And… and…fucking shit.
Hewas there.
No, that couldn’t—
How was—
There, in a deep crouch, crimson power sputtering in and out around him, was Sylas.
He was… alive.
Sylas Morgrave was alive!
Evira, Vax, and I stared at one another in a whole load of shock.
Holy fucking shit.I couldn’t believe it. He’d been pulled back from… he hadn’t remained in… he was here.
Oh my God.
The hostiles were so surprised, they halted, magic pulling back, vamps and wolves stopping their brute force wailing against the wall. While they hadn’t known Sylas had died, him showing up like this was a big enough deal as it was.
“Stay your hand,” he rumbled across the battlefield.
He pushed out of the crouch, to his feet, but staggered unsteadily.
No.I just reacted, conjuring a cane and sending it over to him. I winced when I saw I’d accidentally conjured it the way I would’ve liked it—neon-pink zebra print.
He stared at it for a moment, but then clasped it in his right hand and gave me a chin lift of thanks.
Why had he shown up here, though? Vorzyr got word to him and Sylas came instead? In this state? He hated showing weakness of any kind. And honestly he was clearly vulnerable right now—on a fucking battlefield. A battlefield full of people who feared what he was in a major way.
Oh.
That was it.
He wanted them to see him like this.
Weak. Struggling. It undercut their fear logic, their trauma when it came to Morien.
It was genius.
And also fucking reckless.
“What happened to you?” Hale called over to him. “How are you… like this?”
“Ruxnoth,” was all he said. And then he took a step forward using the cane, his gaze sweeping the battlefield, before clocking Hale and Raquel as the leaders of this shitshow. “I need your help,” he told everyone.
A whole lot of choked noises, shocked looks, and talk was exchanged on the battlefield at his words.
Hale frowned. “Ourhelp?”
“Correct.”
“If this is some chess move to spare your son—”
“My son will be spared regardless,” Sylas ground out. “Though, you may not be if you continue with your current path.” Sylas made eye contact with me, Evira, and Vax, then told the leaders, “You’re so reactive in light of the skewed so-called revelations publicized by Ruxnoth that you’ve come at theCrown Heir of the Dracoryn Realm and the High Lord Heir of the Excetra Crown, intending to abduct them. Strategically, you need both the Basilisk Kingdom and the Dracoryn Realm on your side in order to garner enough backing to achieve your goal. Yet, if I hadn’t intervened, you would’ve destroyed any chance of that. In fact, for all your fear of becoming the victimized at the hands of those more powerful, your actions today set you up to become just that through your actions.”
“Tensions are high, Sylas. The stakes are extreme,” Raquel said.
