Ares barked, “Denied.”
Brina’s words came to Evalle’s mind on a whisper.Do your best. I expect no more.
The power of that faith hit Evalle squarely in her chest. She couldn’t speak for a moment.
Brina whispered quickly in Evalle’s mind,The Tribunal is not as informed as they’d like to believe. There have been sixteen Alterants that have shifted and attacked in the past forty-eight hours. Those have killed seventy-six humans. But sharing that with a Tribunal convinced that you are at fault for this outbreak will not free you sooner.
Are all the Alterants dead?
No. Eight are still loose.
Ares turned the hourglass over and sand began to spill down in a thin stream.
Brina spoke even faster in Evalle’s head.You are right about the danger of Beladors linking to fight Alterants. I can’t share much about Alterants because of my oath, but I can tell you that you are unlike any other and the most powerful of the Alterants we’ve encountered so far. I need you here to figure out what is causing this and to help Tzader understand how best to defend against this outbreak.
You need me to hunt my own kind.
Yes.
Now Evalle understood why Brina would agree to guarantee the safety of those three and ensure that they got a fair hearing with the Tribunal.
Evalle cleared her throat. “The one person I’d like to ask for help is Tristan. He might know where the Alterants went after they escaped.” Now to see if Brina would work with her by teleporting him here. “If Brina could—”
In a cheerful voice, Loki said, “Granted. Brina, teleport her to Tristan.”
What? Evalle looked at Sen, who couldn’t have been happier if the Tribunal had struck her down with a bolt of lightning.
Brina swung to face Evalle, panic and worry laced in her eyes.
Loki ordered in a booming voice, “Do itnow!”
Evalle shook her head, saying, “Tristan will kill meeee—”
Lights blurred and the world spun into a thousand colors that turned her stomach inside out. She was already winging her way to some unknown location.
Facing failure sickened her more than vertigo, especially if she landed right in front of Tristan. She’d fought him once and walked away, but that had been because he’d wanted her alive.
He’d want her in pieces this time.
Brina’s voice whispered to her.I have only seconds until the Tribunal calls me back. Do not use your powers in Tristan’s cage or they will backlash against you twofold. I believe in you.Then she was gone.
Death awaited her at the end of this trip . . . but what fate would befall Brina and the Beladors if Evalle failed to return with the escaped Alterants?
SIX
Bracing for the role of doomed messenger, Kizira swept through the arched hallway that led to Queen Flaevynn’s private chamber in the realm of Tŵr Medb. As one of the most powerful witches in the Medb coven, Kizira should be walking in with the Alterant Evalle Kincaid, not empty-handed.
But using those mercs to kidnap the Alterant had not been Kizira’s lame idea . . . it had been Flaevynn’s.
Pointing that out would not spare her.
As for lame ideas or private thoughts that might betray her, it was time to mentally tuck away anything she didn’t want discovered by an unwelcome telepathic intrusion.
The queen enjoyed snooping through the minds of her underlings.
The simplest way Kizira had found to protect her innermost secrets had been to push out all her real thoughts, then flood her mind with a fictional tale of her everyday life and false memories she’d begun creating thirteen years ago.
With an ease born of constant practice, Kizira hardened her eyes to those of an enforcer who carried out her queen’s orders. She let her pseudo-persona take over, the one in which she was proud to be the premier Medb enforcer and a loyal servant of the coven, content to fulfill her role with no aspirations of ruling this evil . . . oops.
