Page 29 of The Storm of the Empire

I snapped around to look at her. “Long night? I thought you said these things only last a couple of hours?”

“They usually do, but sometimes…” She lifts her shoulders.

“And there’s nothing to be done except wait?” I was growing restless. Every moment we stayed here was another moment to get caught.

“Unless you want to risk losing yourself.”

“What does that mean? You said there are some who have to be out. How do they survive if it’s that dangerous?”

“Those fae train for years to guard themselves against the ill effects of the storms.”

“I thought you said the people here are protected because they are born of the land with the magic?”

“Protected, yes. Completely immune, no. The storms are still volatile and dangerous. The winds alone carry as much force as a tornado, and a single bolt of lighting can flay the skin off a fae. But at least it doesn’t strip us from ourselves.”

“You keep saying that. What does it mean?”

“Do you really not know?”

I shook my head. “No.”

“How do you seem to know so little and yet so much?”

Something tells me to be honest. “I grew up in the Fringe. Zaria and I both did. We were sheltered from a lot of this world, including magic.”

“I’d heard as much from Zaria, but I still have trouble wrapping my head around such an existence. You really had no magic?” she said in disbelief.

“None. We were never shown its existence, and any whisper of such a thing was quickly quashed. We were told the Uriel created illusions to draw followers but that such nonsense would take us away from the Goddess.”

“How can that be possible when you seem so worldly at the same time?”

I shift in my seat. “I’ve lived a lot of life since my village was destroyed.” And more than one life it felt like at times.

“I might believe that.” Her annoyance seemed to have lessened some. Maybe being open was the path I needed to connect with her.

“The village I lived in grew Dragon’s Bane. I didn’t know it was that. We called it the sacred herb, but that’s what it was, and there is a sect in the priests we sold it to. I don’t know why. We were told they used it in their worship, but I don’t think that can be. Nyx has tasked me with finding out what’s going on.”

I didn’t dare tell her about the eggs. The bane was bad enough. Not before I knew what I was dealing with, or reported it to Nyx and Jaxus.

“Excuse me? You mean me to believe priests are involved in that nasty business.”

I locked my gaze on hers, everything in my chest pushing me to share this with her. “I don’t know if it’s the priests or a group pretending to be priests. What I know is there is a trade of bane in the kingdom and knowingly or not, the priests are part of its distribution.”

“Why should I trust you?”

“Because I have seen it with my own eyes.”

ELEVEN

HAZEL

My ears rang. What he said couldn’t be true…could it?

I knew not all kingdoms held the Goddess in such high esteem anymore, but in the Storm Kingdom, we knew we were made of the Goddess’ magic, and we saw her work every day in our storms. How could those tasked with her honor be doing the work of Uriel?

Luka stood and came to me. Crouching before me, he took my hand, and I didn’t have the capacity to draw it back while my head swam with doubt.

“I know it’s a lot to digest,” he said softly, “and I don’t have all the answers, but I know what I have seen, and I suspect it goes deeper still. Nyx trusts me to unravel this, and I won’t let him down. I’m here to see what I can find out about who is involved and where it leads.”

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