Lilis snarls at the nameless man, “I don’t need your protection. Don’t come near me again.”
Her footfalls pound away from him and the subsequent sounds indicate she’s alighting onto her wolf. Despite the nameless man’s warnings, she heads in the direction of the city gate.
Thyra’s shoulders slump, but her question is urgent. “Did you hear it?”
I press my lips to her ear. “Not here.”
She nudges her cheek to mine, then focuses on Nara. “Nara, take us forward. Slowly, please.”
My wolf resumes her casual pace, but it seems word of my presence spreads quickly because the path ahead of us clears completely, every fae suddenly disappearing into nearby buildings or darting down alleyways.
Soon enough, word will reach Lilis that I traveled through the city, and she’ll know that I overheard her conversation with the nameless man, but it won’t matter. She would have reported the news to me, anyway.
The question is how quickly she’ll inform me.
We reach the outer gate without incident. The guards bow and the portcullis rises.
Moments later, we leave the city and head out into snow-filled fields. In the far distance, I make out Lilis’s wolf heading north as she said she would.
As we ascend the first slope that will take us east in the direction of the Sacred Stone Temple, my ears finally clear of all chaotic sounds.
Thyra’s question breaks through my whirling thoughts. “Stellen?”
I’m slow to respond, listening now to the increasingly heavy beat of her heart.
A war between strategy and need rages in my mind.
She interprets my silence in the worst possible way.
“You’ll give Iker what he wants,” she says, as if it were a foregone conclusion. “You’ll take me to him.”
My throat tightens. “Why do you believe that?”
“Because if you want him dead, it’s the beststrategy.”
She’s right. Iker is finally vulnerable.
I have what he wants, and with a few clever moves, I could annihilate him and his entire family.
But only if I’m willing to risk Thyra’s life.
Chapter Fifty-Two
Thyra
Idon’t know the identity of the man speaking with Lilis in my Oracle vision, but I can’t forget the way he looked at her.
The way his hand had risen to the wayward strands of silver hair escaping from her braid.
The quiet desperation in his gaze as he and Lilis stood inches apart in the shadows next to a carpentry, his back pressed to the alley wall, her blade at his throat.
I can’t ignore any of what he told Lilis.
If Iker’s dying, then Stellen has real power over Iker.
Stellen can use me as a bargaining piece, exactly as he wanted. Just as he told me he would right from the beginning.
“You want your enemies dead,” I say. “Now is your chance.”
