Page 103 of A Legacy of Poison and Lies

“We should arrive before dark,” Holt said as he tossed Zylah a brin fruit. “Rin and Kej will be waiting for us. Nye and Daizin, too, depending on how fast her scouts could get them there.”

“And the soldiers?” Zylah inspected the fruit and polished it against her tunic before taking a bite.

“Tomorrow morning. It’ll give me some time to send updates to your brother, and to Rose and Saphi.”

Zack. She hadn’t let herself believe she might see him again. But now, it was a very real possibility.

Rose and Saphi, too, though she wasn’t sure how she felt about the former. “Do you think she knew about Raif?”

Holt’s brow pinched together. “I don’t know. I don’t think so. She was devastated. Although I don’t know what’s worse.”

His death, or that he was a vampire now, like Jesper. And his father had been the one to give Jesper the order to turn Raif.

All this time Zylah had punished herself, and it had been Marcus who had been manipulating everything from the beginning.

But she knew she had to steer the conversation carefully to work around the compulsion. “We need to take Jesper out of the equation. Can you do that?”

Holt’s knuckles brushed down her arm, a silent thank you for tiptoeing around the restraints placed on him. “I can’t harm Marcus, but when I think about Jesper, there’s no such command in place.”

Zylah understood. So typical of Marcus not to bother offering Jesper the same protection he’d been afforded by the compulsion. “How long has this been going on?” But before he could answer, she said, “It started with Adina, didn’t it? You tried to protect her from him.”

“Tried,” he said quietly. “He used her against me.”

“And what if Raif told Marcus about us?”

Holt’s eyes searched hers. “All I know is that the moment Marcus knows, he won’t hesitate to use it against us.”

“To useusagainst each other?”

A soft brush of confirmation down the bond. “The well is bigger now, Zylah. We stand a much greater chance of fighting back.”

Because they could share the pool of their magic, now that they were bonded. “I can’t do anything on the scale that you can.”

“I don’t think we’ve seen the half of what you can do.” He tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear as his eyes searched hers, thumb brushing her cheek, and she felt the truth of what he was saying. Had only just started to understand that there was more to her abilities, more to the little glimpses of magic she’d witnessed herself performing.

Zylah blew out a breath, unwilling to voice her next question but knowing it needed to be done. “What about Raif? Are we going to give him a second chance?” The words left an acid taste on her tongue, and she swallowed it down.

Holt’s hand stilled. “Do you want to?”

Part of her, a really big part of her, wanted to hurt Raif. To make him suffer for what he’d done. What he’d put them through. But then she remembered Rose collapsing in her arms when they thought Raif had died. Remembered Saphi’s words about Raif back in Virian.He has a good heart. Maybe he did, maybe he’d been compelled to behave the way he had. Maybe not.

She studied Holt’s expression, knowing all it would take for him to rip Raif’s throat out the next time they saw him would be one word from her, one hint of icy rage down their bond. But beyond Holt’s blinding wrath, she felt a flicker of hope, a seed of faith that the version of Raif they’d once known was still in there somewhere. And it was all she needed to offer Holt her answer. “One chance, but not if it puts either of us at risk.”

Holt nodded. Held a hand out for hers and evanesced them both to their first location.

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Theminewaslocatedjust south of Virian, built at the base of a waterfall at the foot of the Rinian mountain range. Though it was dark when they arrived, moonlight lit up the shore of the lake beneath the cascade, great wooden structures spanning from its base, the sound of turning cogs and metal pulleys carrying to them across the water.

“They’re using the waterfall to power the pulley system,” Zylah murmured, eyes narrowed on the small carts that tipped soil into the lake, then circled back around, disappearing back into the rock, down into the mine.

Carts were being filled by humans, even at this hour, all because of Marcus.

“We’ll get them out,” Holt said quietly beside her, his breath clouding in the air.

But they still hadn’t figured out how they were going to get into the mine.

So far, the only one of them that could enter without being affected by the vanquicite was Zylah, and even she wasn’t certain she’d survive an entire mine full of it, tolerance or not.

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