Page 56 of A Legacy of Wrath and Reckoning

“Stay off the wine and you might be able to keep up,” Daizin told him, prizing Kej’s fingers from the bottle and placing it on the table.

“Zylah might be able to… dismantle certain magic and create new magic in its place,” Rin said, her attention fixed on Zylah.

Again, Zylah nodded, giving them all time to understand the implications. She’d had little opportunity to test it because of her connection to Holt, for fear of hurting him again, but for their protection against the vanquicite, the implications were… too good for her to believe it could be possible.

“You were still affected by the vanquicite, so maybe we can test this when you get back, Zylah? Strengthen your new skills,” Nye suggested, in a tone that was no doubt usually reserved for her soldiers. But Zylah knew practise would be the only way to figure out the limitations of her new magic, so she agreed.

A plan took shape, beginning with Kej and Daizin’s mission to steal a bow from one of the archers standing guard outside the palace. Zylah hated all the waiting, but at least she was doing something worthwhile, at least she wasn’t sat idle counting the minutes until the Iyofari riders arrived.

One by one, everyone left the tent, until only Ahrek and Okwata remained. Ahrek manoeuvred Okwata’s chair with precise movements, pausing when Okwata patted a hand over his.

“Bring back some venom if you can, Zylah.” Okwata gestured to her eyes, as if she’d forgotten his kind offer, as if it hadn’t been at the forefront of her thoughts every moment since. Another pat of his hand over Ahrek’s, and they left the tent without another word, leaving Zylah to her thoughts and the ever-tightening knot in her chest.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Afewhourslater,Zylah stood at the edge of the lake waiting for Enalla, Kopi in his spot on her shoulder. She hated that she had to leave him behind again, but taking him back to Ranon’s maze wasn’t an option.

“I’m sorry, buddy,” she told him quietly. “You’re fierce, but Rhaznia has both web and venom in her arsenal.”

Kopi’s little trill in response told her he’d understood, but her tiny friend didn’t leave. Zylah knew why, had felthispresence since he’d left the line of tents closer to the shelter of trees. Holt’s steps were silent, and though Zylah resisted the urge to walk towards him, she couldn’t help the smile that tugged at her mouth at the sight of him. But then she took in the sword strapped to his back—she’d seen him fight with two just as efficiently—the bag slung over one shoulder, and her smile faded. He was leaving.

Kopi didn’t have the same restraint; he flew towards Holt, a hand reaching out as if by memory to give the little owl a perching place.

“Traitor,” Zylah chuckled as Kopi nuzzled against Holt’s thumb.

“I wish I could say I remember you, too,” Holt said quietly, fussing over Kopi in his hands. The memory of his voice in her thoughts back in Virian had Zylah sucking in a breath, a hand pressed against her chest, and Holt’s eyes shot up to her face. He’d been pleading with her. Asking her to stop before she passed out from healing Nye, though she doubted he knewwhohe’d been pleading with.

Zylah swallowed back the lump in her throat. “Go, Kopi. I’ll be back soon.” She watched her friend fly away, watched Holt close the space between them and come to a stop a few steps away. She tilted her face up to his, taking in the slope of his nose, the cut of his jaw, the soft fan of his eyelashes when he closed his eyes for a moment as if he were trying to hold himself together just as much as she was. “You have every right to be angry with me,” she said quietly.

“Nye needed Enalla for another task. And since I’m too much of a liability in Virian, I’ll be joining you.” A muscle ticked in his jaw at that last part, and Zylah could have sworn she felt his disappointment at his predicament, but she couldn’t bring herself to match it, not if it meant he was staying. Not if it meant she got to spend time with him.

“Our magic is tied to each other’s,” she told him, because she couldn’t bear the thought of lying even by omission.

“I know.” He took another step closer, his warmth and his familiar scent washing over her, and Zylah had to shove her hands into her pockets to stop herself from reaching for him. “Iwasangry.” He swallowed. “But then I evanesced to you, saw you lying there in the street. And I was afraid.”

“And you didn’t understand how you could be afraid for someone you don’t know,” Zylah whispered, fingers twisting into the fabric of her cloak.

A nod. “Every day that passes away from that cell, from them, I feel stronger. Thanks to you. You saved my life, Zylah.”

“You’d have done the same for me.”

Holt studied her face, and Zylah wanted to soak up every moment of it. His brow pinched together, his eyes tracing over the cloth covering her eyes, her nose, lower. “What happened to us?”

Us. The word was like an arrowhead to the heart.I am yours. “Aurelia. But I can’t…” She looked away then, forgetting that he wouldn’t see the tears lining her eyes, that the cloth covered them and caught them as they fell.

“It’s like I’m burning,” he admitted, his voice strained. “Everywhere, from the inside out.” Holt clutched a hand to his chest, fingers grasping his shirt.

“I’m sorry,” Zylah rasped, watching the way his fingers curled into the fabric and wishing she could soothe him, to ease some of his pain.

“I’m not.” The words were firm, certain, and Zylah dared to look up at his face again, his eyes glassy and bright. “It reminds me I’m alive. That I’m not trapped in that cell, going out of my mind. You remind me of that.” Zylah couldn’t hide the choked sob that escaped her at that. “And I know I’m not in a position to ask you for anything…”

There is nothing I wouldn’t give you, she thought, and his eyes widened as Zylah realised she must have said it to him in the space that was just for them. But he didn’t back away this time, didn’t flinch. Only nodded to himself as if he’d made a decision.

“You said you can pull apart magic.” Another pinch of his brow. “Do you think you can unpick whatever it is Aurelia did to me?”

Zylah wanted to tear the cloth from her eyes. For him to be able to see the truth in hers. “Not without hurting you.”

“I’m well accustomed to pain.”

---