Page 95 of Of Scale and Blood

I wasn’t the only one. Kele looked bone weary, Hannity was shivering so badly her teeth chattered, and the two younger witches looked like death warmed up. Even the Prioress looked pale and gaunt.

Two guards met us on the other side of the gate and immediately escorted the Angolans away. I told Kele and Hannity to rest until I contacted them, then forced my feet on, crossing the courtyard to the palace. Men and women scurried about, preparing for the upcoming attack and the possible evac of noncombatants. I had no doubt there would be the same hive of activity happening across Esan’s many levels.

I made it up the palace’s outside and inside steps without collapsing, but I was barely moving by the time I reached my suite. It was only the desperate need to see my husband that kept me going.

I stumbled through the door, then closed it behind me and just stood there, my gaze sweeping the suite, searching for the man whose scent lingered. He wasn’t here but the supposed “test” circle was, and it was clearly pulsing and active.

It also looked nothing like the circle he’d encased Kaia and me in.

I forced my feet on, stumbling across the room until I hit the spell’s protective barrier. Energy rippled across its surface and stung my skin. I stepped back, shivering, wondering what in Vahree’s name this thing did.

I didn’t know, but I’d wager the Prioress did. If I’d had the energy, I would have stormed over to her guest room and demanded answers, even knowing the futility of doing so.

But I didn’t, so I stumbled over to the seating area, where Mom’s promised meal and shamoke awaited. After consuming enough of both to feed a drakkling, I stripped off, then stepped onto the bed platform and fell into bed, where I slept like the dead, undisturbed by dreams of doom.

And yet the awareness of its fast approach continued to pulse through me when I finally awoke.

For several minutes, I didn’t move. I didn’t even open my eyes. I just listened to the external noises of a palace going about its business. Nothing in those sounds suggested a problem, let alone an attack—and we were prepared for the latter—so why did the certainty of death keep growing?

Had the spells done something strange to my other strega skills? In taking away my ability to speak to all other animals, had it somehow strengthened by hereto unheralded seer skills? I wasn’t—and never would be—as powerful as Mom, even when her skills were playing hard to get, but it would at least explain the deep knot of wrongness growing in my gut.

What I didn’t hear, of course, was the background chatter of birds, coursers, and all the other animals that inhabited the palace and the skies. I hadn’t always acknowledged that chatter—hadn’t even been aware of it most of the time—but now that it was gone, it had left a huge well of silence that could not be ignored.

I pushed back the brief welling of... not regret, but certainly grief... for all that I’d lost and reached again for my flames. Once again, I hit that wall of pain. This time, though, I did at least feel some warmth behind it.

Whether the wall dividing me from it would ever fall was a question yet to be answered.

I also feel heat, came Kaia’s response.It deep in gut. Can’t reach.

The fact you can feel its presence has to be a good sign. I flicked off the bedcovers and swung my feet onto the floor. Damon remained nothing more than a spicy scent in the air, and the symbols he’d etched onto the floor continued to send warm shadows pulsing through the room.Did the knowledge on how to use it come through to you?

It strange. Your memories in mine. I see what you did, how you use.

All my memories?

Flame related.

Which made sense. By transferring that particular set, they were giving Kaia and the other drakkons a base on which they could more quickly learn the best way for them to deploy flame. How the witches had plucked those specific memories free, I had no idea, but it did at least explain why my brain still felt on fire, even if the overall body ache had drastically decreased.

How are Yara and Rua?

Yara feels heat, frustrated can’t use.

I frowned.And Rua? Is she okay?

Mind heated. Not sure.

Mind heated? I had no idea what that meant, but maybe the Prioress would.Is she lucid?

What lucid?

Talking clear in her mind.

Is young. Young not always lucid.

I smiled, even though concern flickered through me. If Rua wasn’t entirely lucid, did that mean Hannity wasn’t? She’d probably looked the worst of all of us last night.Warn them that when the fire does come through, they’ll need to practice somewhere where they can’t hurt anyone else. Either on wing or in the upper cavern.

Already up in cavern, waiting.

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