Sable replies, “Possibly, but we will soon know for sure.”
“As for that dark entity,” Gilder says. “It is not safe to speak his name aloud, so we will simply call him the entity for now.”
I accept their caution about uttering his name. “Do you know what kind of supernatural he is?”
“We do not,” Gilder says. “Nor do we know where he is located.”
“You’ve never tried to find him?” I ask. “Or eliminate him?”
Beside me, Rose gives a deep sigh. “We did. We searched for him, thinking of ending him, but we’ve never come close to succeeding. He is well hidden and well protected by dark magic that…”
Her voice trails off, a visible shudder racking her body.
“Dark magic that what?” I ask gently.
“We aren’t sure if it comes in the form of an ancient object or some sort of conjured spell. But whatever darkness protects him, it is unbeatable.”
Nothing is unbeatable. Surely.
But the certainty on my sisters’ faces drives home to me how hard they must have tried to find and end this being.
“What about the assassins?” I ask carefully. “Have they tried to eliminate him?”
My sisters give me emphatic nods. “All three Factions have tried and failed.”
Damn. “That means they can’t try again.”
It’s part of their Code. Unbreakable rules that govern their actions so that they can never descend into a state of anarchy or become mere killers for hire. One of those rules is that a failed assassination cannot be attempted again. They have one chance to get it right.
It sounds like each Faction has taken its shot.
For a moment, I consider Hunter Cassidy. She was a Rogue Master who controlled her own Faction…
But no. Even she could not try. Now that Hunter has become the Guardian, she is prohibited from carrying out assassinations.
So if the assassins have failed, and my sisters—all three of them together—have not succeeded, then the chances of bringing down this dark entity really are slim.
My sisters sense my grim mood easily.
Sable reaches across the space between us to press a consoling hand to my shoulder. “We have come to accept that this dark entity is a necessary evil.”
My forehead creases. “How so?”
Gilder explains, “While he reigns, the creatures of the dark are kept in check. Just as a wolf shifter pack must have an alpha, dark magic creatures must have a controlling force.”
I consider this carefully. “Did he control Lady Tirelli?”
“Oh, no, he did not,” Sable says. “For she was not a dark magic creature. As a Valkyrie, she was a creature of old magic.”
“As are we,” Rose adds.
Of course. When I was at the Academy, the teachers instructed us in all sorts of theoretical histories of supernaturals, many of which seemed born of ego rather than fact.
They tried to tell us thatallmagical power originates from ancient gods, citing the belief that fire mages are descended from Apollo, the god of the sun, and the power of invisibility comes from Hades, god of the underworld. They were particularly obsessed with the idea that shifters originated primarily from Egyptian gods like Anubis, who was apparently the first wolf shifter. That one, to me, never rang true.
Since living with my sisters, I’ve learned that there are four kinds of magic in the world: elemental magic like that of the fae who once controlled nature, light magic like that of dragons and angels, dark magic like that of demons, and then there’s old magic.
Old magic creatures are rare now, and that is just as well.
