Chapter 56
CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX
LYVIA
The most powerful magical bond recorded in existence is known as the Weave.
Lyvia – Pyracantha, Lotrennia
Drystan waited for us at the prison entrance as Tiberius pounded through the mossy growth. Dark lines of blood cut across Drystan’s jaw and neck. He wiped the sweat from his brow before adjusting his cracked spectacles.
“Thanks for the backup,” I signed.
Kellan sheathed his blade before hopping off Tiberius and offering me a hand. I took it, savoring the glimpsing moment of comfort his touch gave me.
“Anytime,” Drystan replied, nodding to the two of us.
“The others will be here soon,” he continued. “The pixies are almost under control. And now that the Living Library is in full defense mode, it should just be a matter of time before the city is back in our control.”
“Any sign of Ganmira and Renova?” Kellan asked, his brows angled down as he casually wiped the black pixie blood from his strong arms. He flicked his hand to the side, spattering the nearby rock.
Drystan’s face tightened as he shook his head.
“They must be watching.” I nodded. “Waiting. Letting the attack weaken us. What’s the plan?”
Drystan turned and led us to the small clearing directly in front of the entrance to Pyracantha, where he knelt in the grass. He lifted a thick rope, and my eyes cut to the slight movement that rippled throughout the clearing.
“A trap?” Kellan asked, following the line of movement and kneeling across the clearing. “A rubelline trap,” he corrected, pulling up a rope lined with thin, white stones. “How much did you need to use for this?” he asked, his brows narrowing.
Drystan straightened, his lips pursing as he signed, “More than we are comfortable sparing.”
I shook my head, pride bursting at the genius of my friend.
“But you’re right,” I agreed. “We don’t know what form they’ll take, how big they’ll be. And we already know they’re more powerful than we could have ever imagined. If we can contain them in this, it’ll be worth it.”
Drystan stood and looked at Tiberius. “Contain one of them,” he corrected.
“Tiberius will stay outside, while you lure one inside. I don’t think we can contain both in this trap, so Lyvia, you’ll go into one of the cells.
You’ll need to coordinate the timing of your power—use the Transcindiel with a big enough surge of power to draw their attention and let them see you’re not together. ”
My brows drew together as I nodded.
“And do you have a trap lined up inside the prison?” I asked.
Drys shook his head.
“No, but we have a few spare rubelline cuffs,” he replied, pulling the white cuff from his pocket and handing it to Kellan.
The pirate lord ran his thumb over the top of it as he examined it. A strange sensation washed over me, like the reluctant flooding of fond memories as he looked at it.
“We’ll need to be quick. And hidden,” Drystan said, pulling a second out.
“The cells inside are small,” I replied. “There isn’t much space to hide.”
Drys nodded and then smirked. “Kellan and I will be in the neighboring cell, and when we hear her arrive, we’ll shift directly to her, slap the cuffs on, and you can take her out.”
I nodded, despite my mind replaying every scenario and cataloging every single thing that could go wrong.
“Have faith, Bonscaíh,” Kellan murmured in my ear. “It’s a good plan. We can’t defeat them in the field. We need to be smart about this.”
I heaved a breath as Kellan’s hand squeezed the top of mine.
“Right.” I sighed. “Let’s get set up.”
Moans of the prison occupants slowly slid through the thick, black vines separating the cells in Pyracantha like worms forcing paths through the mud.
It was easy to forget this place of horrors was still a working prison.
A shiver racked my spine at the sound, and I forced my hands into fists to keep them from shaking.
Memories of my time here, of my failed attempts at transforming the ashen, crouched in the shadows of the small cell.
Dim, supernatural light emanated from the black vines with an ominous pulsing, like the staggering heartbeat of a dying animal.
This place was the opposite of everything in the Land of Light and Life.
My thoughts drifted to Ronan as I paced, my mind replaying our moments here.
His friendship had been a solid anchor, even when we were rebuilding it.
It’d been almost a year since I’d seen him.
Almost a year since I’d left Aedrialis to fight Daimos on Kayj.
Was he safe in Aedrialis now that Mount Telum had been activated as a rubelline?
