Chapter 19
NINETEEN
With my boots back on in case I needed to haul ass to the wall, I looked around for something to push over.
Hopefully that would be enough for the guardian to come back and protect its waypoint.
I was starting to get a really bad feeling about its absence.
Because why give me back the other guys and not Sebastian?
Unless it hadn’t realized I could escape the first stone room. Maybe it had wanted me to die down there too.
I hoped not. I hoped it was just trying to fix whatever was draining magic from its little realm.
I stopped next to the empty stables, the strong scent of hay itching my nostrils. With how long the guardian had been alone, I assumed magic was used to keep the hay fresh. And the jarred food for that matter. I may very well have eaten hundred year old carrots.
There was a small trough with fresh water next to the stables, and it seemed as good a place as any to start. I crouched and grabbed the edge, heaving, nearly throwing out my back when I realized how heavy it was. The water sloshed all over the ground, splattering mud onto the side of the stables.
I stood up, panting, waiting for something to happen. When nothing did, I took a rake and tossed it onto the stable roof.
Feeling ridiculous, I turned around. The water trough was back upright, filled with pristine water.
I put my hands on my hips. “Huh.”
I took a step toward the estate, then tripped when there was stone where the grass should be. Oh gods, not again. At least when I opened my eyes, I wasn’t in pure darkness.
This room was larger than the others, and there was light at one end.
The sound of tinkling glass and flickers of stars let me know it was the guardian.
Its shape was erratic, no longer resembling a human in the slightest. Beyond it, someone lay on their side, but if it was Sebastian, I couldn’t sense him.
I set your companions free, but this one cannot leave. He knows something of what attacks the waypoint.
I held a hand to my brow. It was surprising how disorienting an extra voice in your head could be.
Especially when that voice came from a dizzying display of swirling stars.
“He doesn’t know any more than the rest of us.
” I took a cautious step toward the creature, and Sebastian finally lifted his head enough for me to see his face through the stars and darkness.
He lies to you as well.
That stopped me, but just for a heartbeat. I still couldn’t sense Sebastian. There was no golden cord between us. “Once I find the vortex, the gray will stop advancing. But you have to let us all go to do that.”
The swirling stars formed enough shape to have a head, and that head whipped back in my direction. Not the gray. The unraveling. If it continues, the way will be severed. The waypoint will be lost.
I stopped short again. The unraveling? Did it mean what had been happening in the Bogs before the vortex? It would make sense, I supposed. If the vortex could affect this place, so could the magic of the Bogs.
“What do you think he knows about it?”
Sebastian looked like he could barely hold himself up, but he still glared at me past the guardian.
I lifted my brows expectantly. If he knew something that could help Mistral and he hadn’t told me—
He is bound by contract. As am I.
I relaxed a little. If the guardian was just sensing the contract Sebastian had created binding Mistral to the land, then I was back to wanting to save him. Not that I wouldn’t regardless, but if he was hiding things, he deserved to sweat a little.
“He made a contract to help Mistral keep the goblin magic contained,” I explained. “He’s not responsible for what’s happening now. The magic is simply too powerful.”
Then he created a contract doomed to fail.
I couldn’t argue there. “I need him alive to fix it. I need him to come with me. I will forge a pathway to the goblin realm, but I can’t do it without him.”
You? But you are half human. The guardian had turned its form back toward Sebastian, looming over him ominously.
“That’s why I need him.” I stepped closer, reaching out my hand toward the guardian. “Please.”
When I was close enough, tiny stars danced around my outstretched fingers, but they weren’t coming from me. They came from the guardian, attracted to me like tiny magnets.
The guardian turned toward me, and since it had no facial expression for me to read, I was worried I’d made a horrible mistake in getting too close. More of the stars composing it danced toward my outstretched fingers.
You would unmake me?
I lowered my hand with a gasp, trailing a few stars.
“No!” I lowered my voice. “No, that’s not my intent.
You do a good job protecting this place.
” Sebastian snorted, and I spared him a quick glare before turning my attention back to the guardian.
“I don’t want to harm you. I just need to leave with my companions so we can fix things. ”
The guardian watched me for a long while. Long enough that I shifted uncomfortably under the weight of its eyeless gaze. I wiped my sweaty palms on my dress. It was ruined anyway. Finally, the voice returned to my mind. You will return when you are through? You will bring more to this waypoint?
