Page 54 of A Crown of Darkness
Protect them for me, Hestia had begged.
‘Finn, hold him,’ Wren barked, sounding more like Elodie or Roland than she would have ever imagined possible. Finn didn’t argue. Perhaps Finn would never argue with her again. He grabbed Laurence by the scruff of the neck and reached out his arm, still holding the sword, to Wren as if he knew what she was planning. Perhaps he did. He was a servant of the Nox now. That was what she had seen in his eyes.
And she was the Nox.
A moment of clarity shook her to the core. She had torn those women open without a moment’s pause. Without a qualm. Not some distant power operating through her. She had known what she was doing.
Oriole shouted more othertongue and the tenuous grip Wren still had on the shadows faltered for a moment. The treacherous sister gave her hands another vicious twist and pain lancedthrough Wren this time. The same spell perhaps, reflected back on her.
Perhaps she deserved it. It wasn’t enough to stop her, not now, but it shook her to the core.
‘I’m coming after you wherever you go,’ Leander shouted. ‘Every warrior of Ilanthus stands ready and Asteroth has lost the Aurum. The knights are in disarray. Pelias will fall. Do you hear me, little bird? At dawn we attack. Everything is ready, troops, ships, weapons, men. I’m going to raze its walls to the ground, reduce the mountain to dust. I’m going to?—’
Wren embraced the full force of the Nox, turned it on the sisterhood who ranged themselves against her – her servants, sworn to her, tied by vows and service, traitors all of them – and she ripped apart those who remained like wet rags. Oriole screamed, anger and pain twisting her voice as she felt her body wrenched open, her blood joining Hestia’s.
Wren’s eyes fixed on Leander, but she couldn’t touch him. Her magic slid past him. He’d made no vows to break, it seemed, or had greater protection than she could tear through. He was the king of Ilanthus and that meant something when it came to the Nox. He had protections of his own. His guards started forward, steel ready.
Later, she promised herself. She would deal with him later.
With her free hand, Wren broke the pendant.
Safety, she thought as Hestia’s last spell uncoiled around them, not a spell of shadows but one of blinding light. It would take them to safety – her, Finn and Laurence.
The problem was, she didn’t know where that was anymore.
CHAPTER 31
ROLAND
There was mayhem as Alouette’s death unwove the countless spells with which she had entangled the College of Winter. As Tobias Vambray reclaimed his position as chancellor, Roland watched with care as he interviewed those with whom Alouette had spent most of her time, but it soon seemed clear that they were just as baffled as he had been. Or excellent actors. That was something for the College to sort out by itself.
Roland had retreated to the chamber they had assigned to him, because it was easier that way. He couldn’t solve their problems. And perhaps brooding in here was not his greatest idea but he needed his own space now, to think through what had happened. And what could have happened.
Roland had been lucky. More than lucky. Only the loyalty of Anselm and Olivier, coupled with Vivienne’s charms of protection, had saved him. He knew that.
It was a bitter pill to swallow. He had never thought such a thing would be possible, that he would so easily succumb to an enchantment like that. He loved Elodie and always had. His heart was bound to her, he had thought, then, now and forever.
How had the witch blinded him to that? How had she wormed so easily past his defences?
He had been arrogant, that was how. He had been so certain of himself and his strength that he had never needed to guard himself against someone in that way. He was used to Pelias with its wards and defences, to his position as Grandmaster of the Knights and all the protections that offered.
He was a fool.
What would Elodie say? He tried to imagine her laughing at him but he very much feared she would not laugh at all.
But then he remembered those moments when he had almost heard her, warning him, and perhaps he had not been quite so lost as he had feared. He had to believe that. He trusted in his love. It had seen him through everything and it would again.
But it was hard to trust in so intangible a thing.
He mulled over Alouette’s words more than he would have wished to. She had been behind the attacks on them in Pelias, behind the shadow kin and behind Sassone…
Could it be that the threat she posed was truly gone now? She had mentioned her sister…
A knock at the door to his chamber brought him out of his thoughts.
‘Grandmaster?’ It was Olivier, his whole demeanour furtive and unsure. ‘If I may have a moment of your time? I have…I have a confession…’
‘You do?’ Roland frowned. Of all people, Olivier was the last person he would have thought had anything worth confessing. ‘You may have to take it elsewhere, Olivier. I am no longer the Grandmaster, remember? And as for confessions…I have too many of my own to make right now.’
