Page 107 of The Rebel Seer

“What happened?” a deep voice asked.

He turned and Daniel was there, his face ashen. His shoulders were slumped like he was tired beyond measure. “My king, where have you been? You didn’t come to Bibi’s last night.”

Bibi had promised she took the king to the queen’s chamber and that he would be safe there until morning.

“It was a bit crowded. I stayed in another room until I took a meeting this morning. Where is Dev and what the fuck happened to Neil?” The king stood in front of the mirror. “How do we get in? He’s alive but he won’t be for long. That’s silver, and we don’t know what kind of spells Myrddin worked. Something big from the looks of it.”

“I suspect Myrddin took Devinshea, and it looks like Neil tried to defend him. He was probably angry that Ostara got away,” Sasha explained. He hadn’t seen anyone moving. He would be able to tell better if they were alone once he was in the room. The wall cut off his senses. It was time to get in, get that spear out of Neil, and figure out what the hell had happened. He pressed the door open. “Stay behind me.”

Ostara rushed past him. It was fitting. Marta never listened to him, either. If she thought she could help, she would risk everything.

She moved before the werewolf, looking at the place where the spear entered his body. “He could bleed if we take it out. He’s already lost a lot of blood.”

“Oh, he’ll bleed.” Sasha looked back to Daniel, who was trying to get his sleeve rolled up. What had happened to the king? “But I’ll handle it. Vampire blood can heal a lot of damage, and he’s a werewolf. It’s only the silver that’s holding him back. Once we take it out, he’ll begin to heal.” Unlike a custom bullet, which would leak silver into Neil’s bloodstream, the spear simply held him there, kept him in a state where he couldn’t heal. Myrddin hadn’t pierced the heart, so Neil was alive. Sasha would bet Myrddin thought he had. “Why don’t you see if you can help my king? Do you have any energy left?”

She stood and nodded. “Yes, after last night I have a bounty. It will not harm me or make me weak to share some with your king. The energy is still pulsing through, and I feel it out here even more.”

“We’re going to fix you, my friend.” Daniel studied Neil as he spoke. “I got hit with something a few hours ago. Something new. I’ve felt weak the entire time I’ve been on this plane, but this… It had to be a spell of some kind, probably something to do with that wicked altar. I don’t think it was particularly meant for me, but it took all my energy. I wasn’t behind the wards. I was meeting with some of the guards. The ones who want to join the rebels now that they’re out from under the spells used on them. In the middle of the meeting, I felt this wave, and then I could barely move. I forced myself to go to the tunnels, to get back to base, but I saw you come in here.”

Neil’s eyes opened, weariness and pain plain in his expression. “It was Myrddin. He’s moving into end game. He said he can’t wait any longer because he thinks Zoey is going to screw everything up, and now he believes he can use her to get to Bris and avoid the whole soul-peeling thing. I don’t know how, but he believes it. He’s going after Shy, too. He thinks he can use her to put Arawn in a bad position and keep him and the other ascended gods out of the war. Daniel, I think he went to Hell last night and something happened.”

Daniel nodded. “Well, we knew he was meeting Lucifer. I would bet he went to get some advice. Lucifer might be interested in Shy as well if she’s as powerful as we think she is. Do we know where he took Dev?”

Tears slipped from Neil’s eyes. “I don’t know. Daniel…he took Dev but only after he… Goddess, I can’t even say it.”

There was so much blood. Could it all be Neil’s?

Daniel managed to lose more color. “What? What, Neil? What happened to Devinshea? We were supposed to have more time. After last night, Dev should be strong. He should have been able to fight Myrddin off after soaking in Rhys’s magic.”

Sasha braced himself. If Devinshea was dead, the king would never forgive himself. Sasha would never forgive himself. He’d left Dev here.

“He couldn’t do magic. Myrddin blindsided him with a spell. I didn’t see all of it. I just know by the time I was aware, Dev was immobile and… I can’t. I’ll never get the sight out of my head. He worked a dark spell. He wanted to locate where Shy was. He pulled death magic. It’s what you felt, but he needed dead magical flesh to do it. Daniel, he cut off Dev’s hands,” Neil managed, though he was having trouble breathing.

Sasha felt his gut turn. He’d done this. He’d left the high priest, and he was in bed with his wife while Dev had been…

“So he can’t do magic.” Daniel looked like he was going to be sick. “Dev isn’t fully Fae. He’s half human. He can’t control magic with his mind. Not even with Bris. He doesn’t need much more than a few finger movements, but he has to use them. Myrddin took his magic. He might have cut him off from Bris. Goddess, he’s alone and completely at Myrddin’s mercy.”

“He saved me, King Daniel. Please allow me to give something back to you.” Ostara was in control of the body, and she was obviously going to stay calm. “I suspect the spell the wizard used to find Shy sucked up all the death magic in the area.”

Daniel put a hand on his heart. “I think you’re right. I’ve felt this way once before when Arawn fed off me. He did it in small doses, and then all at once when he was in danger.”

Ostara nodded. “I can feel the remanent. The wizard figured out a way to take your magic, too, though I think he was probably trying for someone else. He was likely trying to drain Shahidi. It won’t work. Shahidi isn’t death magic, per se, though he might be able to find her by using it.”

“She’s in the temple,” Daniel said with a sigh. “She’s safe. Let’s get Neil healed up first, and then we’ll make our way there. Or rather you will. I’m going to extract my wife. If Dev isn’t down here, there’s zero reason to keep her in play.”

“It’s not going to work.” Sasha stood beside Neil and put a hand on the spear. He couldn’t heal with that silver splitting his body. “Shy and Rhys were going to allow this plane’s version of Lee to take them up to the mountains. She should be either in the tunnels or at Lee’s village by now. I’m sorry, Neil. This is going to hurt.”

Neil’s head shook. “Nothing can hurt more than watching Dev… Nothing. I tried to stop it.”

Of course he did. “It’s not your fault. This is Myrddin’s.”

And so was what he did next. He pulled the silver spear from Neil’s body, watching blood spurt from the wound as he caught the werewolf with his free hand. He tossed the spear away and bit into his own wrist and put it to Neil’s mouth, cradling him. It had been a long time since the wolf had any blood. His husband’s and Daniel’s would have been best, but the king was in a bad way. The only reason Sasha wasn’t was because he’d been inside the wards when the wizard unleashed his powerful magic.

Neil drank for a full minute, and Sasha heard the sizzle of Ostara’s magic as she gave Daniel some of her unique energy. It was very close to Rhys’s, which came straight from his father. Daniel had fed on Devinshea’s magic for years. This was what he needed. This would give him a major boost, though he would need to feed from his companion to be back at any kind of power.

“The fucker used Dev to create the spell. I wasn’t expecting it. I was asleep in the watch room.” Guilt coated Neil’s confession. “I was planning to wake up and get Dev back in his torture gear before they showed up, but they returned long before dawn.”

How long had Neil been hanging there?

---