Page 179 of Eight of Swords, Part Two

‘What else?’

‘I know Penhalyx wanted Julian for his body, to possess him.’

‘Keep going,’ Vasily encourages.

‘I know Jules ordered the kidnap.’

‘Do you know why?’

‘Yes.’

‘Go on.’

Lachlan blows air through his teeth while Kade quietly checks in via dark-band. Luca sounds off, all clear.

‘Jules figured out that Penhalyx planned to possess him. He hired Iron Star to stage a kidnap, but when I came to the Tower to retrieve them, it went sideways. That’s when Riley and Jules made the Death Knot.’

‘Good. That is important.’

‘Why?’

‘Blaire and I believe that all of this,’ Vasily says, gesturing gracefully around, ‘is connected. Their bond, the curse, your ritual, the bubble.’

‘Bubble?’ Kade crinkles his nose.

Vasily looks at Riley over his teacup. ‘Do you know about the bubble?’

Deadpan, Riley says, ‘Obviously.’

Lachlan glances between them. ‘What are you talking about?’

‘Have you tried to leave Varrow City?’ Riley asks him.

‘No.’

‘Give it a try later. You’ll see.’

Kade asks, ‘Is something… stopping us from leaving?’

Vasily makes a finger gun. ‘Bingo.’

‘Seriously?’

‘Very.’

‘Just us or the whole city?’

‘Blaire, myself, Harker, Lock and you, my dear friend. Céliane can come and go, but she is bound by the Knot, so distance between her and Blaire is most painful. Blaire was the first to realise it. I have never encountered such magics before and I did not believe it for a while. Sometimes it takes years to map the borderlands of an open prison.’

‘You think it’s all connected?’ Riley asks him.

‘How can it be any other way? Your Death Knot somehow made the curse that formed big bubble.’

‘Tanner’s ritual isn’t part of this.’

‘You are a fool if you believe that, and I do not think you are a fool, Riley Harker.’

‘So five of us are trapped here?’