Blackbird Broken (The Witch King's Crown #2) - Keri Arthur Page 0,62

to use it to look at the paperwork found at both Karen Jacobs’s place and at the old church.”

“And Karen Jacobs is …?” she said.

“The owner of the gray car that dropped Tris off right before he was shot. She’s dead.”

“Seems to be a continuing theme with these bastards. I did think your brother was better than all this.”

“He always had grand schemes for great riches.” My voice was tight with suppressed emotion. “And isn’t snaring the Witch King’s throne and restoring witch rule to all of England the grandest scheme of all?”

“Not with the backing of Darkside. That boy has rocks in his head if he truly believes they’ll allow him to rule in their stead.”

“Maybe he has a grand scheme for that, as well.”

“The sword is not a source of unending power. It is a means to draw on and combine the power of all four elements, but its strength—its ability to combat and contain darkness—truly depends on the strength, the heart, and the soul of the person whose hand grips it. Uhtric’s soul wasn’t exactly pure, and that fault almost killed him.”

“Is that why it took him so long to contain Darkside?”

“Yes. He was only one man, and the strength of the witch lines was fading even then.”

“Then heaven help us.”

“As I’ve said before, modern day weaponry is far superior to anything Uhtric had in his time. Demons and dark elves are not immune to bullets.”

No, but in the case of many demons, they were generally faster than any but the most highly trained soldier could pull the trigger.

Besides, Max was well aware of modern-day weaponry. I had no doubt he’d been stockpiling guns and other shit for some time now. The fact he’d planned the whole heir thing six years ago was statement enough of just how long he’d been involved in all this.

God, how could I have missed his slip into darkness?

Was I so used to his offhand manner and get-rich schemes that I’d willfully ignored the signs when they became something more? Had I missed them all simply because I hadn’t wanted to believe my twin—the other half of me—could have fallen so far?

All current evidence certainly suggested I had.

I swallowed the bitter surge of self-anger and said, “What I don’t get is, the power of the Aquitaine line is fire. How exactly is the sword—which is supposedly nothing more than a conduit—able to combine and draw on the power of all four elements?”

“Because it was created by gods, and gods like doing crazy shit like that.”

I snorted. “I’ll bow to your experience when it comes to the foibles of gods.”

“As you should.” Amusement echoed in her voice. “The sword is more than a conduit, though. It gives the user the means to step beyond flesh and into the unseen dimension—the gray space—in which all energies move and exist.”

“Well, that makes total sense.”

My voice was dry, and she laughed. “Think of it as the existing world but one step back. There are no people, there are no buildings, and there are no animals. There’s just the earth and the sky and the natural energy that lives within and without.”

“And it’s this energy that the user can draw on?”

“Yes. But there’s a price, as there always is when it comes to the gifts of the old gods.”

“Uhtric survived.”

“Cedric did not. He was vaporized by the powers that swept through him—although thankfully not before he’d contained the Darkside threat.”

Cedric being the second Witch King. “If he was vaporized, then who placed the sword back in the stone?”

“I presume it was the Blackbirds.”

“That being the case, you’d think they’d damn well know if the sword in the King’s Stone was the real one.”

“It was all a long time ago, remember. Things that were well-known then are little more than vague rumors on the wind now.”

“Which is a very poetic way of saying they forgot.”

She laughed again. “I’ve called a council of war for tonight—”

Unease slid through me. “And just who is going to be involved in this council?”

“All the usual suspects.”

Meaning Ginny, Mia, and Barney. “Mo—”

“Better they be at the safe house than running around Ainslyn at the moment.” Her tone said her mind would not be changed. “Your brother knows our weak points, remember. The last thing we need is for any of them to be used against us.”

I hadn’t even thought of that possibility. I rubbed my eyes and wished I didn’t believe that Max would willingly—and deliberately—hurt my friends as a means of getting