City of Spells (Into the Crooked Place #2) - Alexandra Christo Page 0,85

said. “It’d take at least a dozen to cover the length of the city, and that’s too much for the four of us to carry.”

“The Star Egg!” Tavia said.

She knew that bastard Nolan would come in handy somehow.

“It’s a dispersion device. All we need to do is load a bunch of them up with the time magic, then set them off and watch them rain down on the entire city.”

“Freezing Creije and giving our army the chance to walk through as the rest of the city is at a standstill,” Wesley said.

Many Gods, Tavia enjoyed plotting alongside him like this.

She enjoyed a good fight every now and again—and this fight would definitely be good when she got to knock Dante Ashwood off of his pedestal—but talking tricks and planning alongside Wesley was always half the fun.

“Do you think the eggs can cover the whole city?” Karam asked.

Saxony nodded. “I can amp their range with a simple booster spell.”

Tavia twirled her knife in her hand like it was a prize. “Well then,” she said, the blade glinting with her eyes. “It looks like we finally have a plan to present to the Doyen.”

This battle had begun in Creije, on the streets that had forged them all in fire and moonlight. One way or another, they were going to end this war, and they would do it there.

Where it all started.

Home.

29

Wesley

THE ESTATE SAT ON a small hill at the edge of the ivy towns, with the Onnela Sea crashing against the rocks below. Wesley looked down at the water and thought back to that window in Tisvgen.

Before he’d jumped from it, the sea had beckoned him in, and when Wesley hit the water, it didn’t hurt like he had expected. It didn’t scrape his skin or cut into his heart. He’d melded into it, the waves rolling over him like warm hands, welcoming him in. In those moments he stayed under the surface, he felt like everything might just work out.

It had all been so clear. He’d had such clarity, as he got pulled farther down and felt the water in his lungs. Wesley knew that as soon as he broke the surface he would feel new again, and once he found Tavia the realms would steady themselves and he would go back to being Wesley Thornton Walcott.

Nobody’s puppet and nobody’s fool.

So why was everyone looking at him like he was crazy?

“That is the suit you are choosing to wear to meet a Doyen?” Arjun asked.

He sat at the rounded table with the others, only two seats empty: one for Wesley and one for Schulze. Arjun would be leading the ground forces that accompanied the Doyen to Yejlath, so he needed to be present for the meeting, but he didn’t need to be criticizing Wesley’s fashion sense.

“This is a nice suit,” Wesley said, at which point Arjun snorted a laugh loud enough to sound like a sneeze.

Wesley wasn’t quite sure what the problem was and why everyone seemed to have such an aversion to bow ties and purple velvet. He thought it was rather fitting, since purple meant royalty and meeting a Doyen was as close as anyone in the new world could get. Besides, it made far more of an impression than the large four-bladed sword that Arjun had strapped around his shoulder.

“The day I take fashion advice from you is the day I really do go insane,” Wesley said.

“You are already insane, underboss.”

“Says the man carrying his sword to a diplomatic meeting.”

Arjun adjusted the strap that kept the blade close to his back. “It was a gift,” he said.

And the unspoken words that hung on the end of that sentence were so clearly from Asees. Wesley could tell by the way Arjun hadn’t let the sword out of his sight since he’d returned. The warrior had always been a bit too attached to the weapon, but even Wesley had noticed the extra care he took when sharpening or polishing the blade. How he wore it day and night, no matter the occasion.

This was grief, a kind Wesley had never experienced. A kind he hoped he’d never have to.

“Just try not to decapitate Schulze before she signs over her army to us,” he said. “I think it would make a bad impression.”

“You really think she’ll go for an alliance?” Tavia asked, slouching back in her chair to kick her feet up on the table.”Your oh-so-charming bow tie aside, she’s still meeting with a bunch of buskers and Crafters. Considering all of