“You think you’re safe on top of your mountain?” I scoffed. “I will drag you into the pits of darkness with me. So many have tried to kill me. They’re all dead. What makes you think you’re so special?”
I righted myself, looking down my nose at them, like the worms they were.
“Solkar’s Reach is under my protection. The crater knows it–and you know what the crater’s power can do,” I said, voice low and ominous.
Beren’s nostrils flared.
There was a reason he’d only sent a few hundred soldiers in waves.
That he hadn’t had the balls to come conquer this land by himself.
The crater’s defenses might have fallen, but its reputation hid how dire the situation was.
The magic of Solkar’s Reach still instilled fear.
Powerful fear.
“The crater protects itself, as well.” I said. “You want its magic? Come and rip it away at your own peril.”
Beren’s lips twisted in an enraged grimace. “It will bring me great joy to watch you die, Huntress.”
The silver smoke of his palaver extinguished.
Lioran and Edrin looked caught off guard, but followed suit only a moment later, leaving me alone with Dax.
Only after I’d closed the journals facing me, to make sure the connection was truly severed, did I allow myself to release a sigh.
“Think that was enough?” I asked.
“You managed to scare me.” Dax came to stand next to me. “The hallowed blue imagery was a nice touch.”
I ran my hands down my face. “Clara would have negotiated better.”
“This was never a negotiation. They wanted to throw their power around.”
I sighed once more.
Whatever that had been, I hoped it was enough.
“Beren surprised the other two,” I said. “They’re not on the same page.”
“They didn’t contradict him, either.”
“So they’re cowards. We can use that.”
“They also didn’t mention the trolls,” Dax said.
“They did not.”
A small miracle.
We looked at each other, long and hard.
“Maybe my snooping stopped the traitor from delivering new messages,” he said.
Plausible.
Dax was the perfect stick in the ribs–but he hadn’t found anything.
