Brela shrugged. “Not exactly, but also not foreign. It felt almost natural once I let it in with a new mindset.”
“Accepting it,” Farrah mused, rolling her tongue around her mouth. “I wonder if that mindset will change any of your other spells.”
“We could test it out tomorrow night at the inn?” Brela grinned. “Who’s buying? My final count was six.”
“Four hells,” Elias growled as Farrah let out a triumphant cheer. “You really only said one more after you left?”
“Said, yes. Thought? Oh, I don’t think you can count that high.”
Farrah cut off Elias before he could protest. “Nope. I specifically made that bet for what she’d sayout loud. Don’t try to get me on the technicality of her colorful thoughts.”
“Fine,” Elias huffed. “But let’s be honest, here. If any of us had the capability to speak after we saw that thing, we’d all be in the millions.”
“Easily,” Brela agreed. “I’m glad I wasn’t the only one who couldn’t form words.”
Elias snorted. “Don’t tell me you couldn’t form words. You basically shouted ‘bad dog’ to a shadow wolf.”
Brela bit back her laugh as Farrah slapped her hand over her mouth to keep from spitting her food.
Farrah finally sighed. “I couldn’t even breathe. I think Iactually forgothow to breathe for ten minutes.”
Brela grunted. “Try having a celvusa foot crushing your lungs.”
“Where in the four hells did that thing come from?” Elias asked.
“Uh, one of those four hells?” Brela replied. “Would you like me to draw you a map to the Veil wall?”
Farrah smacked Brela’s arm. “Alright, smartass.”
“I’m serious,” Brela snapped, rubbing the sting from her skin. “There’s no other place it could have come from.”
Elias went back to poking at his soup, his voice quieter. “You really think that shadow wolf got through the Veil wall? That thing might be spitting out shards, but it’s been solid for longer than we’ve been alive.”
Farrah went quiet, tapping her fingers on the bowl in her hands.
“I don’t know… maybe,” Brela replied, lowering her head. “I thought I saw something in the shadows before we got in. Maybe breaking all those seals and freezing the hellthorn plant was what it needed from us. Maybe it was sent to protect the Scholar’s dagger.”
Her father’s dagger.
Those words felt heavy again; too heavy to say out loud.
Farrah’s voice was soft in response. “He really wouldn’t give it up unless he was dead?”
“You said he died in the raid when you escaped,” Elias replied, a crack in his voice.
“We all died the minute Anfroy attacked Valisea,” Brela whispered. Her fingers traced over the Veil shard in her chest. “Death is just still catching up to some of us.”
She had heard rumors that there were still Worshippers fighting back near the capital, but that’s all they were—rumors from drunks and idiots at the inn who were too loud for their own good; stories woven from travelers headed to and from Anfroy.
Valisea was as good as dead, Orhyrst was a wasteland, and the shadow temple that the Veil Worshippers had tried to protect was in ruins.
“Hey, loves,” Farrah said, snapping up with a forced smile. “We’re already going to have nightmares. Let’s not also cry ourselves to sleep.”
“Right,” Elias sighed, tipping the last of his dinner back. “Brela has to survive the marketsandOvir in a few hours.”
“Oh, gods,” Farrah choked. “What are you going to tell him?”
“Four hells,” Brela groaned, pressing the heels of her hands into her eyes. “I won’t tell him about the celvusa. He’ll understand why I destroyed the office, but he’ll want a larger cut for it. Bad for business to make such a mess.”
