Chapter 25 Cassius
~Cassius~
This wasn’t how I’d intended to spend my night.
Cloaking myself and tracking my target like prey certainly hadn’t been on the agenda.
At Velra’s behest, I’d planned to reach out to Sylas and attempt to heal what had been broken between us, both from my breach of trust and then his attack upon me.
As she’d impressed upon me the morning I’d woken up in her bed with her sleeping beside me so softly and beautifully, peace needed to be made in order for us to move forward.
She was deeply attached to Sylas and Lazriel, and she’d ensured that I understood that complexity and was mindful of it.
But as I’d returned to campus later that day after spending some time with Ketheron and us having breakfast together, I’d sought out the necromancer, only to find him cloaked on the edge of the forest while he took a call, employing a very high-level spell to prevent himself both from being seen and overheard.
Given that I knew Velra was in class attending Harmonic Discipline: Dark Fae Magic & Ethical Focus, and that Lazriel was also busy in his Instinct & Invocation: Harnessing the Inner Beast class, the fact that Sylas had been taking such extreme precautions in spite of that had definitely sparked suspicion.
Shortly after he’d finished his call, a text had come into my phone through the Group Chat that Velra had added me to.
Sylas: Might be late back for dinner. Time-sensitive issue at Arcanum Order. All is well, just requires my assistance. See you as soon as I can.
I wasn’t a participant in this dinner he was referring to. Not quite yet time for that.
It had been a little premature to add me to the Group Chat with them all as well, but Velra had wanted me to get an understanding of the nature and nuance of it. She was working hard and carefully to try to bring me in through little stages.
She was going to so much effort for me, in spite of everything. The least I could do was defer to her in these matters and trust that she knew what she was doing.
I’d managed to track his teleportation path and I’d found myself at the clandestine Arcanum Conclave, the building that housed the elite and secret cabal of the greatest magical minds across the supernatural world who engaged in high-level research and magical development known as Arcanum Order.
The repurposed cathedral was an elegant architectural design, hidden by illusion magic in the misty highlands far away from anyone and anything.
I’d cast a spell to see into the building itself, something only somebody of my magical prowess and Celestial ability could manage, especially without detection.
And it had elicited a great deal of confusion as all I’d witnessed was Sylas working away on current research—one such project apparently being to unlock the complicated building blocks of Dark Fae spells which sought to violate free will.
Why had he cloaked himself earlier if his message in the chat had been true, if things had been above board, and he actually had just intended to head into Arcanum Conclave?
I’d watched him work alone for a while, until Cornelius Martel had arrived. He’d been followed a few minutes later by Maelira Draxen, a defected Dark Fae who engaged in philanthropic efforts on this plane now and this specialized secretive research.
She’d worked with Sylas, running her hands through her straight black hair with hints of purple as she concentrated on the tall task ahead of them.
The flared sleeves of her gray top fluttered theatrically whenever she invoked her magic.
She carried weapons in several sheaths strapped to her black pants—enchanted blades, a magical grenade.
The mark of somebody still on high alert from her past associations, fearing them catching up with her.
The interior of the space was striking and impressive.
The walls were lined with magical symbols glowing with magic.
A spiral archive twisted upward along one wall with books and artifacts floating in containment fields.
A round stone table with gold veins was situated at the chamber’s heart, surrounded by twelve chairs.
Above it were magical projections of the current spellwork they were investigating—symbols, formulas, including recent discoveries.
Floating lanterns illuminated the area, each contained within a glass orb.
There were many magical stations situated on heavy stone tables.
I watched then as Kai Hunter walked in, and then Sylas veered over to him, joining him as Kai settled by the alchemical bench.
Before Kai even began to get to work, Sylas made a gesture toward the entrance doors, and then Kai was following him out, his hard leather trench coat flapping behind him, just like Sylas’ hooded cloak was doing.
I shifted position and used my magic to silently follow their path around the building to a shadowy area.
I employed an auditory enhancement spell and listened in as I watched curiously—and more than a little worriedly given the grave expression on both their faces and the palpable tension emanating from them. Even I, as ill-equipped as I was with emotions, managed to register that. It was that potent.
“Did you bring it?” Sylas asked him, urgency radiating off him.
Kai gave him a look.
