Page 186 of The Iron Flower

“Elloren Gardner is no different from her brothers.” Fallon throws her brother an incensed glare. “She’sstaen’en.She consorts with every type of Evil One.”

“Fallon,” he says with cool reason, “it is widely thought that the Evil Ones are coming after Carnissa Gardner’s line because they are still thetrue bloodline. You will have a hard time convincing the Mage Council to mark the Black Witch’s own granddaughter asstaen’en.”

“Which is why Elloren Gardner needs to be disciplined. By us.”

Damion is well aware of one of the reasons why Fallon hates the Gardner girl.

Lukas Grey.

“Discipline her, then,” he idly comments. “You grow stronger every day. Soon, no one will doubt that you are the Black Witch of Prophecy.”

“There is no time.” Fallon’s eyes narrow. “We need to push that entire familyfirmlyunder our heel, starting with Elloren Gardner, and we need to do it soon.”

Before she’s fasted to Lukas Grey.

“How would you have me deal with the brothers?” Damion asks, skeptical. “They are likely under the protection of the Vu Trin and well on their way to the Noi lands.”

“I will take care of the brothers myself.”

Damion cocks a black brow. “The younger one is a Level Five Mage.”

Fallon sharpens her glare. Hoarfrost forms on every surface in the room, the frost like bunches of crystalline needles, everything now coated with white, the view across the plaza completely iced over. The temperature takes another alarming dip, and cold worms its way through Damion’s body.

Cold that hurts.

“Do you doubt me, Brother?” Fallon asks, her voice low.

Damion gives a short laugh and flexes his stinging fingers. “No, dear sister,” he says, glancing around appreciatively. “Beautifully done hoarfrost. How did you come to master it?”

“I’ve used my bedridden time well.” Fallon’s lips turn up in the trace of a smile. “And I know how we can crush Elloren Gardner—a way to destroy the littlestaen’enwhore and absorb Carnissa Gardner’s bloodline of power.”

Damion smirks at his sister as he tenses against the painful, full-body chill. “If you freeze me to death, Fallon, I won’t be of much use to you.”

Fallon considers this.

All the cold in the room abruptly withdraws, and the hoarfrost pulls away as the space warms once more. The blood rushes back into Damion’s arms and feet in a painful rush of tingling sparks, the view over the plaza restored.

Damion looks down just in time to see blue light exploding from three wand tips, engulfing the Icaral demon in a torrent of blue fire. The Mages step back as the Icaral collapses into a pile of smoking, charred flesh.

Damion turns back to his sister and matches her look of dark resolve. “So, tell me, Sister. How would you have me destroy Elloren Gardner?”

CHAPTER ONE

WINGS

I peer out the North Tower’s huge circular window, perched like Wynter so often is up here. My eyes scan the night-blackened field and the even darker forest beyond, searching for any sign of Cael and Rhys. The moon rides just above the jagged Northern Spine.

A gloomy silence has fallen heavily over Ariel and Wynter, the wait for Cael and Rhys’s return an agony. Ariel wears a grim mask of endurance that’s new. Her past hostility has shifted into a fierce protectiveness of Wynter, and there’s a growing strength to her. A filling in of her wings, the feathers glossing. Her fire slowly returning.

It’s the only heartening thing in an increasingly heartless Realm.

Unlike Ariel, Wynter seems crushed, listlessly curled up on her bed for hours at a time, as if her spirit has been irretrievably broken. I glance over to where Ariel is futilely trying to cajole her into eating something, but Wynter won’t move. My eyes meet Ariel’s, and I can see the same grave worry there that’s mounting in me.

* * *

Over the past few days, the University has slowly reopened under new Gardnerian leadership. Lucretia and Jules have both fled, their offices taken over by professors loyal to Vogel and the Holy Magedom.

Every evening, Tierney and I visit the newly reopened Gardnerian Archives and pore over theMage Council Motions & Rulingsby guttering lamplight.

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