Chapter 19
Cyra
I stood next to Bressen in the woods by the clearing the next day where we waited for Sandrian and Magdalene, my ears attuned to any sign of danger. Surgeon stood behind me while Serise was several feet away as close to Aidan – or Aidan’s body – as she could get without looking suspicious.
Maziren was close to him as well, but I was more confident in Serise’s willingness to act when Morland made his move. Maziren knew the man standing there wasn’t really her lord, but knowing that and being able to act accordingly were two different things.
Samhail knelt out in the clearing with Talyn standing next to him. The plan was to convince Sandrian and Magdalene that Talyn had drugged him and was handing him over. He appeared subdued but, of course, wasn’t.
Samhail said something to Talyn, and they started a hushed exchange I was eager to hear. It was obvious the two of them were attracted to each other, but it was equally obvious they were fighting it.
Well, Talyn was fighting it. Samhail was…being Samhail.
They broke off their conversation as a portal flared to life across the clearing. Sandrian appeared on the other side, but he made no move to step through.
“I hear there’s a reward for this one,” Talyn called to him.
I let my mind reach through the portal to see if I could sense anyone else.
I thought I felt Magdalene, but she was the only one.
Of course, Magdalene might be masking the presence of others the way Bressen was hiding us.
Bressen was also trying to steal past Sandrian’s mind shield, but we had to tread carefully.
If they sensed us and closed the portal before they came through, we’d lose our opportunity.
Morland had undoubtedly warned them this was a trap, but as long as they still believed we thought Morland was Aidan, this could work.
I kept half an ear on Talyn’s exchange with Sandrian. She was trying to explain why she hadn’t contacted him and how she’d subdued Samhail, but it didn’t seem like Sandrian was keen to believe her story. Talyn tried to coax him through the portal to help her with Samhail, but he resisted.
It’s not working, I said to Bressen. He doesn’t want to come through.
We both jumped as Samhail suddenly fell forward and planted face-first onto the ground.
Gods, is he-, I started to ask.
He’s fine, Bressen assured me. A pause, then, Here he comes.
I was confused for a moment until I realized the second ‘he’ Bressen meant was Sandrian. Our quarry had finally stepped through the portal, a cruel grin turning up his face.
My attention immediately narrowed to Magdalene as she stepped through after Sandrian.
The hair rose on the back of my neck, and my skin flushed with anger as I pulled my power to me.
I’d vowed to exercise restraint, but I couldn’t control how quickly my power swelled inside me, begging to be released at the sight of the woman who’d killed my father.
The ground shook as I channeled everything I had into the earth behind Sandrian and Magdalene. A giant fissure ripped the field in two and separated them from their portal. I called on my aunt’s plant magic next, and vines sprung up from the ground to wrap themselves around the two of them.
“Magdalene, you and I have unfinished business,” I snarled at her as I stepped forward out of the woods, the obfuscation glamour lifting.
The other syphon only smiled as the vines holding her and Sandrian loosened and fell away. “Did you get that power from your auntie?” she scoffed. “I’ve had that one for a while. You’ll have to do better than that.”
One of Serise’s containment fields appeared around Sandrian and Magdalene next, but the syphon only raised a brow and sent her power into the ground. I heard a shriek to my side and turned to see Serise fall through a hole Magdalene had created in the earth beneath her.
Thankfully, Maziren reacted quickly enough to grab Serise’s hand and haul the gargoyle back up, but Magdalene’s move had the desired effect as the containment field around her and Sandrian fell away.
Sandrian laughed. “You traitorous bitch,” he said to Talyn. “I knew I couldn’t trust you. I knew they’d get to you. Luckily, I planned for just such an eventuality.”
I instantly turned to Aidan, sure this was when Morland would make his move, but he still pointed the crossbow at Sandrian. Samhail’s urgent voice snapped my attention back to the clearing, though.
“Bressen!” he yelled. “There’s something behind them on the grass.”
I frowned, not seeing anything at first. Then I noticed it.
The air on either side of Sandrian and Magdalene seemed to quiver ever so slightly, just enough that one would only notice it if they were looking for it.
I remembered the effect from the first time Bressen had showed me his obfuscation glamour at the Citadel, when he’d caught me eavesdropping on his conversation with Jerram and Ursan.
