feet. “I know it isn’t our forte, attacking straight on like this, but you gotta give us more credit than that.”
Enthusiastic nods from the rest. Slowly, I turned to Kost. He didn’t meet my gaze. “You already know my answer. Till the end, Noc.”
Soft. His words were so soft. Reaching out, I placed a firm hand on his back. “I know.”
Green eyes speared me from behind thin lenses, and he righted his tunic before willing the shadows at his fingertips to form blades. “Shall we?”
“No need for subtlety, I guess.” I stalked toward the gathering congregation of Charmers and stepped out from the darkness. We manifested in a cloud of black, letting the onyx tendrils of night cling to our wrists and ankles. Blades dipped in ink melded from nothing.
With a careful finger, I slit open my palm and let the blood flow.
Thirty-two
Leena
Blanketed, comforting warmth. I could stay in this cocoon forever. But there was something odd scratching my brain. A bug skittering around on the grooves and crevices that I couldn’t quite catch or kill.
Pillars wrapped in rose vines and blush moondust flowers marked the entrance to the throne room. Wynn had left me on the steps with an order not to move. My limbs obeyed. Even my head locked into place. My mind didn’t care much, either.
Charmers passed through the manicured courtyard without acknowledging my presence, too busy with their day-to-day lives to notice a once-exile literally in the heart of their home. I couldn’t place any of their faces. It was like peering through a chiffon veil, textured and out of sorts. I knew they were there, could feel their presence and see the outlines of their bodies, but details were lost in the fabric of Wynn’s hold.
His quiet voice reverberated through the alabaster halls, momentarily breaking through the cotton in my ears. “I have her.”
“Here? Now?” Female, but the tone was foreign to me. “Why isn’t she dead?”
Wynn fumbled for words. “The assassin failed to kill her, so I took matters into my own hands. She tamed a Myad.”
The woman hissed. “Gods be damned. She’s unsuitable?”
“For the moment.”
“Explain.” Her singular order crashed like a cymbal.
“I’ve tamed her. She’s more formidable than we realized. We could use her. I’m not sure death is necessary—”
“And why is that?”
I wanted to turn my head, to move my chin even a fraction of an inch and get a glimpse of the woman who wanted my head. But Wynn’s order held strong. Would I even recognize her? Or had new Council members already come and gone since my days in Hireath?
“Tell me, Wynn, do you still have feelings for her?”
“No.” Zero hesitation. “But you need to see what I’ve done. She’s the perfect soldier. If I can do it to her, I can do it to anyone. And that means we’ll have an army instead of a foolish spell.”
Her voice dropped an octave. “This spell is the only way to save us. But we need tainted bones, Wynn. I’m running out of options, unless you’d like to volunteer.”
His voice was tight. “She’s under my command. If you still want to proceed with the spell, it will be easy enough for me to force her to relinquish the Myad.”
“And if that doesn’t work?”
“I’ll set up another Charmer to take the fall. But Leena will work. I know she will.”
Whining bugle calls from the Dreagles stationed atop the sentry towers cut through the air. Everything stopped. Intruders. A first for Hireath.
The once-still city erupted into panicked shouts and jostling feet. We were an army-less people. Protected by our beasts and living in heaven, there was no need to prepare for invasion.
Wynn’s voice skirted above the chaos. “Cruor. It has to be.”
“I’ll find the Council. Now’s your chance to show me what she’s worth. We can talk about the spell later.”
One pair of hurried footsteps took off in the opposite direction, and then Wynn appeared, thick hand wrapping around my wrist. “C’mon.”
We moved as one until we reached the open lawn spreading between us and the Kitska Forest. A cloud of black curled around the roots and spread like a disease across the earth. Sickening darkness poisoning our land. It was grotesque and…and…
Beautiful.
The leech on my brain stilled, and for a moment, I could see. Hear. Breathe. Swirling onyx shadows beckoned from the wood, calling me home.
Noc.
As if I’d summoned him, the glittering dark receded, and there he stood. A harbinger of absolute terror and wrath, blood leaking from open wounds on his palms