Chapter Twenty-Two
Blair
Shadows draped the ancient tunnels of the Nūa Library. Blair hurried on quick feet, following Rook’s glinting wings as he led them.
Usually, she detested witches’ superstitious tendencies, but tonight, she appreciated the passageways the first witches of Sorin had created.
After enduring the Great Burnings, they’d carried their fears from Callum across the Sapphire Sea, and the city brimmed with unseen ways to escape it.
As well as through it. It was how Blair had sneaked into the library these last weeks, researching how to get Evelyn’s magic back.
And if the Goddess was on their side, she’d help Evelyn and Kade out of the city using them, too.
Old stone and secrets soothed her roiling stomach.
She’d left her townhouse in a rush. Wrinkled clothes.
Half-tied cloak. Curly hair frizzed from the damp underground.
Goddess, here she was again, stepping out of line.
Who did she think she was? She was no third born, no warrior.
She had no business being on a rescue mission, but Blair loved Evelyn.
Her knuckles popped as she tightened her hold on her shillelagh.
Evelyn had her staff. Kade had her sword.
She had her enchanted blackthorn walking stick.
Not a weapon exactly. The hardy tree stood up to winds no matter their might, and it worked as an excellent anchor when Blair conjured her danu.
If it could ground her traveling magic, what else could it assist with?
Voices echoed down the next tunnel, and Blair skidded to a halt. Her breath whooshed out of her, and Rook didn’t hesitate. He shot down the passageway. A werewolf growl shook the library’s foundation.
Blair ran. Her fingertips pricked with power. The air in the tunnels shifted with her, like a current carrying her forth. She swore that the shadows in her peripherals snaked along the fractures in the ancient walls.
Blair gritted her teeth. Not tonight. She couldn’t afford to step too far out of line. She feared the inky part of her was too much, and if she unleashed it, how would she draw it back?
“Get out of his mind!” Her sister’s desperate words sharpened, but even so, they beat against the stone, beyond the passageway.
Rook cawed up ahead, fluttering his wings and hovering by a hole in the stone walls. Light shot out of it, illuminating his onyx feathers. Blair reached him and peered through it. Although the opening was no larger than her hand, Blair glimpsed her sister’s dark hair.
Evelyn spun. Sword in hand. Teeth bared. Blair’s sister fought Circe with Kade’s sword.
No. Defended.
Kade was crouched on his knees, writhing.
“Fuck.”
Blair had only heard the tales of Elder Circe’s mind control, used to invade scáths’ minds to learn more about vampyrs and darkness. The air oozed with wrongness, as if the witch’s power teetered on the edge of dark magic.
Blair had to get to them. Help Evelyn. Before the reinforcements arrived to assist Circe.
The hole in the stone was far too small to fit through, and Blair searched the Elder’s office. There. On her tiptoes, Blair spotted the loft above the classroom area.
“Rook.”
Her familiar answered her call and landed atop her shoulder.
Blair drove her shillelagh into the ground and drew up her bronntanas.
Unlike other elements, wind reached far beyond the land.
It traveled across the plains, whirled around mountains, and kissed the sea’s waves.
Blair loved the thrill, enjoying the wind coursing through her veins.
Wild, alive. A truer reflection of her caged soul.
She shut her eyes. Memories were the key to jumping place to place.
They fluttered past her eyelids—time spent as a university student in the loft, meeting for group projects, and writing research papers.
Elder Circe was her least-favorite professor, and the memories were faint and few, but Blair possessed enough to conjure her danu.
Air wisps outlined a doorway ahead of her. Blair, with Rook secured on her shoulder, stepped through, and she closed the danu with restraint—surprise was an advantage.
Piles of books collected dust, and it appeared some time had passed since other students had used the area, and as Blair tiptoed to the edge of the loft, a stomach-churning cackle resounded from below.
Circe held up Evelyn’s bloodstone necklace. Her sister’s magic. The Elder snickered. “Like I said, you’re unworthy of this power—”
Blair didn’t think; she moved. Rallying her winds in a force fueled by her anger, she used her winds to grasp the books piled in the loft, and drew a mighty wave of them over the edge.
The Elder’s stare widened, but her surprise quickly vanished as a hundred texts buried her under spines, covers, and bent pages.
Evelyn stumbled back, confusion pinching her brow. Blair heaved, her breath shallow as her chest rose and fell. She’d stepped way out of line. Blasted books, she’d harmed an Elder. Blair searched and searched for the ounce of regret blooming inside her.
