Page 145 of Gift from the Stone

“What the hell happened?” I ask more forcefully, sitting up fully and swinging my legs over the side of the couch.

The movement is pointless because my feet never touch the floor as Draken hauls me up and into his lap, all the guys finding spots around me.

“Just stay right where you are,” Corentin demands.

My eyes narrow at his tone, but there’s no point arguing with him when we’re both worked up like this because it’ll only cause a fight, so I do as I’m told.

I feel the battle raging in Tillman’s chest as he kneels in front of me and places his hands on my knee. They’re all incredibly tense, but I still don’t know exactly why, and it’s freaking both me and my bond out.

“Jamie put Layton in a temporary coma. Aria was quick enough to weave her own rune around his mind to separate the one the Summum-Master has in place, but we’re afraid if he’s awake, the rune will kill him. Like it did all the shifters here who were close enough to him to know anything of value. We’re all freaking out because you fainted—well, we thought that’s what happened—at the same time all the shifters went down,” he says calmly.

Oh fuck. They didn’t know I was having a vision.

All the frustration I’ve just been feeling bleeds out of me as the range of emotions floating around the room now makes sense.

“I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to scare everyone. I think the vision hit me so hard because I was struggling coming out of Layton’s mind.”

“It’s okay, Will, but it’s been a long, stressful half hour,” Tillman says, strained.

“A half hour? My vision wasn’t even that long.” Typically, time barely moves, if at all, when the sight decides to visit me.

“Well, that’s how long it’s been, princess,” Corentin says softly.

I slump back into Draken’s chest and blow out a deep breath, trying to wrap my mind around this.

“So all the shifters who were higher ranked… Kael, Eirik…the Elders…” I trail off.

“Dead,” Lyker states darkly from where he’s standing in the corner of the room.

I figured it, but hearing him blatantly say it causes rage to simmer in my gut. Not at him, but at the Summum-Master. All that fucking work. Everything we had to go through. All the information we would’ve gathered, gone. Ripped right from us.

Motherfucker.

Don’t think like that. We saved Aria, Lyker won the trials, Layton may survive, and we found out some very important things from him.

Deep breath.

“What did you learn from Layton?” I ask Tillman, no longer wanting to delay my news with everything else happening.

“From his memories, there are only two who know the Summum-Master’s true identity, and both their identities are highly protected. To everyone else, he disguises himself with a powerful glamour spell.

“During one of the meetings Layton was dragged to, they were discussing how some of the creatures have grown strong enough that they’re able to break through the protection wards that the Mastery cast on themselves before entering. The Summum-Master isn’t willing to cut their supply off since their guidance is needed through the forest, so some-fucking-how, he’s developed an elixir they drink that wards them off when entering the forest,” he tells us.

“The Bane of Essence,” Caspian, Gaster, and San all say at once.

“Yeah, the Bane of Essence, of course,” Draken says sarcastically, breaking the thick tension in the room. I can’t help but snort even though I don’t know what that is either.

“The Bane of Essence is rumored to be an elixir that poisons the creature attempting to feed from you. It makes your body put off a stench that the creatures should be able to smell and be repulsed by. It won’t kill them but does cause them to fall very ill. I say rumored because all the ingredients, supposedly, aren’t here in Elementra, but we also don’t know what the ingredients are,” San supplies.

There’s that walking library thing in action.

“Anything else?” Corentin asks Tillman.

“The hostages are being spread out between the nonmagical realm and here. In pocket dimensions or behind concealed structures,” he answers coldly.

The muttering of fuck echoes around the room as everyone lets that information sink in. It’s going to be nearly impossible to locate them in either scenario.

“What about you, little wanderer?” Draken asks after a long moment of rigid silence.

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