Chapter Seventy-Two
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I pry my eyes open and blink back tears at the sight of the sorcerer striding closer, and I hold in a shudder when my magic connects to his, maintaining the connection to absorb his worries and imbue him with my love. Because it’s him. I’ve found him. He’s come back to me.
Yet my magic also detects His Majesty’s smugness, and I turn to find that his expression displays the same as he stares toward my Lead Guard.
Varic’s own countenance is filled with relief, his cheeks rising until the peaks glint in the moonlight. My legs tremble, and I lock my muscles to keep from collapsing as he steps into his place on my left.
Our eyes remain fixed on one another as the Emperor pivots to face us.
His Majesty remains silent as he studies our proximity, standing so close together that Varic’s presence warms my skin.
A welcome bit of comfort, despite the fear rippling through our connection.
I send him a thread of caution as his eyes refuse to stray from my being.
A sinister energy ripples from the Emperor through my magic, jarring me as he reaches forward to grab Varic by the shoulder. “Imperial Lead Guard Varic, explain your purpose in abandoning your charge.” His thumb presses in, wrinkling the thin leather covering Varic’s skin.
Wyrth steps away with his Guards and Imelda, trudging off to enter their own carriage. I cast my gaze over the rows of trees where any number of assassins might be hiding, only finding the same eerie landscape.
Varic shifts his weight before saying, “I entrusted the Imperial Guards you appointed to keep her safe while I attempted to locate you to discuss our response plan, Your Majesty.”
The Emperor flicks his gaze to where Lars leans against the ladder before returning it to Varic. “While your stories align, I do not think you are telling me everything.” He grabs hold of Varic’s arm and forces him to step forward.
Malin’s purple magic rises and prepares to protect Varic.
My heart pounds as His Majesty doesn’t so much as look back at me as he pulls my Lead Guard toward the lily pond in the center of the driveway.
“Load in!” His Majesty commands as the last few Guards do as he says.
I imbue the rest of my Guards with calm and trust before siphoning their fears and concerns—strangely not feeling weakened afterward. They nod to me when Lars and Malin climb up their respective ladders, and Cirrin and Fray climb inside with Drusilla.
Yet I refuse to listen. Instead, I slink closer to where the Emperor holds Varic hostage.
“You will tell me the truth,” His Majesty says, conjuring his dark gray force magic in the form of a spear—
“No!” I yell and send tendrils of fear to the Emperor’s chest to try to stop him from hurting Varic.
Malin’s purple magic billows past to spiral around the tyrant.
Varic snaps his attention back toward us and mouths the word, ‘Don’t’.
Malin retracts his magic while I imbue the Emperor’s heart with more fear—yet it doesn’t stop him from sending the spear.
No.
I freeze in place and watch helplessly as it pierces Varic’s chest.
No. We’re too late.
I stumble and stare where the end of the spear protrudes from his sternum until Varic’s eyes lock on mine, and I gape back at him.
Because I cannot comprehend how he is possibly still standing.
Or how the beat of his heart still thrums in the shield he maintains over me.
The same form of protection he should have used to save himself.
I glare at the Emperor when Varic’s influence imbues me with a thread of amber-hued caution. Communicating his wish for me to stand down, I swallow against the urge to avenge him. For now.
“Your Majesty,” Danor calls from the top of the Emperor’s carriage. “What would you have us do?”
“Remain where you are and do nothing, unless I command it,” Emperor Aldritch sneers.
Cirrin’s blue magic swirls around each of the grooms holding the reins on the horses, followed by each of the Guards sitting next to them. I let out a breath as he subdues each into sleep as they slump backward. An act His Majesty ignores in order to focus his ire on my Lead Guard.
Varic clutches his chest and tears threaten as I take a step closer, staring at the Emperor who doesn’t seem to notice me advancing, until a sickly sense of foreboding stops me.
“Not yet,” the melded voices of the ancients warn inside my head.
I shudder from the power held within their message, then shake with the need for Varic to be safe. Conflicted with the need to take action and the urge to heed their warning. Having never expected the Emperor to even consider stabbing his prized force sorcerer with his magic.
He leans in and says something to Varic, while I curl my hands into fists from the level of fury, raising the hair on my arms and neck as a different sort of heat builds in my chest.
