Page 35 of Wrath

He removed his glasses and rubbed at a crease between his eyebrows.

Quickly, I told them about the first trial, refusing to leave anything out. No one was happy when I explained the blistering pain that exploded within me whenever Bash used his magic. Killian, at one point, stood and leaned over the table so he could see me better—his gaze intent on my neck and wrists, which should’ve been littered with fresh bruises and lacerations.

“I have no idea if this means we passed or failed,” Bash cut in, his lips pursed. “We ended up back here, obviously, but?—”

“You passed.” The quiet confirmation came from Mali, who, up until then, had been silent, her head lowered. She glanced up at me then, absently brushing away a lank brown curl. “You definitely passed.”

“How do you know?” Bash tilted his head to the side curiously.

“Because a few days ago, hundreds and hundreds of mages arrived at our camp,” Davia answered, her voice unusually soft. “We thought we were under attack until an old, naked man stepped forward?—”

“Paco,” Bash groaned.

Bash’s grandfather—and the former king—had helped us before, when I was dying from a deadly poison. He was an eccentric old man. And by eccentric, I meant utterly insane.

“The mages said they were loyal to the new mage king and Liberator,” Devlin added, rubbing his palm across his jaw. “They claimed they received a vision from Lilith herself.”

Bash’s mouth dropped open, shock splaying across his handsome face.

“What?” He slammed both of his hands down on the table.

“We were understandably wary at first, but the mages have…” B struggled to find the right words. “They helped us.Placed enchantments around the camp to hide it from anyone who wishes to see us harmed. Created spells that the humans are capable of using in battle.”

“There’s still a lot of tension between the two groups,” Dair added. “But it almost feels as if something…changed.”

“And you think Lilith had a part to play in that change?” I asked, incredulous.

It was difficult to reconcile the woman I saw in Aaliyah’s vision with the one who seemed to be helping me. Butwasshe helping me? Or was this some kind of ruse I didn’t yet understand?

“It’s the only thing that makes sense.” Ryland placed his hand over mine on the table and gave it a squeeze. “You disappeared with Bash, completed the first trial, and suddenly, we have a bunch of mages swearing their loyalty to the once despised prince and a human.”

“And you trust them?” I asked again, unable to wrap my head around this new development.

My first thought—a product, I was sure, of years of being lied to and betrayed—was that this was a trap. That the oblivious humans had fallen right into the snare and were just waiting for the cage to drop and the hunter to appear.

“You don’t understand, Z.” B’s haggard face appeared even more wrinkled than before, limned in the flickering candlelight before him. Dark shadows marred the skin beneath both of his eyes. “They’vehelpedus.”

“You said that?—”

“They freed most of the humans in their territory,” Lupe interjected, effectively cutting off my protest.

The mages freed the humans?

“Of course, there are still mages who are resisting,” Dair added. “But they’ve been either rounded up or they chose to flee.”

A strange pounding had taken up residency in my head. I placed my hand to my forehead as if that could somehow stop it.

“I just don’t understand how an entire species’ opinion could change in a span of days,” I murmured, hope and disbelief clamoring inside of me, a corrosive mixture.

And hope, I had come to realize, was a jagged, rusted knife. It might not be sharp enough to slice efficiently, but it was capable of festering.

“I agree with Z,” Bash said.

Suspicion clung to his features, deepening the furrow between his brows.

“And that doesn’t explain where everyone currently is.” I dropped my hand from my face and leveled my gaze on Dair. “And why you are back in a wheelchair.”

Dair offered me a sheepish smile, one that didn’t reach his eyes, as a maelstrom of emotion whipped around in my chest.

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