This time, though, the waver in the air stretched out widely on either side.
I looked down and noticed what Samhail had been talking about with the grass. It was matted down in the same area as if dozens, maybe even a hundred pairs of feet were standing on it.
“Symbionts,” I whispered to Bressen. We couldn’t sense the creatures’ minds, but we’d at least expected to be able to see them.
“You’re not the only one who can cast obfuscation glamours, Lord Bressen,” Magdalene purred to him.
“And you may have taken one of ours, but we’ve taken one of yours,” Sandrian said, grinning nastily.
The meaning of his words hit me, and I swung around to see Aidan already pointing his crossbow straight at Bressen.
My scream was cut off as Serise slammed her arm down on the crossbow just in time that the bolt lodged itself in the ground at Bressen’s feet rather than in his head.
The gargoyle hit Aidan with a brutal punch next that knocked him to the ground, but my relief was fleeting as another crossbow thwacked from somewhere across the field.
Bressen’s shoulder kicked back as the bolt hit him this time. He swore loudly but didn’t go down.
“No!” I yelled as I lunged for him.
Several crossbows came flying toward us from across the field and landed at Surgeon’s feet. He’d apparently summoned them, and I gave him a grateful nod.
“They’re coming!” Talyn shouted, and I looked to see that the matted grass was now moving our way as the sound of stomping feet grew closer.
Dread pooled in my stomach. Magdalene hadn’t lifted her glamour, so we couldn’t see the symbionts.
I had to do something or our people would be ripped apart by the unseen creatures.
Or at least me, Bressen, Maziren, and Talyn would be.
Surgeon and Serise were already shifting into their gargoyle forms and moving toward the symbionts.
There was only one thing I could think of, and I prayed it would work.
I called on my elemental water power, but instead of creating a deluge, I let the water form into mist. Infinitesimally small droplets materialized to shroud the clearing in fog, and what it revealed was horrifying.
I couldn’t see much more than fifteen feet in front of me, but there were dozens upon dozens of figures moving toward us.
“I need to find Magdalene,” I said.
“Cyra-,” Bressen tried to argue with me, but I cut him off.
“I’m going to find her and put a stop to this,” I insisted.
I started toward the fog, but Bressen grabbed my wrist. I realized the crossbow bolt was still stuck in his shoulder, and I was torn between staying to heal him and going to find Magdalene.
Worry for him made me pause, but there wasn’t time to heal him, and finding Magdalene seemed more urgent.
We’d be torn apart by the symbionts if I couldn’t find her and make her drop the glamour.
“Bres-”
“Be careful,” he said, his beautiful turquoise eyes capturing mine. “Don’t do anything reckless.”
In other words, don’t try to kill Magdalene. I couldn’t promise that.
“I love you,” I said instead and leaned up to kiss him.
It sounded like a goodbye, but I hadn’t meant it to be. I’d just learned with Aramis that I could never tell someone I loved them too many times and that I should never wait to say it. After my father’s death, I’d vowed to never let Bressen out of my sight without first telling him I loved him.
He seemed to understand. “I love you too,” he said. “Be safe, and call if you need me.”
I nodded and rushed into the fog to where I’d last seen Magdalene.
Bressen
I swore loudly as I pulled the crossbow bolt out of my shoulder and threw it to the ground. We’d known Morland would turn on us, but there was no way we could’ve known what else Sandrian had planned. It never occurred to me they’d put the symbionts under an obfuscation glamour.
I tried to let my power reach out to find Sandrian, but something still seemed to be blocking it. Maybe the tip of the bolt had been coated in some sort of poison?
I drew my sword, but pain from the crossbow wound shot through my shoulder, and I switched the sword to my right hand.
There was still some pain, but it wasn’t as bad, so I’d have to fight right-handed for now.
I wasn’t as good with my right, but I was competent enough.
Samhail had made sure I learned, and now I was grateful for his insistence.
A void in the mist barreled toward me, and I swung the sword at it.
My blade scraped across something firm, but the void only pivoted and came back at me.
This time I stabbed instead of swiped, and I drove the blade forward with both hands as hard as I could, gritting my teeth against the pain.
I felt the resistance as it pushed through something solid.