Quinn
My magic reached for the unconscious guard, dragging him to his feet like a puppet master moving a marionette. I was grateful for the blond length of his hair covering his face enough that Silvius wouldn’t be able to tell he wasn’t in charge of his limbs any longer.
It was no wonder blood magic had earned such a sinister reputation when this was the least of what it was capable of.
The web of his veins made it only too easy to bend him to my will, though a voice in the back of my mind whispered this was exactly the sort of use that had made blood magic forbidden.
And yet, the only part of this that felt wrong was making the guard point his sword at Tobias.
This power, this control…it was liberating in a world where I had so often had neither.
Tobias had long since stopped trying to act like he was okay. He leaned forward with his face in his hands, his breathing shallow, though he still clung to consciousness. I was aware of his every breath along with the pulsing rhythm of his blood as Dolion and I worked.
There was nothing more I could do for him until I had the cure in hand or my healing magic to help him. I ground my teeth together. Even when Eva had gotten sick, I hadn’t felt this helpless.
Whatever version of the virus this was, the symptoms were moving more slowly than Eva or Pari, considering he was still awake.
There was nothing to do but watch and feel the quickened beat of his heart as his body fought the virus invading his bloodstream—and try to ignore the trickle of uneasiness in my veins that whispered there was something I was missing.
Dolion held a fresh notebook in front of him with the plan he and I had spent the night working on: entirely unethical ideas on how to spread a virus both of us knew was too dangerous to allow.
For a bloodborne virus to be altered to spread, several biological and structural changes would need to be engineered to enable it to survive long enough to infect others.
My understanding on how to do that came from coursework on how to identify potential pandemic threats, not how to create them.
Given the magic of this city, there had been one way that made the most sense, even as the thought of it actually happening turned my stomach.
It would have to be waterborne.
A bloodborne virus was far too fragile to survive in the city’s water supply, yet it was up to us to devise a plan convincing enough to make Silvius believe viable particles could be spread that way.
We worked the rest of the night—or what I assumed was night based on how tired I was.
Even Dolion looked concerned at how believable our proposition was by the time we finished.
When the door finally appeared again in the stone, I was ready.
The guard I controlled jerked to attention as two more vacant guards entered, a prone form carried between them. Matted black hair covered her face as her head lolled against her chest. I didn’t need to hear the gasp on my left to confirm her identity.
Queen Sariyah.
Her long braid unraveled where it dragged against the floor. What had once been an ocean blue dress was now mostly the rust-colored brown of dried blood.
The papers in Dolion’s hands shook. “My queen…”
She didn’t move.
Silvius shuffled in behind them, another two guards at his back. The door slammed shut, then disappeared into the wall.
Tobias slowly raised his head to glare at Silvius. I couldn’t tell whether he was conserving his strength or that was all the vitriol he could muster.
“I see you’ve finally noticed my handiwork,” Silvius said, looking insufferably smug as he took in the blood covering Tobias’s shirt. “I do hope you went ahead with your plans to create the next phase of the virus. If not, you won’t be able to save him.”
It was an effort not to stop his heart. To make him bleed and see if he still felt like celebrating.
First, we needed the cure.
Silvius gestured imperiously at Dolion, who handed our research to the nearest guard. The smile that crossed his lips—the first real one I had ever seen from him—filled me with the visceral urge to punch him in the face.
“You offered to cure Pari,” I gritted out through clenched teeth. “Why infect Tobias?”
Silvius’s mouth curled in pure hatred. “Maybe I want him to suffer.”
The bottom half of Tobias’s face was stained with his blood despite my efforts to wipe it away. He looked like he was on the verge of passing out, though he managed to hold Silvius’s gaze.
“And I wanted to be certain you’d bring the plans I requested to life,” Silvius said, looking back at me. “After all, I did promise motivation.”
I couldn’t help my shudder. He would have used Tobias to force me to continue working for him. Without my blood magic to save us, would I have bowed to Silvius if it meant saving my anima?
It was lucky I didn’t have to make that choice. Not when it would have cost me my soul.
“We have your plans,” I said snippily. “Where’s the cure?”
Silvius took a black box from an inner pocket. Inside was a vial and two syringes.
