Vaxan eyed Sylas. “And this was going to be conveyed to Winter?”
The accusation—and warning—in his tone didn’t escape Sylas’ notice. There was a great deal of respect between them, so Sylas didn’t get his back up at the aggressiveness of it, and instead gave a nod. “Yes. Once we knew this could actually be done.”
“In fact, Winter,” Ambrose said, smiling out at him. “You are instrumental where this is concerned.”
“Too true, tiny god,” Ketheron said. Then he came forward and cut a hole right through Kai’s uber powerful ward with his magic like it was… well, butter… and ushered the four of us inside with them.
Kai shook his head in dismay, then sealed it up.
With a sweep of his hand, Sylas re-erected the concealment spell and the full force of the illusion so we were hidden inside with them securely. He ruffled Winter’s hair, then whispered, “Later, we should probably discuss how you were able to drop my illusion—one of that extreme magnitude at that—without me feeling it.”
That was… highly interesting. Had Winter’s power eclipsed Sylas’? No, that couldn’t be. Winter was supremely powerful, yes, but he was still young and new to the necromantic aspect, especially compared to Sylas Morgrave.
Sylas jolted and frowned at him. “Why are you employing a glamor?”
Winter stiffened. “There could be a ton of reasons, Dad.”
“Yet only one you’d do something like this for—to hide your hurt.”
“Absolutely,” I said, and Zayn and Vaxan gave a nod of solidarity—none of us liked him doing that.
Winter eyed us. “I said I was going to let you in on it, if you recall. Less than five minutes ago I uttered those words.”
Sylas looked between us, trying to figure it all out. “The cold? Your destabilized equilibrium?”
“It returned today, yeah.”
Sylas rubbed his back. “I’m sorry, son. It won’t be much longer. I ran into a complication with the Methuselah Root.”
“Which Kai assisted with,” Kai spoke, passing by toward Ambrose and ruffling Winter’s hair on the way.
“Yes,” Sylas ground out. “Which Kai assisted with. The mixture will cure sufficiently within another couple of days then I can see to you—and Rex.”
“Just days?” Winter asked. “That’s it?”
“That’s it, Win. Promise.”
“Tiny god, to be clear, this won’t only reset your nervous system, it will also provide you with continual, what you term,living warmth.Sylas will spell it into bracelet-form where you may remove it only if you so wish. Unless you want to return to death-cold state, you won’t ever have to.”
“All because you were able to extract that living equation,” Kai told him.
Winter sucked in an unsteady breath, both awed and overwhelmed that something he’d always wanted was finally becoming a reality.
He couldn’t even speak through it, just beaming out at us all, before emotion got the best of him and he averted his eyes.
Zayn, Vaxan, and I exchanged a smile, then I wrapped my arm around him, holding him to me. Sylas eased away, lifting his chin at me.
Ketheron smiled with glee at Ambrose.
Vaxan cleared his throat, then gestured at the Spiral Thorn Ambrose was still wielding. “So, how does this operate in its new incarnation? It’s not a replica? You pulled it from Sanctus as I was decimating the abominable plane?”
“Yes. Hence Ruxnoth looking slightly more the worse for wear than I’d originally intended, my goal having initially been to safeguard Winter until he returned from the Veil. The heathen fought to hold onto this.”
“And failed spectacularly,” Kai said, those darkening eyes coming into play again.
Ambrose went on, “This can strike Ruxnoth anywhere and achieve two vital things to ensure he can be sent to the Valley of the Deadandwithout causing catastrophic damage. First, it will nullify his transmutation ability by warping its intent where change and transformation will become static, function rigidly. Now that can only hold temporarily. Long enough to end his life, wherein he will be in that state when he enters the Valley and thus said state will be frozen in a sense with magic not being invokable within there.” Off Sylas’ look, he added, “Except for necromancers, Wraiths, Shadowmancers, of course.”
“Wow,” I uttered. “That’s a hell of a thing.”
