Page 98 of Of Blood and Smoke

Kiam finally looked at my friend. “I may need a favor sometime. We’ve been over this before.”

I wasn’t sure what Micha was looking for, with his grilling of the man who’d come to help us.

“What did they send you?” I asked, standing up and stepping toward the desk.

“An enchantment for the wraiths.”

“Enchantment,” I repeated the word.

Kiam stood up and grabbed a sheet of paper from an ancient-looking printer. It stood out from everything else on his desk. He noticed my stare. “It's hard to find a good printer these days,” he muttered.

Micha stood when Kiam joined me in front of the desk. “Since you two are complete novices, I’ll have to explain some things to you. First of all, I can’t perform the spell for you. If you want the wraiths to respond to you, it must come fromyou. Your frequencies have to connect and a bond forms. When you read these words, absorb them, become one with them. It has to come from your heart—if you have one.”

Micha hissed at the taunt intended for me, but I ignored it. “This sounds similar to telepathy,” I said.

“It is, but heavily reliant on emotions. When you do this, it is going to drain your energy the likes of which you probably haven’t experienced in a while. You should’ve been trained in this, had years of schooling or tutelage. It would probably have been as easy as biting if you had.”

This didn’t sound that bad, loss of energy aside. “Focus my emotions, fine. I’ll get started.” I went to snatch the paper, but he held it out of reach.

“If they are waiting for you, as my intel reports, you have time to train,” Kiam warned.

I saw red. “Every moment she remains in the palace is a moment she could be lost forever.”

“Or you could guarantee her loss, by rushing in unprepared. They won’t do anything until you get there. You know as well as I how they operate, and it's you they want. She’s of no use to them dead.”

My hand shot out and I lifted him by the neck, a deep growl vibrating my chest. Kiam laughed. Helaughed.

“That’s the energy you need, don’t waste it,” he hissed, baring canines as sharp as needles.

Releasing him from my grasp, he tossed his head, shaking me off, and then stared at me. “They spelled you.”

“What?” I growled at the man.

Kiam took a step closer and then swung his head toward Micha. I braced myself to interfere if necessary. “I suspect they set an enchantment on the two of you at the offset of your training.”

He turned back toward me. “It would be stronger, on you. You’re favored. I bet it's implanted in your DNA. Did you ever drink from Ezra?”

The question threw me for a moment, a vague wisp of memory teasing at the edges of my mind. An image of myself wrapped in the Ancient’s arms flitted through my head, before a similar one of Micha in the same position, rolled away, just out of reach. A snapshot of my best friend fighting the man and clawing at his face startled me, and I glanced at him quickly. He caught my eye and then looked down, frowning. It appeared he’d remembered too.

What had they done to us?

Kiam nodded slowly. “This is why you have that infernal dedication to the High Court. Going against them is completely unnatural to you.”

“You dare to judge me? I did exactly what I was trained to do. Can you say the same for yourself?” I had no idea what his responsibilities were, but his insight made us even more vulnerable. His knowledge could be weaponized, if he desired.

Kiam smirked. “I’m not a slave.”

Micha spoke up the second I was ready to strike. “If the two of you are done comparing dicks, we need to prepare. Does your hospitality extend to dinner and more refreshments?”

FORTY-SIX

Josiah

It was a sobering moment, the minute I knelt in Kiam’s ritual chamber. We were preparing to perform the magic that would summon the wraiths so I could force them to do my bidding. The specter of everything that could’ve been loomed before me and now I was ready to claim my birthright.

No longer was I beholden to the Collective of Ancients or trapped under their psychological spell. I had broken free first by the mere awareness of it, and now by moving forward.

Hard to fight an invisible enemy.

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