The vial was labeled in my handwriting…but I had to be sure. I wouldn’t put it past Silvius to switch out the contents or somehow negate the cure we created together.
“How are we supposed to trust that’s what you say it is without our magic?”
“That’s why I brought her.” Silvius nudged Queen Sariyah’s leg with the tip of his boot.
“It seems that most of my loyalists were targeted in a plot to bring them to justice. One loose thread rounded them up. Most were captured by a faction led by your friends. Some killed.” He clicked his tongue. “A pity.”
His utter lack of concern for those that had given him sanctuary was chilling. For him, they had only ever been a means to an end.
Silvius cleared his throat. “My plan to use the queen for my goals won’t work anymore, especially as it seems that his face”—he gestured at Dolion—“will no longer do for a disguise.”
Yael.
A smile lifted my lips despite the seriousness of the situation. At least our last messages had served their purpose.
“You’re smiling,” Silvius scoffed. “You won’t be for long. Your actions have forced me to take a different direction—a far more aggressive one. One in which every single person in Mayim will be infected far sooner. And one in which I don’t require the queen to live.”
Dolion tensed beside me, his hands curling into fists. For a fleeting moment, I thought he might lunge at Silvius. Instead, he lifted his chin. “If you kill her, I won’t help you.”
“Kill her?” Silvius’s laugh lacked any hint of warmth.
“I’m going to cure her.” He extracted a syringe, carefully filling it.
“We still need to test it, after all. She’ll remain here as my prisoner, of course, if she survives.
I wasn’t expecting her to fight me as much as she did when I brought her with me. ”
He knelt beside the queen, then slapped her cheek. Dolion flinched, but she barely stirred.
Dolion stepped forward only for Silvius’s guards to raise their swords. “Please, let me…”
Before he could finish, Silvius jabbed the syringe into Queen Sariyah’s upper arm. Dolion and I exchanged a startled look.
“Here’s how this will work,” Silvius said as he emptied the syringe.
“I will take the Northern King and the Southern Queen with me before I remove the block on the magic in this laboratory. Then you two will create this waterborne option within three days, or you’ll get to watch them both die a slow and painful death. ”
“I’ll need our research,” I said quickly, my stomach turning at how closely I had worked with him all this time. “And everything you took from the lab.”
“Of course,” Silvius simpered, his voice grating on my last nerve.
He looked imperiously at one of the guards, who retrieved a satchel from his back.
The guard lumbered forward, then dropped the bag on the closest counter.
Tobias’s careful notes spilled out onto it, mixing with my own.
“I destroyed nothing of importance. You’ll need to create a cure for the new version, after all, just to be safe. ”
I looked away so I wouldn’t betray my excitement at having my hopes confirmed, nodding stiffly. “And Pari?”
Silvius closed the box with the vial and remaining syringe. “There’s more than enough left for her. However, to make sure no one tries to replicate it, I must insist on going myself.”
“No.” Tobias’s voice held no trace of weakness though he remained slumped against the wall. “They won’t trust whoever you hide yourself as. They know Dolion’s compromised. It has to be Quinn.”
I knew Tobias wanted to be sure the box was safely in my hands before we moved to the next stage of our plan. But the cruelty in Silvius’s flat gray eyes told me we were out of time.
My blood magic should feel drained from the effort it took to hold the guard still. And yet, I felt unstoppable.
This was true power—alive, electric. I could hear every one of the hearts beating in this room. I could feel them like I held them in my hands, warm, fragile, and entirely at my command. And I could sense the blood surging through their veins, urging me to reach out and finally give in.
Silvius’s face twisted as he faced Tobias. “Do I need to remind you who’s in control here?”
He looked at the guard I still held upright like a puppet. A flicker of confusion crossed his face.
“No,” I said coldly. “Because I am.”
My vision turned red as I let the magic roaring to be released consume me. I ensnared the remaining guards between one breath and the next, my magic reaching through them to control every vein, every single blood cell.
Then I reached for him.
Silvius’s eyes went wide as his body betrayed him. I could feel each panicked beat of his heart, the way his muscles tried and failed to counteract my control. His fingers trembled as I forced them apart, extending the arm holding the cure toward me against his will.
“You…” Silvius forced out. “You have…”
“Blood magic.”