Was Evony all right? It’d been so long since I’d seen either of them…
I jumped as the vines hissed, their thorny spikes clacking against each other as the door unwound in a creeping, snake-like fashion. My powers surged beneath my skin, and it took everything in me to leash them. I whirled toward the door, and my heart stopped.
Nerissa’s form appeared in the dark entryway.
Her brilliant green eyes were dull in the dim light.
The War Slayer paint on her face was slightly smudged, or perhaps it was pixie blood.
It had been almost eight months since I’d left Nerissa in Kayj and sailed for Votruvia, and I’d spent the previous three months in hell.
Warmth pricked at the corners of my eyes as they landed on my bonded sister.
New scars peppered her shoulder and forearm, like a thin line of stab wounds. Recent, I realized. Very recent… I followed them down to the múritinne ring on her finger and noticed how it trembled. Concern squeezed my chest, and she snapped her hand into a fist.
A question formed on my lips, but her mouth quirked to the side. She arched a brow.
“Votruvian war paint, huh?” she asked, scanning the thick paint on my own face.
My lips twitched, and my shoulders relaxed.
“I’m happy for you,” she murmured, nodding her head once.
Emotions clogged my throat, and the abrupt arrival of tears burned behind my eyes before I leaped.
Nerissa stiffened as I threw my arms around her, squeezing as hard as I could. Her arms fell to the side.
“I’m so happy to see you,” I choked out above her shoulder, pinching my eyes shut.
She gently lifted her hands and placed them on my back. They shifted slightly as I heaved a breath.
“Thanks for the ring. Though I’m not usually the jewelry type,” she murmured.
I squeezed harder as I laughed through tears.
She let out an irritated sigh and dropped her hands from my back. “I’m also not usually the hugging type, Lyv.”
“I don’t care,” I mumbled, squeezing once more.
“You have two seconds to remove your arms.”
I laughed, stretching my lips into a wide smile despite our current situation, and released her. She cracked her neck as she straightened. Her expression was grim, sobering my brief moment of joy.
“I take it Ronan hasn’t found the Celestyn Bone?” I asked, pinching my brows.
Nerissa shook her head. “We don’t have time to debrief on everything I learned in Aedrialis, but no. I just came to…” She trailed off as if she truly didn’t know why she’d come to see me.
I nodded and offered her a small smile. “I’m glad you did.”
Nerissa cleared her throat and raised her brows, as if shaking off the affection.
“The others will be here soon,” she continued. “Tiberius will let you know when it’s time.”
She nodded once and waved her hand over the creeping vines that had closed the door to the cell before striding into the darkness beyond.
My thumb ran over the ring on my finger, twisting the violet gem so it bumped against my palm, and back up above the top, the sparkling múritinne ring sliding against it.
The man who slid those rings on my fingers waited in the neighboring cell with my best friend.
We’d created something new, those weeks ago on his home island of Borva, and I wondered if it had ever been done before.
Several knew of our connection, and our choice that wonderful night.
But only Kellan and I knew what had happened after.
The knot we’d tied was tighter than ever thought possible. The weave.
Renova and Ganmira killed that man last year. They tried to take what was mine. Tynan said his sisters had intended to draw out his agony, but their emotions had gotten the best of them… They’d killed Kellan faster than they intended.
The golden spear that plunged through his chest plagued my dreams at night. Kellan had tried to call to me through the blood gushing up his throat. They’d done that. They’d sent him to the Abyss. To Tynan’s Hell. And I knew his hell, just as I knew him.
The darkness in my veins writhed as the rage swarmed in my chest, feeding off the emotion it so loved. I paced, waiting for Tiberius’s voice in my mind to tell me it was time. I focused on a long line of black thorns sprouting up from a thick vine that stretched through the middle of the room.
I reached behind my head and unsheathed Enya’s blade, the intricate, nyxteria vine winding around the celestial details at its hilt. The weight of the longsword steadied me, like Enya herself had a firm grip in my hand.
We’re ready, Tiberius said a moment later. A wave of confidence raced through our bond.
I nodded, despite knowing he couldn’t see me.
Now.