mother is my witness, I have no idea what in the seven hells those things were. All I know is that they didn’t seem to care about me; they just wanted to get to you.” He looked over his shoulder at me, his dark-brown eyes swimming with concern.
I mulled over this information, playing it through my mind again and again as if there was a thread of reason to pull as we made our way south. “Tarrin!” I exclaimed, turning around to face him. He’d already stopped, and I knew he’d come to the same conclusion as I had.
“What?” Sidrick asked, coming up beside us.
Tarrin rubbed his face with both hands hard enough that the stubble made a dry scratching sound before digging his fingersinto his mahogany. “I’m sorry. I should’ve anticipated this,” he said, dropping his hands, hair now fully mussed.
The summer fae’s features turned to stone. “Anticipated what?” There was a sharp warning in his tone.
Sheathing my daggers, I took a step closer to him. “You said that both of your unaras have been tested against all magic, yes?”
Crossing his arms, Sidrick’s brow ticked up a fraction before nodding once.
“Against allfae,magic,” I said, leading him to find the answer for himself.
It only took a heartbeat or two before his chest paused with a held breath, eyes going wide. Unfolding his arms, he brought his hand to his hairline as if looking through a window—and perhaps he was seeing where they’d miscalculated. “Spellcraft,” he said simply, then slowly lowered his hands to look at me, then Tarrin.
“Spellcraft,” he confirmed.
Silence fell as we realized our error.
“Damn it!” Sidrick cursed, then turned and smashed the heel of his palm against a nearby aspen, shaking free dozens of bright yellow leaves. “Damn it,” he said again, this time more resigned than anything.
“Sidrick,” I said softly, “this isn’t your fault. Your histories recorded the end of spellcraft when you believed the Alton bloodline destroyed. If anything, Tarrin and I should’ve probed more about your unaras and their capacities.”
The truth was, we’d planned for Thaddeus. Had contingencies for his powers. But we’d missed this completely by unintentionally assuming Thaddeus’ brand of magic was fundamentally the same as fae magic.
“Assigning blame isn’t going to help—even toward myself,” Sidrick conceded.
Turning my focus to Tarrin, I said, “Thaddeus had no idea where I was after I left, right?”
He shook his head. “No. He didn’t. None of us did. Why?”
“He tried to track me, like when I went missing at the summer solstice, right?”
“He did. From the first moment he realized you weren’t on the grounds. He checked every day, sometimes up to ten times a day. It was an obsession of his.”
I physically had to shake the feeling of that truth before continuing. “So why now? How is he able to find me? We all know it’s not because Wymond somehow tracked our magic. So, how is Thaddeus doing it? Because I’m not inclined to believe they justhappened upon usback there,” I said, pointing from where we came, well aware we couldn’t stay still much longer.
“She’s right,” Sidrick said. “Each court is massive, and we were too far from the palace toaccidentallyrun into anyone, let alone Thaddeus himself.”
“The… hounds?” Tarrin hedged, clearly not sure what to call the abominations. “Couldn’t they have just scented us like any other animal? Gods, aren’t fae senses strong enough to hunt us on scent alone?”
I cringed, my mind drifted to the books Endymion had given me—more specifically the passage that discussed how the Autumn Court had begun experimenting in the hopes of crafting new breeds of beasts that could be deployed as weapons. However, when the sanctions had come down after the fall of Wymond’s great-great-grandfather, they were strictly forbidden against it. In fact, all their resources—including the fae directly involved—were relocated to the Spring Court, where they could pour their efforts into projects that could benefit the fae, or Lumnara as a whole. While I may hate Thaddeus for a great many reasons, there were two things I knew for certain about him—he was resourceful, and he was patient. Unfortunately for us, he’d partnered with a court that was losing its patience and was predisposed to violence. I shuddered just thinking about the evils they could conjure together.
Two different forms of magic, one goal—power.
“No. My unara doesn’t just shield magic,” Sidrick said, drawingmy wandering thoughts back. “It shields our existence. While it doesn’t make us invisible, it makes us impossible to track.”
Tarrin and I regarded him with dubious expressions.
Realizing we needed more of an explanation, Sidrick looked around before focusing on the path we came from. “Nyleeria, you’re a hunter, right?” he asked.
I nodded—though I wasn’t sure I’d still classify myself as a hunter.
“As a human, how did you track?”
“Tracks. Dropp—” The words fell dead on my tongue as I understood.
