26. Syneca #2
I remembered her laugh, bright and tinkling like wind chimes, impossible to ignore even when the world was falling apart.
The way she’d flown into the arena during the Mortalis, small but holding her blade like she was the one to be feared.
The way she’d curled up in Calder’s pocket when she was scared but never admitted it.
How she collected buttons like they were treasures and ate too much honey and made terrible jokes that somehow always landed.
She was good. Purely, impossibly good in a world that had tried its hardest to prove goodness didn’t exist.
And now she was silent.
My hands trembled where they rested against her tiny chest. The tears came faster, spilling down my cheeks no matter how hard I tried to hold them back. My breath hitched. Once. Twice. Until I couldn’t pretend I was holding it together anymore.
“Please,” I whispered, but the word broke. “Please don’t take her.”
Silas spun me back to him. “Shh, Ith Noem. Hush now. Death has a certain look about it. A certain mark I saw in you when I knew you were going to die. Pip doesn’t have that. She’s not going to die.”
I wanted to believe him. Needed to believe him.
“I can’t hear her heartbeat, Si. It was there and now… now it’s nothing.”
“Because hearts that are small don’t beat like drums in weak moments. You can’t hear it, but I can. I promise it’s still there. Our girl is still fighting the magic. I promise.”
Our girl. I hated that the sound of him being sure of something could steady my hands when nothing else could, hated that I let it.
What if she was in pain? What if the Aegis was still crushing her from the inside and we couldn’t tell? She was so small. So fragile. If the magic was still pressing down on her, still trying to snuff out every spark of life she had, she could be suffering and I wouldn’t even know it.
Pain. The Aegis had been designed to crush magic by inflicting unbearable pain on anyone who carried it. And if Pip was still feeling that… holy shit. I could save her. We fight magic with magic.
“Please.” I grabbed Si’s arm. “There’s a set of pain transfer runes at the Gilded Pestle.
Woven into bloodstone. They can move a fatal wound from one person to another or transfer pain that’s killing another, to someone strong enough to survive it.
If the Aegis latched on and is still hurting her, if that’s what’s keeping her heart so weak, we can take it from her. I need them right now.”
Silas didn’t hesitate.
One moment he was there, and the next he was flying out the door.
Wiping away my tears, I brushed a strand of blue hair from Pip’s face, my hands shaking. Calder came down the stairs holding his favorite cooking pot and a bag thrown over his shoulder. He took one look at Pip and his expression softened.
“I’ll watch her,” he said quietly. “Go grab some clothes and anything else you want from the apartment. We’ll likely never be back here.”
“I don’t need anything.”
His eyes fell to my clothes. “You’re going to wear a worn pair of pants and an oversized sweater from the Underworld for the rest of time?”
I scowled, pointing at the fabric beneath Pip. “I have a cloak.”
Calder took a step toward me, towering. “Syneca Bl–Talmyrien, I’ve got her. Go get your stuff.”
I didn’t want anything from that apartment.
None of the clothes I’d shared with Vitoria, even though she’d been shorter and nothing had ever fit quite right.
Nothing we’d picked out together when we’d spent entire afternoons at Threadbare and Whisper, laughing over ridiculous hats and arguing about color palettes.
I didn’t want any of it. Didn’t want the reminders of a friendship that had been a lie from the beginning.
All I wanted was to leave. Leave with the sound of Pip’s wings buzzing in my ears.
“I found something!” Dez shouted from somewhere deep in the stacks.
“Great, because I can’t find a single book on sprite healing,” Ramiel called back.
Something took root in me from those words. The fact that the demon prince’s focus had been on helping Pip instead of even trying to assist Dez. Both of them were giving everything they had to my cause. To my small friend.
Ramiel finally noticed Silas was gone. “Where did Si—”
The door flew open and Silas came through carrying a small bag.
I rushed to him and reached for it, but he was reluctant to let go.
“It needs to be me,” he said firmly. “Pass Pip’s pain to me.”
“We’re taking her pain? No.” Ramiel stepped forward. “I’ll take it.”
“Neither of you are doing this,” Dez said. “I’m the one who let the shield drop. This is my fault.”
I jerked the bag away. “It’s not about fault.”
“Then it’s about who can handle it,” Silas said. “And that’s me.”
“You don’t get to decide that,” Ramiel argued.
