Page 73 of Fated or Knot

Kauz pulled away first, though he didn’t go far, resting his forehead on mine. “Can you trust me to go a little further with one more thing?” he asked in a low voice. “You can’t watch what we’re about to do with your foot.”

“You’re not going to take it off, are you?” I asked with a jolt of fear.

His eyes widened in horror. “No! Most certainly not. It’s just…” He shrugged helplessly. “We’ll use my cloak’s hood. You could lift it if you feel unsafe, though Ireallydon’t suggest it.”

I nodded. That didn’t sound so bad, though what in the stars was this all about?

The snap of Thalas’s wings warned us of his arrival, though Kauz barely stirred until I heard boots land on the floor. His father glanced between us, his eyes creasing at the corners. “Are we ready to begin?” he asked.

Kauz reached behind me and pulled the hood of his cloak free, lowering it over my face until all I saw was its fuzzy lining. This was fine. I could do this.

Probably.

“Let me lift it,” he said. Lift…what? Implements and tools clinked together as they were brushed out of the way. One of them took hold of my right leg and unlaced my shoe, working it carefully off my foot. It was impossible to remove it without hurting me a little, but it could’ve been much worse. A warm hand wrapped around my heel, offsetting the chill in the air.

The next thing I knew, a truly vile smell hit me straight in the nose. I gagged and pinched my nostrils closed, but it was too late. The stink, like rotten eggs and mold, was so strong I could practically taste it.

“Olcanus,” Thalas said grimly.

Kauz hushed him, though I wasn’t sure why. I didn’t know what that Serian word meant.

“I will keep this lifted. Go,” Thalas added.

More items were moved around, and someone took my hand, dangling it off the chair’s armrest. “I’m tying our wrists together, just in case,” Kauz told me. He laced his fingers with mine before he ran smooth leather around my wrist and a buckle clinked, synching us together tightly.

“Just in case of what?” I murmured, not expecting an answer. My hand trembled in his, even with the way he pressed his thumb in soothing circles over the skin between my thumb and forefinger.

Tingles ran over my palm, and the starry glow of his essence limned the side of the hood over my face. The fleeting, wonderful smell of Always pushed out the molding egg stink from my head. I relaxed as his magic started to weave into mine; his raw power pushed into my body in a trickle to wet the dried riverbeds of my essence channels.

“We’re ready, Father,” he said.

Kauz squeezed, pressing our palms together as tightly as possible. In the next moment, there was aclinklike a key turning in a lock, followed by a metallic rattle.

Dozens of pain points erupted around my foot and ankle, but what felt worse was the draining sensation of my essence gushing out of me in the wake of what Thalas had done. I wavered at the edge of consciousness, gray oblivion leaching through the corners of my vision while he cursed viciously in Serian.

Kauz poured his essence into me through our connected palms. The trickle became a flood, our laced hands like a lifeline as everything I wasshattered.

I felt the change top to bottom, my body mutating while I jerked and screamed. I thrashed, immediately feral from whatever was happening, clawing and screeching like a wild thing. I tried to fight, but all I ended up doing was kicking out at Thalas.

The king locked one of his arms around my knee, holding with bruising force. He pressed a finger into each individual hole in and around my ankle and twisted. At least, I thought that’s what he had to be doing, as they burned once he moved on to the next one. I hissed and tried to jerk away, but his grip was unforgiving.

“It’s okay, Lark. It’s going to be okay,” Kauz was saying, trying to call me back. I could barely hear him. In fact, the sudden burst of sensations was dying off and…

I was weightless. Free. Cut adrift from my body, my mind flexed mental muscles I’d long forgotten it had.

Whatever this was, it wasn’t pain. It wasbliss.

“Lark, stop!” Kauz shouted.

The hood lifted from over my eyes. I was floating in a cloud of little gadgets and objects. The table followed suit, though its battered surface flickered with uncontrolled illusion magic. Confused colors and patterns fought to dominate it while it slowly tipped on its side. Was this my doing? I watched it happening with detached awe.

“She’s using up too much essence,” Thalas said urgently. “Knock her out.”

I turned my head. My body was tethered by two forces. Thalas, who had my ankle wrapped in his essence, like a black scarf threaded with silver stars, and Kauz, who tugged me downward toward him by our entwined hands.

His thumb landed in the middle of my forehead and left a glittering trail down my nose and over my parted lips. I dropped into sleep with the same lack of grace as all the tools that smashed to the floor with sudden gravity, followed by the table landing face down on top of them.

23

---