Page 148 of Last Gift: Supernatural Battle

“No point pacing up the room,” I announced to no one. “Let’s see what you puppies can do.”

The relics dutifully awaited my magic.

I leaned down and picked up the dagger, sliding it free of the sheath gifted to me by Rooke. Opening my magic, I directed power down my battle affinity and into the dagger.

Black smoke exploded in my mind’s eye—and in the holding cell. “Whoa,” I whispered.

The black smoke churned as if trying to tell me something, but whatever it was, I wasn’t cool enough to figure it out yet.

I kept the flow of magic going into the dagger at a steady rate, then poured power down my grimoire affinity into the warm robe covering my body.

A grunt was forced from me, and my knees buckled, hitting the ground in the next instant as an impossible lattice webbed through my head. A ninja spy seeking to steal the crown jewels would find the lattice impossible to navigate, and the red webbing was as impossible to decipher as the black battle smoke.

The smoke picked at the lattice, however, much as a lute player may pluck at the strings of their instrument. I watched the red lattice ripple for a time. It didn’t otherwise react.

Nope. I had nothing.

The coven has elected representatives to sit down with the supernaturals, Wild said.

I barely heard him but managed to hum in reply.

They only let me join them because the rulers demanded it. They seem willing to listen, but they’re wary of the mood in the caves.

He broke off communication again, and I honestly couldn’t care less about the entire state of the coven right now.

My magic was in control and driving me somewhere.

The heavy pendant around my neck was next. I directed apothecary magic into it, and sucked in a harsh breath as a soothing white wave ricocheted out of me and into the void that was filled with the black smoke and red lattice. The wave was a calming force. The heat flushing my cheeks was kissed away, and the aches in me eased.

My mind cleared, and I saw that the black smoke no longer plucked at the red lattice. The white apothecary magic was soothing both of the other affinities and binding them together.

I blinked at the occurrence within me. What the hell?

Once my magic channeled through the pendant had done its work, all was still in my mind. The red grimoire lattice was wrapped in battle smoke, and that was all bound in apothecary.

As always, I seemed to turn to divination last.

The difference now was that one day this would change. I knew it.

I poured power down the divination affinity and into the gem in my other hand. The gem warmed.

Otherwise, the entire world and everyone in it, including me, froze solid.

My mind was seized in a vise as an explosion took place in there that I couldn’t hope to track. The rapid roll and unfurling there belonged to forces beyond me. To these relics. To what Ryzika had been.

To the Mother.

I could only remain frozen. Even as I felt Wild freeze and his thoughts lock down as my own had done. We were being gripped and held far more securely than this prison cell had ever done. There was no hope of escape for us from this.

The only way this could end was by the mercy of the magic within me.

39

I opened my eyes and turned my head.

Wild was on the bed next to me. We were in our temporary room. I’d been moved by Sven and Rooke while Corey and Huxley had moved Wild in here from the eating chamber where he’d collapsed in near-tandem with myself three days ago.

How did I know this?

---