I really had no desire to return, but if we were going to make a pathway for our exploratory missions, it might be easier to do so from here than from the Bogs. “Yes, I will return.”
Sebastian gave me a what the hells is wrong with you? look, but I ignored him.
The guardian watched me for another long moment, then dispersed, leaving me alone in the dark with Sebastian.
I sighed. “You could have at least transported us both out of here,” I muttered, then crouched to search blindly for Sebastian.
His cold hand met mine as he reached for me too. As soon as we touched, I could feel the golden cord again.
“That thing blocked my connection to you,” he said tersely.
I helped him stand, and just the fact that he actually needed the help said a lot about how the guardian had been treating him. All because he’d made Mistral’s contract to the Bogs.
Using his hand, I guided his arm around my shoulders. “I got enough magic from the guys. I should be able to bring us back to them.”
“Eva.”
I had just been closing my eyes. Even though it was pitch black in the room, it was still easier to picture the other guys with my eyes closed. “Yeah?”
“There is something you should know about the contract I created for Mistral.”
I went still. All he’d ever been willing to tell me was that Mistral’s mother had asked him to create the contract when Mistral was ready. “Go on,” I prompted when he spoke no further.
The air shifted, then his fingers grazed my neck, turning me toward him even though it was too dark to see. “He was never meant to control the Bogs alone. He was meant to find a bride—someone to share the burden. Wild magic is more partial to those with feminine energy.”
I was glad he couldn’t see how red my cheeks were, or how red I assumed they were, judging by the blood rushing in my ears. “What?” I choked out.
“I was to tell him, but she did not include that in the contract, so I did not.”
I would have given anything to see his face in that moment, if only to knock him on his ass. “Why didn’t you tell him?” There, my voice barely trembled. He wouldn’t see the hit coming.
“I wanted him to fail. That was the bargain. I would help Mistral at no cost, but if he failed, a measure of wild magic would belong to me. A magic foreign to my sister. She would not be able to fight it.”
He had dropped his hands from me. Probably not wise, since I could leave him right where he was. But maybe he knew me better than that. “Why are you telling me this now?”
“So that you might tell him.”
I shook my head. Now I really wanted to see his face. “I don’t understand.”
I felt the air shift as he moved closer again, but when I flinched he must have sensed it, because he didn’t touch me. “Yesterday was my first time stepping foot in the Bogs. I did not realize how bad it had gotten. I could not let him fail so soon.”
“Because we need him.” I laughed, feeling bile at the back of my throat. “If we didn’t need him, you would have let him die not knowing he had a way to fix things.” I felt unsteady on my feet. I knew Sebastian hadn’t created this contract with good intentions, but this—
I had wanted to think better of him.
“I wouldn’t have let him die. Not now.”
His hand touched my arm and I jerked back. “Don’t pretend you suddenly care if he lives or dies!”
“I do not care if he lives or dies, and I can guarantee he feels the same about me. Or perhaps he does care, but only as far as he wishes for my death.” He stepped close again, and this time when I backed away my shoulder blades pressed into solid stone.
Sebastian’s breath was hot on my cheek. “But I promised to protect you. Letting him die would break that promise.”
A tear slipped down my cheek. I didn’t need this. Not now. “Because it would weaken me losing one point of the star?”
“No.” He stood before me, I could feel the warm line of his body, but there remained a hair’s breadth between us. “Simply because it would hurt you.”
My breath sighed out of me. Maybe he really did care, but I wasn’t stupid enough to believe it. He had manipulated us all far too much already. “When we get out of here, you’re going to tell him the truth. All of it.”
“And what will you do? Will you become his bride? Bind yourself to the Bogs to save him?”
Butterfly’s swarmed in my ribcage. My thoughts hadn’t gotten that far. If things got bad enough, Mistral would need a partner, but was I willing to fulfill that role?
I really wasn’t sure. There was too much to consider.
I knew Sebastian was waiting for an answer, but he could brood on it forever for all I cared. I grabbed his arm and thought of the guys. For now, I just wanted to go home.