Page 17 of Oath-Maker

“Things have changed,” I managed slowly. “The Order has been tainted.”

The shortest paladin, a young man who couldn’t have been older than seventeen, drew his sword through the air. “Yes, by your reputation and fate. The Guardian has returned to us to save us.”

“Ayla,” Jessa warned, as if she could sense something I hadn’t yet picked up on. One of them must have been emanating a lot of internal pain—pain no doubt quickly turning to anger.

“We’re not going to fight you,” I said to the paladins before waving the demons along behind my guard contingent. They followed the command and took off toward the city once they were a safe distance away. “We also don’t have to get along. But you do need to mind the city line today. Go home. Or at least, go back to that tear in the Veil.”

As if on cue, a crackle of energy emanated from the tear. It sent me on edge. What other resources did Merek—the Guardian—have at his disposal that might come through there?

And then, belatedly, I wondered… could they make a new tear back to the Old World the demons and celestials had come from to begin with? What horrors awaited there?

I steeled myself against the fresh horror sweeping through me. I’d question Lucius about this possibility tonight, and to get an idea of what might lie beyond that Merek could use against us. For now, I needed these paladins gone. “Leave. Now. You will not get a second warning.”

I didn’t want to follow through with the threat. And perhaps the paladins knew this. But they turned on their heels and left with nothing more than sneers and some harsh words about a leader turned traitor.

“Ignore them,” Jessa said. “They don’t know better.”

“They do,” I said, nodding as my gaze remained locked on to the tear in the Veil. “They just refuse to act accordingly.”

Another crackle of energy sifted from the tear. I shivered. The hair on my arms and neck stood on end. Over the next minute, three more crackles sifted through the air.

What are you planning, Merek?

And what was about to come through this portal when I refused to go with him this morning?

CHAPTER8

“What happened?” Lucius asked as he hurried toward me. “I could see the fighting at the border from here.”

I closed the door to his chambers behind me, locking the guards outside and the two of us in here to strategize. Jessa had left to find Ian on the way. “Nothing too dire. A bit of damage.”

“Ayla,” Lucius prodded with a brewing temper. I hadn’t seen him quite like this—at least when directed at me—since before our first night together.

“Glad to see you’re feeling better,” I said sarcastically as I made my way to him.

Lucius grabbed me by the waist and held my face with one hand. “What happened?”

“A group of paladins got a little overzealous,” I replied, meeting his hard gaze—the same one that’d met me in the throne room days ago and had colored his expression as he’d ordered my death. I brushed a finger over his lips, which forced his body to finally relax. “It’s been taken care of.”

Lucius lifted my fingers from his mouth. “They need to respect the rules of engagement.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Now, now, ifwe’d done that, you and I wouldn’t have met.”

That finally gave him pause. He sighed. “With the Guardian’s promise and a messenger’s imminent presence, this is not the time to be flirting with attacks—fromeitherside.”

“I can try having Ian send the Order a message,” I suggested before kissing his forehead and then his lips. “In a way, the skirmish was a good thing.”

“How are paladins threatening and injuring our people a good thing, Ayla?” Lucius asked, as if he really couldn’t see past the surface of this event. Wasn’t he the one who was supposed to have magic that originated in potentiality? Was it so hard to believe that this might’ve been a good thing?

I wrapped my arms around Lucius’s neck and smiled up at him. “It means the Guardian doesn’t have much control over the Order—at least, not as much as he’d have us believe. If he did, those paladins wouldn’t have fought at the border. There was to be no more fighting until after our decision.”

Lucius held me at my waist with both hands now, but with a firm enough grip that I thought he’d never let go. “There’s no decision to make. You’re not going to the Guardian. You’re mine, and this city is ours.”

I nodded but couldn’t help not meeting Lucius’s gaze. “I know.”

My hesitation didn’t go unnoticed. “Ayla? You’renotgoing with them to the Order.”

Finally, I found the strength to look into my mate’s dark eyes, now stormy with uncertainty. “You’re fine now, thanks to that flower, Lucius. But its effects will wear off. And then you’ll…” I shook my head and pulled in a breath. “I need you to live, Lucius. Alastia needsbothof us. And then there’s this prophecy…”

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