“Fine. Of course you did.”
“Yes. Given your urgency and, honestly, your desperation, of course I fucking did.”
Sylas grunted and held out his hand.
Then I watched as Kai placed a Nexus Band—one in bracelet form—onto his palm.
“Vorzyr was okay parting with this for a while?”
“Just for a while. He’s immersed in closed-door meetings with the Shifter Stabilization Unit so it didn’t exactly go over well that I showed up. At least I was cloaked, but it was still a disruption.”
“Well, I’m sure he got a dirty fuck out of it from you, so all wasn’t lost there.” Off another disgruntled look from Kai, Sylas held up his free hand. “Apologies. I appreciate you doing this and I get that it was beyond inconvenient for you to bring this to me.”
“Seeing as though your emotionally stunted ass can actually recognize that, are you going to do me the dignity of revealing why you need it?”
“I told you. To swap the energy reads of the Nexus Bands—his bracelet and my ring—temporarily.”
“So Velra doesn’t register that you’re doing something dangerous, and is unknowingly keeping track of Vorzyr for a time instead, who’s literally just calm and sitting in meetings right now.”
“Right.”
“You know I meant what you need this facade to hide from her.”
“Plausible deniability, Kai.”
“Sylas—”
“Let me see to this. If I fail, or if it doesn’t pan out the way I intend, I’ll loop you in. Just let me try to head it off first before I put this burden on your shoulders.”
“If there’s the possibility of it being a burden to me, it suggests it can impact me directly.” He studied Sylas, seemingly reading well between the lines. “Or those I love.”
“Thank you for the Band,” Sylas said, stepping back, then calling his magic.
I watched as he swept his dark crimson glow over Vorzyr’s bracelet, then his ring. They both glowed briefly as the transfer took effect, and then he handed the bracelet back to Kai.
“It won’t take long, then I’ll reset them, and you can return this to your dragon love.”
“Fine. You get some time—just some. Then I want answers. If not, you know I’ll seek them out myself.”
“Yes, I’m well aware of how you operate. And I have no illusions about the fact that I won’t like how you go about obtaining said answers.”
Kai grasped his shoulder. “Just be careful. And be smart about it while you’re at it.”
Sylas flashed him a grin. “When aren’t I the latter?”
“On the rare occasion when emotion is ruling your normal heavily compartmentalized state. Given how close you’ve grown to Velra and Lazriel, that could very well be now.”
“All is well, I can assure you. Just head back inside. I need to center myself before I take off. Besides, Cornelius wants to lock in dinner plans with you, Ariana, Vorzyr, and Nyx. You know patience when he wants time with his granddaughter isn’t possible.”
“Fine,” Kai acquiesced.
He’d certainly calmed down since I’d first gotten to know him.
With that, he teleported back into the building, leaving Sylas alone.
Then I watched as Sylas pulled out five syringes from his inner hooded coat pocket and levitated them in the air.
He steadied himself, then snapped his fingers, and all five drove into the flesh of his throat and his upper chest, the milky serum with his magical flecks plunging deep.
Once he was done, he brushed them away with another burst of his magic, and then he choked and staggered back into the wall, clutching his chest and breathing heavily.
He threw his hand out behind him, needing to steady himself more so.
“No fucking misfires or fritzing tonight,” he choked to himself.
He panted then, his entire body trembling, just shy of full-on convulsing.
Several moments passed and then he straightened and released a breath of relief, squaring his shoulders, his eyes flaming with extreme power. “Tonight, you take your last breaths, fools. Your way, something wicked comes.”
A growl escaped him as he called his magic and his palms flamed wildly, and then he teleported out.
Hades.
He was headed out to battle.
Worse.
He was intending to commit murder.
I hurriedly latched onto his teleportation signature and went with him.
I rematerialized outside a decrepit establishment.
The term on the mortal plane for such a place was a dive bar, I believed.
It was located through only one point of access—down a back alley.
Before I could ascertain Sylas’ location and seek out more heavy cloaking from him, a blast of magic blew me back violently, and my back slammed into a streetlight, the impact almost tearing it from its foundation entirely.
As I choked, both winded and surprised, Sylas appeared in front of me like a demon of vengeance, his eyes flaming with his power.
“Why are you following me?”
“I believe that is obvious.”