But found none.
Rook soared through the rafters, his caw snapping her to the present.
Evelyn gasped, gray eyes widening. “Blair?!”
She descended the spiral staircase, averting her attention from the emotion shining in her sister’s gaze. Was it judgment? Anger? Shock? Blair didn’t want to know. She could barely stomach what she’d done. What she was doing.
Breathe, damn it. Breathe.
Blair couldn’t think straight, and the only comfort she found was in the shadows dancing at the edges of the office. For once, she let them stay, and it gave her the courage to face her siter.
“We don’t have time to waste,” she said. “Guards are on their way. Get Kade. We need to move.”
Evelyn didn’t hesitate, rushing to her fated. Movement caught Blair’s attention. Circe’s hand stuck out from the heap of books, fingers twitching around Evelyn’s bloodstone. Blair’s earlier rage resurfaced. How dare the witch take another’s magic?
She snatched the necklace back—
Heat seared Blair’s palm.
She dropped the bloodstone. It clattered to the ground, steam rising from the gem. She peered down at an angry burn blooming across her palm.
What in the Goddess—
“Blair, is everything alright?”
She stilled. Swallowed. Blinked back into focus.
Kade and Evelyn waited, wearing expectant expressions.
Blair hid her wound and dismissed the stinging pain.
Hesitant but inquisitive, she reached for the necklace’s chain, not the gem.
She braced for another burn, but pain never seared her fingertips, proving her theory.
The bloodstone had burned her.
A thousand questions tumbled through Blair as Evelyn draped her magic back around her neck, but they all lodged like shards of glass in her throat.
Later, Blair’s unease begged.
“Thank you,” Evelyn breathed.
Blair sighed. “Don’t thank me yet. We need to get you out of the city.”
They abandoned Circe’s office, and the Elder with it. Kade used his werewolf strength and positioned a bookshelf against the door, trapping her inside. Commotion ripped through the library’s silence.
“Guards,” Kade confirmed.
Blair nodded. “Let’s go. I know how to get past them.”
“Can you create a danu straight to the stables?” Evelyn asked. “That’s where Maxie and Bleu are waiting.”
Blair shook her head. “I have to conserve my energy if you’d like a danu straight to the Drengr Village.”
“Moons,” Kade breathed. “You can get us that far?”
“Yes,” Blair said. “But we’ll have to move on foot across the city.”
“I’d prefer to outrun the Guards in the city than in the open plains of Sorin,” Kade said.
“Agreed,” her sister whispered. “Lead the way, Blair.”
She nodded and headed east into the library.
Evelyn and Kade followed, keeping with her pace.
Rook flew ahead and paused by a niche carved into the wall.
Blair pulled back a heavy purple and gold tapestry.
For over a mile, they raced through the tunnels.
Left, right, and left again. Soon, the passageway transitioned into the pipe system under the city.
The streetlight above shone through the drain grates, and ahead, the tunnel ran into a dead end where a ladder climbed up to the street.
“I’ll go first and make sure the street is clear,” Blair said.
Her boots clanged against the metal rungs, and as she eased the drain gate open, night cold twisted her curls. The street was empty, not a Guard in sight, yet Blair’s skin prickled. Something lay in the air.
“Blair?” Evelyn whispered.
She nodded for her sister and Kade to follow and scanned the street as they climbed up to join her.
Two blocks over, Blair guided them through the residential neighborhood. Brick townhomes stood mighty in the night, a tranquility reaching beyond the pulled curtains and locked doors. The city still slumbered as they crept through the shadows and headed north.
Kade grabbed Blair’s wrist and yanked her back. He held his finger to his lips, signaling to remain quiet. He eased her behind him and peered around the corner. Blair’s heart hammered in her chest as she and Evelyn waited.
“Guards are positioned at the end of the street,” he said.
“Blasted books,” Blair cursed. “We’ll have to go around.”
The three of them backtracked three blocks, and commands on the wind stilled Blair’s gait. She stopped and fell flush against a wall between homes, the street name ahead blaring like a beacon. Her townhome sat on this street.
“What do you hear?” Blair asked Kade.
“More Guards.” He inhaled, and his eyes widened. “And I smell licorice.”
“Fucking flames.” Evelyn shook her head, brows pinched.
“What is that supposed to mean?” Blair jumped her attention between Evelyn and Kade, who shared a grave look.
Evelyn swallowed. “That’s the scent of dark magic.”