When the image of a carcass strapped to Monteluce and surrounded by vultures shimmers behind my lids, I wonder if I’ve conjured it up or if Lore sent it to me. I force it from my mind as I press away from Justus’s body.
“Justus isn’t our enemy, Lore.”
He bloody took you from me!
“So I could kill Dante before you got the itch to take matters into your own talons and damn your soul.” I replay the moment I had the Faerie cornered with my sword.
Who am I kidding? I never had that noxious weasel cornered. I did have him on his knees, though, and had it not been for his damn crown, I may have landed my blow.
“He’s still alive.” In spite of the anger rattling my heart, my voice is entirely toneless, like a rough rock worn down to a pebble.
The imagery feels wrong, warped. I may sound like a pebble, but Dante’s magical greed chiseled me into a jagged rock, one whose edges will pierce his flesh the next time we meet, and wewillmeet again. I will haunt that man until his heart lays deadened inside my palm.
Lorcan’s shadows pulse, and his phantom fingers unspool, imprinting themselves against the cruel nothingness separating us.The sigil, Behach Éan. Tell the Faerie to erase it now, or I swear I will show that man no mercy.
I turn toward the general. “The sigil, Justus. How do we get rid of it?”
“Wedon’t do anything;Iwill go. I can dress up as Lastra and pretend like I’ve found my way back in.”
“Did Lastra have the combination to the vault?”
Justus presses his lips together. Evidently not.
“How will you get into the vault if the door’s shut? You can’t exactly use water to unlock it when the Faerie you’d be impersonating has earth magic.”
Justus stares at the other dead soldier.
“That one was a fire-Fae.” Though neither of us mention Cato, his magic was wind. “If you tell me where it is, I could—”
Are you out of your fucking mind, my love?Lore’s tone is as hot and bright as the bolt of lightning that lights up his sky.
“You’d need to coax the blood from the marble bust of my mother, and only the witch who cast the spell has the power to do so.” He looks down at his fist, the one that bears his connection to Meriam. “Or me.”
I shoot my gaze in the direction of the hallway I was marched through. “I can blow up the vault’s ceiling and you can drop down into it. And like that, we can carry Meriam—” I suddenly recall the vault’s emptiness. “Is she still down there?”
“She is. And the vault’s buried too deep beneath the earth.” Justus slides his lips together right before gasping, “That’s it. You’ll make me invisible.”
“Invisible? I can do that?” Although it’s really not the time to be awestruck by the power at my fingertips, how can Inotgo slack-jawed and wide-eyed?
Oh my Gods, this is what Meriam must’ve done earlier to distract the lot of them!
Justus turns and I follow, staggering after him, cursing Lastra for having transformed me into an enchanted pincushion.I shove away my abhorrence for the dead man and focus on the fact that I, Fallon of Shabbe, can make a person fucking invisible!
Lore’s jagged voice halts my patchy gait.Fallon!
I think he’s about to berate me for my speech, but he looses another frustrated breath.
I don’t fucking care about your swearing at the moment, mo khrà; what I care about is keeping you in my line of sight.
“I’ll be gone but a minute, Lore. I just need to draw the sigil to allow Justus to pass through the wall.” When he heaves more smoke, I jab my thumb in the direction of the staircase down which Lastra tried to bowl me. “Less than a minute.” My muscles creak so hard that I adjust my calculations,Three minutes, at most.I take another step and sigh.Fine. Closer to ten.
I don’t want you gone even a heartbeat.The shadowy shape of his fingers grows and shrinks against the wards.
I glance over at Justus who’s still advancing toward the stairs. I manage to catch up since he’s more broken than I am. “Justus, wait.”
Lore calls out to me, but I don’t stop this time. My mate must realize that yelling won’t make me return because he quiets, muttering low Crow words under his breath.
“They may not see you, Justus, but they’ll surely see your magic. I cannot makethatinvisible . . . or can I?”
