Chapter Twenty-Six Sylas #2
Viola jerks away from him, losing her footing. I brace her fall, wrapping my arm around her waist. “Need I remind you about touching people against their will?” I ask. Raiku hisses at him, fangs out.
“Always with the threats, Archyr. If you never act upon them, they’re worth as much as you. Nothing.” Lorne bares his teeth. I don’t care that I’m outnumbered by Mortemagi. If he touches her one more time, Raiku will pump him with so much venom he’ll wish he was dead.
Viola gestures to the crowd of Mortemagi and raises her eyebrows in question.
I shrug. If she thinks I care about us being seen together, I don’t.
Every time Lorne looks at her, I want him to know he’ll have to contend with me.
Bond aside, Viola brought my brother back to life, and I owe her the world.
Turning her eyes to Lorne, she lets out a long sigh, then speaks. “We found Olivia’s killer.”
Panic flits across Lorne’s eyes, as if he’s only now registering the possibility of Olivia’s murder. He shakes his head in disbelief, his attention wholly turned to Viola. “Olivia was k-killed?”
“Corvi, Archyr—” Delaney barks. She breaks off from the crowd, hurrying toward us and Lorne.
With the haunting towers of the House of Death in the background, she looks like a wraith. Her eyes fall to my arm around Viola, and I pull her closer to me, holding Delaney’s questioning gaze. She opens her mouth to say something but clamps it shut when a car door opens.
The moment she notices Beau, her eyes bulge out of their sockets. In typical Delaney fashion, she takes in a steadying breath and composes herself immediately, because Gods forbid anything catches her by surprise. “Cardot, you are… alive.”
“Not by choice,” Beau mumbles, and both Viola and I glare at him.
“Regardless,” she snaps. “Corvi, report to my office immediately.” Her head then tilts up to me. “Don’t ever hold one of my Mortemagi hostage—”
A Magus Mortemagi taps on her shoulder, interrupting her threat. Her eyes widen, and her head snaps toward the institute. Without acknowledging Beau and me, Delaney directs everyone to the House of Death, dragging Viola with her.
As I watch her walk away, my mind screams that she doesn’t belong with them. And if my heart feels like it’s caving in only watching her walk to her House, how will I leave for Firstline later?
Hollow Tree’s dining hall is alive this morning. For the first time in days, there’s a semblance of normalcy. A couple of young Magus fight over honey fig bread for breakfast. They only like it because it’s new to them. By the Pine Festival in a month, they’ll be sick of it.
“Someone snuck into the kitchens,” Lyria teases me as she gestures to the honeyfig loaf I’m holding.
She and Beau join me on the balcony overlooking Hollow Tree.
After Lyria cried a river’s worth of tears earlier this morning, they’ve been joined at the hip.
She hasn’t let him out of her sight for the last couple of hours.
“I still haven’t forgiven you for snitching on us to Paltro,” I say. If Lyria hears me, she doesn’t show it; she carries on her observation of the dining floor.
“It’s a bazaar down there. I had to fight my way for one muffin.” She scrunches her nose. “Beau refuses to eat. I keep telling him that Viola didn’t sacrifice herself so he could starve to death.”
My sister is now at the stage of using humor to deal with tragedy—she did the same four months ago, when Dad died.
Right after we came back and told her about Viola, she sat in silence for a while, then sobbed against Beau, and, after that, spent hours scattering her research on the floor of Founder’s Room.
“I’m not hungry.” Beau sighs through her glare, then raises his eyebrows at me. “Are you ready to leave?” He looks worse than he did when he was dead. Victor didn’t only trick Viola. He tricked Beau, too, and knowing my brother, he won’t rest until he somehow makes it up to her.
“Leave?” Lyria pokes her tongue against her cheek. She lets out a forceful exhale, glaring daggers at me. After watching her distress over Viola, I omitted that Paltro drafted me to Firstline. I was hoping Beau would fill her in.
“I’ve been drafted to Firstline,” I say quietly. “I leave soon.”
“Where did they station you?”
“Riverview Division,” I reply.
Her lips pull into half a smile. I wish the joy was from relief, but Gryff is also stationed there, and now that I’ll be joining him, Lyria has unlimited visitation hours.
“Good thing I have two brothers.” Lyria wraps her arms around Beau’s waist, resting her head against him. “I’m glad you’re staying at Gorhail. This way, we can continue our lifedrain theory and find a way to give Viola her years back.”
First was humor, now it’s blind optimism. Perhaps I need to be like my sister. Her hope lies in her own achievements, and if anyone can pull Viola out of this mess, it has to be Lyria.
Beau’s face falls. “Yeah, I’ll be here for a while, too,” he laments. “But I deserve it. Paltro demoted me back to High Magus, so I won’t be able to help with lifedrain.”
“What?” Lyria exclaims. “He can’t do that. He—”
“I have to retest through the House of Poison in two years. At least this means he’ll let me retrieve Briar from my father’s vault.” His head hangs low.
“Have you seen Viola?” I ask mindlessly, glancing over the dining floor again.
Beau shakes his head, and my sister clears her throat. “No, but Paltro’s storming toward you like he’s going to throw you over a cliff.”
“Was I unclear when I told you to leave right away?” Paltro raises an eyebrow at my hands. I quickly tuck the honeyfig bread in the large inner pocket of my jacket.
“Follow me,” Paltro barks.
I glance at my siblings, then at Railesza, mouthing a quick goodbye.
This is the first time since my father’s death that I will be without my healing aspier. As if Beau can hear my concern, he says, “Take her. It doesn’t feel right that I’m allowed to be here, practicing magic, while Viola will die if she uses hers.”
“Your guilt won’t bring her lifeblood back.” I push his hand away. Selfishly, I don’t want to lose him again. And he knows that an Aspieri cannot be without an aspier.
“Sylas,” Paltro barks, and I fall into step with him as we climb down the stairs of Hollow Tree. He hands me a letter bearing the silver seal of Firstline. “This is your official draft letter, and your first case begins now. Another student was found dead on Gorhail grounds.”