Varic’s expression is strained, and I send him a tendril of my love to try to help.
His face contorts, making no indication he’s received it—and that’s all it takes to propel something from me—some unfamiliar wave of power that slams against the door to our carriage so hard, it latches itself shut, making it so those inside it must witness my wrath through a small section of glass.
My magic expands within me, rippling and roiling beyond anything I’ve experienced in years. Invigorating me with a tingling sensation different from the way Varic’s shield feels, as if something is imbuing me with a strength not even Cirrin’s healing can bring.
I am filled with the wish for nothing more than to use this newfound energy to strike His Majesty down so that I might tend to Varic—when that same sorcerer sends me a thread of concern and resolve through our magic.
His Majesty grabs hold of Varic’s chin, and I swallow against the bile rising when he twists the weapon in his chest. “You will explain what you were doing and why you felt it was worth breaking your vow to my little witch.”
I send Varic my own concern, and his eyes flick over in warning. He shakes his head while I gaze back in wonderment, when any sorcerer experiencing what he is should be on the ground, writhing.
Emperor Aldritch releases Varic’s chin before turning around to sneer in my direction. “I ordered you to enter your carriage.”
“An order I will comply with the moment you release him.”
Varic slumps, and guilt strikes my stomach as I conjure every bit of fear to send—no.
Not fear. That only powers the tyrant. I abandon the threads I had gathered and weave calm and contentment, then imbue the Emperor with those instead, with the intent of tricking him into releasing us, unsure how much longer Varic can maintain whatever he is using to keep the Emperor’s power from causing him harm.
“You will do as I say, or else there will be consequences.”
My heart leaps from the venom laced in his tone before Lars’ promise resounds in my mind—“We will make sure the contingencies His Majesty claims to have in place can never be acted upon.”
I turn back to meet Lars’ gaze, which brims with concern for Varic and me.
My cheeks lift in a shaky half-smile, entirely confident he would never lie about this.
None of my Guards would dare make such a claim without having found a way to subvert His Majesty’s contingencies.
And wouldn’t they stop me if it weren’t accurate?
Wouldn’t they be stepping in if they had any doubt that my actions now could hurt innocents?
While I cannot fathom how their plan can work, I trust them, with every part of my being.
So I spin back around to pin the Emperor with a glare and imbue him with more threads of complacency, showing him how I will not allow him to hurt Varic.
Not after he just came back to me. Not after all that we have endured.
Even though I do not know what may come from this decision, I will place my trust in my Guards and their promise.
“There are always consequences, Your Imperial Highness. Every action we take begets them.” My voice comes out cold and venomous, startling even me as the Emperor stares back with a furrow in his brow.
“Now, if you will release my Lead Guard, we will both climb inside my carriage, as you have commanded.”
His Majesty turns back to Varic, who sends me a look of warning just before the fucking snatcher drives the weapon in further.
Varic drops to his knees and I rush toward him.
“Don’t,” Varic whispers.
But not even his caution can stop me from releasing more of my power into the Emperor.
I pulse thread after thread of peace and calm into the sorcerer whose strength is but a fraction of all I contain.
My magic reduces His Majesty’s wards into nothing as my power proves to be too great a match for him.
Though I must be careful. I cannot ignore how he feeds on the fear and fury of all those he forcibly controls.
My magic extracts the anger he directs toward me and every other being he blames for his self-made misery, capturing as much as I can until my body shakes from the effort.
Yet I cannot stop. No matter the toll. I need to siphon all that strengthens him—to protect Varic in the only way I can.
“You will not succeed in manipulating me, witch,” he sneers as he turns to face me.
“But isn’t that my entire purpose?” My voice no longer sounds like my own, though it is not hers, nor the ancients speaking—but a version of myself I have not yet been introduced to.
“Isn’t manipulating your mood exactly what you command me to do?
Isn’t the act of manipulating you, and those with whom you interact, the entire reason you have appointed me as your Imperial Grand Witch? ”
An exhilarating hum thrums through my body, playing the notes of a song only I know, building higher with the power coursing within my being. This is it. I can feel it.
I am in my element, and nothing and no one can take this from me. Not anymore.