“You touched my spell with Celestial magic residue in your system.”
Curses.
Ihadvery briefly touched Ruxnoth’s power when I’d been tracking Winter with my vibrational tracking. But it had been no more than a split second, and it hadn’t been anything that I could pull out to study, to take. I hadn’t even felt it in my system. Unless… I had also been channeling Ketheron at the time to boost my vibrational tracking ability. It must have gotten lost in all of that. With Ketheron not being solely Celestial either, with his Polygenus nature, that would have been even more… intricate.
“I was in contact with Ketheron recently. Cassius following that.”
“No. Not them.”
“Curious.”
He stared at me, then went on again, “You know what else I keep an eye on.” His magic sparked, but just slightly, and he played with it on his fingers, weaving rose-gold threads through his fingers. “Death magic. Specifically necromantic.”
“I don’t doubt it.”
Considering his psychology and trauma. Morien Morgrave had almost succeeded in carrying out a near extinction-level event twenty years ago.
“Yes, but it’s not just for the reasons you think.” He turned and played with his magic as he spoke. “Not sure if you’re aware of this, but a while back I was the heir to the Maven Coven. Before Marlise. In fact, I was the one who tapped Marlise to take my place. You see, I was forced into it, bound to it actually. Magically bound as a powerless newborn by my parents. There was no way out. Even I couldn’t determine a way.” He snuffed out his magic. “But then Sylas found a way. He broke those binds on me. He liberated me. Not long after, he also saved my life when I was tapped out from battling True Celestials during the Severance wherein that motherfucking trickster, CorvinMorvain attacked me. Not to get too personal, but Sylas also saved me from myself, from something that would have stayed with me in the wrong way.”
“You’re explaining why you’re so close with him?”
“I’m explaining that he’s beyond just inner circle to me. He’s a brother to me.”
“My understanding is that you saved him also. During his invocation ofAuctoritas Mortis.You pulled him from the Veil before he was swallowed by the Valley of the Dead and became death-permanent.”
“You see, he’d already died at that point. I didn’t really save him from anything. And when he came out of that, I had to sit there at his bedside with him dying, and tell him that he had to have his magic bound—the thing that makes Sylas Morgrave is his magic.” He sighed, then told me, “So, I keep an eye on necromantic stability because Sylas and his son—outside of my loves—are the only two beings on this earth whom I don’t monitor as threats.”
“You’re monitoring any threat coming at them.”
“Yes. And as such, I was able to feel Winter’s death magic rubbing against the Celestial power you touched that day.”
“I see.” He was… another level indeed.
“That day there was also a massive surge of power that was written off to Ryker and his Guardian Movement as a training exercise for Winter. We had Sylas, Ambrose, Ketheron, and Winter himself. Then later, you using vibrational tracking where you touched Celestial power and death magic combined.”
He knew.
It was done.
“Yes.”
“All right,” he said, with a nod. “Winter was abducted that day? Yes?”
“Yes.”
“You were the only one who could locate him due to the nature of that ability? It was boosted by Ketheron? I would have said Cassius, but you mentioned Ketheron earlier… then with his relationship with Ambrose… Cassius was at Haven that day, which would have alerted Ariana… Sylas would have worried she would alert Ryker, then it would have set off alarms… Winter would have been endangered, measures enacted… yes, that’s it.”
Damnation.“All correct.”
He nodded. “That Celestial power was not only unrecognizable to me, but also warped.”
Before I could respond to that one, his magic sparked, and then a golden book appeared in his hands, an ancient text.
He snapped his fingers and it flipped through the pages, getting halfway through, before the spell ceased, and he slapped a finger to a page.
He spun it and held it up to me. “Is this the target in question?”
Target?Choice of word noted.
