It took a lot of trial and error, and we still didn’t really understandhowany of this worked, only that it did. I glanced at the mirror that resided in the corner of the room. Rynn had walked through a blood mirror and traveled almost a thousand miles.
That was a little beyond using glyphs to make water hot.
Alaric rose from where he’d been sitting and walked over to me, then held out his hand, and I passed him the dagger.
“These are Unseelie glyphs,” he noted, likely spotting the same small flourishes that distinguished their glyphs from the Seelie’s. He pointed at the glyph carved into the actual blade of the dagger. “Gùlma âmâm.” Light green eyes flicked up from the blade to me. “Shadow killer. Why would the Unseelie make weapons to use against their own kind?”
“Maybe that’s not what it does?” I took the dagger back from him and studied the glyphs more. Several of them on the handle I didn’t recognize.
Cali sighed and pushed off the bookshelf she’d been leaning against. She stopped a few feet from me, but a shadow version of herself stepped out of her body and kept going.
Everyone except me, Rynn, and Roth stiffened.
We were used to Cali’s abilities. The others had seen her shadow form before—she usually used it to communicate long distances and had even given Rynn a ring that allowed her to do the same—but there was still something about seeing the endless pit of darkness peel itself away from Cali that was unnerving.
It was so wraith-like that I often wondered if our human ancestors’ spell had been similar to the one used by the Seelie that resulted in them becoming wraiths.
The shadow version of Cali strode forward while the flesh-and-blood version stood there with an impassive expression. We all watched as a shadowy hand stretched out to touch the tip of the blade.
“Maybe this isn’t a good ide—” Alaric started, only to be cut off when Cali’s shadows exploded, covering sections of the room in darkness.
I fell from the table I’d been sitting on, my knees slamming to the floor and the dagger clattering a second later. My hands clamped around my ears as if that would help as Cali screamed.
Vaguely, I was aware of everyone else hitting the ground too. Pressure built in my head, and it felt like my mind was being shredded as Cali’s magic slammed into it.
“Cal,” I panted. “Stop.”
My back arched in pain as every single nerve lit up.
A large white wolf leapt over a table and barreled into Cali—the real one. She hit the ground hard, and the screaming abruptly cut off, then the shadows that had been convulsing suddenly vanished.
The wolf very ungracefully flopped to her side next to Cali, and a second later, a trembling Rynn was there with a sheen of sweat over her skin.
In their animal form, Velesians weren’t as impacted by a Furie’s magic, but they weren’t entirely immune either. I dropped my hands from my head and groaned as I got to my feet. We were lucky Cali wasn’t at full strength and some part of her hadn’t wanted to hurt us. Her magical assault had been painful, but at least she hadn’t driven us mad.
“Fuck,” I ground out and leaned against the table. “What the hells happened, Cali?”
Around me, everyone else was getting up. Draven helped Kieran over to a chair while Roth and Alaric leaned on each other. I glanced at Vail, half expecting him to have a weapon in his hand and looking at Cali like he was figuring out the best way to take her down; instead, I found him looking at me, his hands hanging by his sides—empty.
There was tension in his posture—he still viewed Cali as a threat—but he trusted me to handle my best friend. Silver eyes bored into mine, and I could almost see the question in them.You okay?
I gave him a small but genuine smile and pushed a wave of gratitude down our bond. I knew it worked when the tension running through him relaxed slightly and he nodded once.
A very naked Rynn sat up and glared at Cali, who was still lying on the ground, then she smacked the back of her hand against the Furie’s ribs. “I second Sam’s question. What in the actual fuck, Cal?”
“Give me a second,” Cali groaned as she flinched in response. “That was really unpleasant.”
“You don’t say,” Roth deadpanned.
Kieran snort-laughed and then quickly winced and rubbed his temples.
I pushed off the table and took a few wobbly steps before swiping the dagger up off the ground. “Are there more weapons with these glyphs?”
“Yes.” Draven gestured towards a neat pile of daggers on the table. “All of these.”
“There might be more in the other rooms,” Kieran added from where he was seated next to Draven. “We haven’t looked at them all that closely.”
“Okay, so we potentially have a weapon that can be wielded against the wraiths.” I looked at Cali, who had managed to sit up, but her skin, which usually had a healthy tan to it, looked pale and almost sickly. Part of me was troubled by the fact that someone could use these daggers against her. She’d only pricked her finger with the end of it; what would happen if she were stabbed with one? And would the daggers work on her flesh as well as her shadows?
