Page 110 of Magic Forsaken

Pain radiated back at me from Callum’s gaze—whether from sympathy or betrayal I couldn’t tell—but I refused to flinch.

“When magic enters your body for the first time and carves out its place and its pathways, it hurts. It hurts so much more than you can possibly imagine. And she tried over and over again.”

With Ari and Logan, she’d succeeded only one of those times. With me? It was four.

“Some of the subjects, like Blake, failed every test, but she didn’t let them go. So they learned other ways to be useful.”

I should have known what had happened when Draven said they’d found almost no artifacts. I’d seen the stockpiles of coins, medallions, gems, and the like—boxes and crates filled with unimaginable power, waiting for the moment Elayara decided it was time to go to war. She’d never used them, so where had they disappeared to?

“In Blake’s case? He learned to use stolen magic.”

I heard a chuckle from Blake and turned back to face the stage. I couldn’t keep looking at Callum now that he knew thetruth about my magic—about who I truly was. I’d never actually lied to him, but I knew he wouldn’t see it that way.

And I’d finally figured out Blake’s game. “You took her research, didn’t you? All of her artifacts, all of her plans. And then you continued it. Found a way to neutralize more than just shifters. Realized you had the power, not just for revenge, but for so much more.”

I hadn’t been able to stop wondering why he’d stuck around. Why he was here, why he cared so much, when there was nothing tying him to the past. He could have walked away. So why didn’t he?

Not to protect the other victims.

He’d gotten a taste of power. He’d always been good at getting others to listen. Even back at the compound, he’d helped with calming down the other prisoners. Convincing them to wait, to stay alive, not to fight their fae captors. I’d once believed it was an act of mercy. There was no way we could have escaped or beaten them anyway.

But Heather was the clue.

Heather, who was unable to shift. Who had always been terrified around Callum. Who rarely looked anyone in the eye.

It wasn’t the fae my magic had been trying to warn me about the night of the reception—Heather had been standing right behind me. And then she vanished, because her job was done and she’d earned her reward.

Blake had promised her the power to shift, using stolen magic.

It was all he’d ever wanted—the ability to continue using that stolen magic without scrutiny or repercussions.

And if he could circumvent the laws against it?

All he needed was a sustainable source of power. And if he managed to contain every one of the Idrians in this room? He would have it.

He was only missing one piece… One vital ingredient to complete his master plan…

Kes.

Without her, it was all useless. The only other person who’d ever learned to mimic her power was Elayara, and she was dead.

I couldn’t let him see my fear. Couldn’t give him the slightest hint that I knew. So I had to redirect. Had to make sure no one mentioned that I hadn’t come to the city alone.

And I had to prevent Blake from getting his hands on any of the Idrian delegates.

I needed to buy more time. I could really use a villain monologue right about now, but Blake didn’t seem inclined to giving speeches. Which meant the monologuing might be up to me.

“You know the real beauty of this plan?” I stepped out again and began a slow circuit of the room, passing by each table, glancing at Blake’s frozen victims as I did so. Hoping for signs that at least a few of them were fighting the effects of whatever they’d been given. “You Idrians might have made laws against the use and possession of stolen magic, but you can’t even enforce them against this enemy. Your legal jurisdiction doesn’t extend to humans.”

The irony here was brutal, but undeniable. They could enforce their laws against me and the kids, because by human law, anyone who possessed innate magic was classified as an Idrian citizen. But they couldn’t touch Blake without explaining themselves to the human legal system, and there was no way a story like this could be kept a secret. The human population at large would find out it was possible for them to wield magic without consequences. And if the Idrians simply attempted to take down Blake’s people without consulting human law enforcement, the humans would assume Idrians were attacking them for no reason. We had no way of proving what Blake andhis people had done, so either way, it was likely to start the kind of war that could end all peace between us for generations.

And that… might be exactly what Blake wanted.

I looked up at him and tilted my head. “You never wanted to stop this Symposium, did you? You wanted the courts eyeing each other. You wanted them watching for threats. You wanted them looking everywhere but at the harmless humans serving their drinks and taking away their plates.”

He didn’t care about the laws. He’d never cared.

But he’d always been good at reading people. And he’d probably guessed that the harder he pushed, the harder he tried to stop it, the more determined Callum would be that the Symposiumwouldtake place. Bringing every one of the Idrian leaders into this one room, where they could be captured at the same time.

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