On Elverdine Isle, however, there’s a thrilling hunger for more. The residents have been secluded for too long, isolated from mages and the vast possibilities of our magic. Their desire for what I can offer as their Mage Priest only rouses my commitment toward them.
Zeranthe says I need to be careful not to let their adoration go to my head. She also keeps reminding me of how capricious magic is here, something the native dragons have cautioned her and the other magebonded dragons about, given our proximity to the unwarded—and still unlocated—Hallow Stream. But their warnings are unnecessary. Despite my initial concerns, I had no trouble controlling my ellixen at the lunar eclipse. Indeed, it was almost too easy. And while I did feel different after the ritual was complete, it wasn’t a bad different. Just…different.
Better.
Stronger.
More powerful.
I haven’t told Zeranthe. I know she can sense something unusual through our bond, but she already acts like a grumpy mother hen, and I don’t want to incite a worried lecture. It’s likely what I’m feeling is simply the residual power drawn from the eclipse. It’ll fade from my body, just as it’ll fade from the shallows I bestowed it upon. Celestial magic is fleeting; it always has been.
Though…I can’t help wondering if maybe it doesn’t have to be.
Perhaps things will be different on Elverdine. Perhaps my closeness to the Hallow Stream will change everything I’ve ever known about celestial magic. Maybe even aboutallmagic.
It seems as if anything might be possible here.
8
The headquarters of the Nox Custodia were always quiet during the late-night hours—something Viri was counting on as she made her way there, questioning herself with every step. She almostwishedthere were more guards around, someone to ask what she was doing, to tell her how very foolish she was being, to stop her. But as always, most on-duty Nox were out patrolling the city, with only a skeleton crew remaining for emergencies.
The guards manning the reception desk were used to Viri coming and going at odd times, so all they did was wave tiredly when she breezed past in her hunter attire and vanished into the elevator.
Her heart was racing, her plan—if it could be called that—having so many holes that she wondered if she was mad. Part of her desperately wanted to return home and act like the conversation she’d had with Sarielle had been nothing more than a vivid nightmare, one she’d laugh about in the morning. But she couldn’t just ignore what she’d learned and hope the problemwould go away on its own. There were fifty missing children who were counting on her to find them, and an entire city that might be at risk if the Reaper Priest gained the power of the Aurora Comet. Viri couldn’t let that happen, even if it meant breaking the most fundamental rule of hunting.
She was about to bargain with a reaper.
It went against everything she believed in, everything shewas, and yet, Sarielle had said there was no cost too steep if it led to them getting the answers they needed.
Viri just had to hope that was true, since there was no going back now, the elevator descending fast beneath the mountain. As usual, the ellixen powering it made goosebumps prickle her flesh—or maybe they were from the trepidation she felt, which only deepened when she came to a halt and used a shaky hand to pull a vial of black powder from her cloak. It was another of Wynter’s experiments: an ellixen disrupter that could briefly interrupt the flow of magic, created for Viri to use against reapers with enchanted artifacts or weapons. But that wasn’t why she’d brought it with her tonight.
Without Soren’s Nox clearance granting her access through the elevator’s door—something Viri couldn’t ask for again—the powder was her only hope of getting to Reeve.
“Please work,” she whispered, tipping half the vial onto her palm and blowing it at the command panel.
She waited what felt like a lifetime, but finally, the powder took effect and the doors opened, prompting Viri to slump with relief and send a mental thank-you to Wynter.
Time was of the essence now, with every moment counting if Viri wanted to avoid discovery. Even tired, the two Nox guards atthe reception desk would notice if she took too long to reappear. She and Reeve needed to be long gone before anyone started asking questions.
Hurrying down the dimly lit tunnel, Viri didn’t allow herself to second-guess what she was about to do. She wasn’t going in blind this time—she knew Reeve liked to play games, but she could play them, too. His offer demanded freedom in return for answers, so she would help him escape, ask her questions, get the information she needed—
And then drag him straight back to the Underlock.
Reeve thought he was smart, but Viri was smarter. There was no way she was letting him loose just so he could scurry back to his master. Contingencies upon contingencies—that was what she needed in order to win games against a reaper.
Channeling confidence, Viri turned the final bend in the tunnel and approached the cell at the end, anticipating having to rouse Reeve from sleep. But when she halted before his glass-fronted prison, she found him wide-awake, lying on his thin mattress and tossing a stone into the air. Up, down, up, down, he repeated the motion, the muscles in his tanned forearm rippling with the move, the onyx ring on his finger gleaming in the low light. He didn’t so much as twitch when she cleared her throat to announce her presence, almost as if he’d been expecting her.
“I need to talk to you,” she said.
“I’m busy. Come back later.”
Five words, and Viri could already feel her blood pressure rising. “I’m here about your offer.”
Reeve’s quicksilver eyes flicked her way, but otherwise he didn’t move, just continued to toss his rock—up, down, up, down. “What offer would that be, Little Shadow?”
“You know what offer,” Viri ground out. “Get your ass up. If you want your freedom, we need to move.”
His lips twitched, but he still didn’t budge. “So polite. Did they teach you those manners at hunter school?”