Calder moved closer to the counter. “If someone’s taking pain meant to kill a sprite, it should be me. Someone from this world.”
Silas practically growled, shoving himself forward to stand toe-to-toe with Calder. “Absolutely not.”
Their voices faded into background noise as I stared down at Pip.
Her face was so pale. Even the color in her hair had faded.
I placed the runestones on the cloak around my friend, ignoring the arguing behind me.
My mind moved to the bond with Silas and I tugged on his power, unwilling to trust my own when Pip’s life hung in the balance.
“Introse,” I whispered.
The runes began to glow. Bright and fierce, bleeding light across the counter as the magic activated. Pip’s body lifted, floating in the soft light as the spell worked its way through her.
The Aegis slammed into me all over again, worse than what I’d felt in the Chancellery. It crushed inward from every direction, squeezing the air from my lungs, pressing against my ribs until I thought they’d crack. My vision blurred. My muscles felt like they’d burst inside of me.
But I didn’t let go.
Silas was at my side in an instant. “You shouldn’t have—”
“Can I take a nap now?” Pip whispered.
Relief crashed through me so violently I nearly sobbed. Her eyes were open. Her voice was there, soft and tired but there. She was alive.
Calder fell to his knees beside her, his massive hands hovering over her like he was afraid to touch her. “Hey, little one. You okay?”
She blinked heavily. “Tired… and thirsty.”
“Water,” Calder said immediately. “Someone get her water.”
Ramiel and Dez nearly collided, racing toward the back of the shop.
Her eyes found mine, narrowing slightly. “Syn, you’re hurt.”
“I’m not.” The lie came easily despite the pain still crushing me. “Never been better.”
She didn’t look convinced, but she didn’t argue. Her tiny hand reached up and patted Calder’s finger. “Did we win?”
“Yeah, Pip Squeak. We won.”
Ramiel returned first with a cup, and helped her drink slowly. She managed a few sips before her eyes started drifting closed again.
“Let her rest,” Silas said quietly, his eyes falling on me, sliding up and down as he waited for me to break from the pain. But it was bearable and already beginning to fade, leaving behind a dull ache that I could manage. I watched Pip’s chest rise and fall, steady now, and let myself breathe.
Calder pulled a folded piece of paper from his pocket and laid it flat on the counter, smoothing out the wrinkles. “Eda Mire had a safe house in Brathen. I’d bet it’s warded to the hilt and probably our safest option if we can figure out how to get inside. And how to get there quickly.”
I leaned over to look at the address on an unfamiliar street in a city I’d never been to.
I couldn’t even remember her mentioning the place.
I thought of the journal in the pocket of my cloak with the monogrammed ‘S’.
Apparently, there were plenty of things she never told me.
She’d never been the doting type though, so I couldn’t say I was surprised Calder knew things I didn’t.
“How do we get there?” Ramiel asked.
Dez kept his voice down, almost reverent, as he showed us a book marked with a stylized compass rose, its points extending into intricate knotwork.
“There are only three with these marks. And I can’t promise they’ll perform for me here.
The scrivener magic in this world drains differently.
I might land us somewhere useful. I might land us somewhere wrong and not have the power left to fix it. ”
I took the familiar one from the stack. “This one goes to the Bloodwood, just outside the city. Useless. We’d barely gain any distance.” I nodded at the other two. “Those, I don’t recognize. Could be anywhere.”
“Then we don’t use the books,” Silas said. “Not with Pip like this and no idea where we’d land. Calder, can you get Dez and Ramiel to Brathen on foot?”
Calder nodded. “Might take us a day or two, maybe longer depending on the Ash beasts.”
“Sounds delightful,” Ramiel said with every ounce of sarcasm the prince could likely muster.
“And us?” I asked.
“I’ll fly you and Pip northeast.”
The first rays of sun broke through the clouded windows, casting long shadows across the shop. Silas moved to the door and looked out at the street, his body going still.
My heart couldn’t take another problem. “What now?”
He stared at something I couldn’t see from where I stood before speaking through gritted teeth. “We need to leave.”
“What’s wrong?”
He turned back, his jaw tight. “The hunters aren’t coming.”
I frowned. “What do you mean they aren’t—”
His eyes locked onto mine. “They’re already here. The empty city was a trap.”