Page 90 of Magic Forsaken

“Very well, small one.” She looked down on me like the queen she was and offered me a regal nod. “I am willing to grant you the opportunity to live up to your words. I don’t know what one such as you can do to help me, but I am past judging my allies by their influence. Do what you promised, and all offenses will be wiped clean.”

Maybe not the wholesale forgiveness I’d hoped for, but I would take it.

Even if it meant I’d added one more name to the burdens I carried for the lost.

“Deal,” I said briefly. “And now, if Your Majesty would excuse me, I have an important meeting to attend.”

I tookthe stairs two at a time, in a hurry to get Angelica’s update and return to the reception where I could keep an eye on the strangely suspicious fae.

But when I reached the fifth floor office, opened the door, and took a cautious step inside, the room was dark. There was no light from the conference room, no murmur of voices. Had Heather told me the wrong place?

I took a quick step towards the wall and felt for the light switches. But as I did so, the door swung shut behind me with an ominous thud and a click as the lock engaged.

Instincts flared to life. I was back in the caves again—those dark, oppressive tunnels that hid so many silent dangers. A hot, angry surge of adrenaline shot all the way to my fingertips, and I dropped to the floor, wishing I’d chosen the black shirt instead of the white one. I would need to stay low.

Out of long habit, my breathing went shallow and slow. There was a walkway between the desks to my right, so I rolled that way before army-crawling towards the south wall. The opposite direction from the conference room. Once I had a solid surface at my back, I paused and listened. Waited for my senses to adjust while I strained to isolate any possible sound—the soft rasp of a sole against the carpet fibers, the brush of a fingertip over fabric, even the sound of lips parting to take a breath.

I was so focused on listening for even the smallest whispers, the voice from the darkness came as quite a shock.

“Hello, Raine.”

Male. Not young, not old. Quietly confident. Very much not Angelica. And weirdly familiar.

I didn’t answer, for obvious reasons.

“I’m sorry it’s come to this, but we’ve been unable to connect with you in more ordinary settings. Too many eyes and ears. And the conversation that must be had is one that others do not want you aware of.”

Connect with me? What was he talking about? And what had he done with Angelica? Perhaps under the circumstances it would have made sense to suspect her of setting me up, but after today… I didn’t. She might be stuck up and annoying about most things, but I’d seen her willingness to protect Ari, and I didn’t think she would betray me.

So who was this person and how had he gotten into the building?

“I understand that you’re wary, and I would be too under the circumstances. You’ve suffered a great deal, and been subjected to trauma that the people down at that reception cannot possibly imagine.”

I swallowed the surge of horror that threatened to choke me. Tried frantically to quiet the thudding of my heart. Who was this person?What did he know?

“You think you know why they’re all here,” the voice continued in a soft, reasonable tone. “You think you’re acting in support of a worthy cause—to protect the innocent and punish the guilty. But how much do you know about the true purpose of this Symposium?”

It was difficult not to squirm as I considered his question. Because the truth was, I still didn’t know much. Not the specifics. Even back when I’d first arrived, Kira had avoided the subject when I’d brought it up.

I knew we were here primarily because of the fallout from Elayara’s actions. Because she’d been kidnapping innocents and stealing their magic for herself, plotting to use it to gain power over humans and other Idrians alike. Callum had said he intended to stop it from ever happening again. That thereneeded to be laws to protect us from those like Elayara who used their power unscrupulously, but that those laws would require a consensus from all the courts in order to enforce them.

The courts had never managed to agree on much of anything, but he was hoping to convince them they needed to present a united front on this issue. That unless they could agree on laws and consequences, it would pose a danger to the safety of humanity and Idrians both, because there would be no way to keep such power in check.

That was all I knew, but it had seemed like enough.

“The truth is,” the voice went on, “while they do not yet know the full truth of what Elayara succeeded in doing, they know enough. They know humans were involved, and that… Well, it terrifies them to their souls.”

This couldn’t be happening.

Who was he, and how did he know this much?

“But not because of the potential for her research to be continued by their own kind. No, that part is a lie. What terrifies them is the prospect of humans finding out what Elayara’s research made possible.”

Only it wasn’t Elayara’s “research.” She’d only found a cruel use for the magic she discovered in someone else.

In my beautiful friend, Kes.

But his claims weren’t entirely wrong. If humans ever realized what had happened, I could only imagine their reaction.

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