Page 33 of Darkness and Deceit
“That’s not what I...” I start, then sigh and shake my head. Of course he missed the joke. Why did I even bother?
All this light makes me uneasy. I’m used to shadows. They hide me. Protect me. This much visibility? It feels like being peeled open.
I glance at him. “Are you sure it’s a good idea for you to be here? I feel like we’re a lighthouse out at sea drawing in the ships right now.”
“If you want to stay under the radar, silence helps,” he replies. Then continues, “Magnus cannot see this light. Not ifhe has fallen fully into darkness. The fact thatyousee it is... promising.”
Up ahead, beyond his glow, a gash of pure shadow cuts across the forest like a wound. A rift. The trees there are twisted. Blackened. The light doesn’t reach them. Not even his.
It stretches like a fault line—a scar running deep into the island.
Augustus slows. “You see it too,” he says, and it’s not a question.
“What is it?” I breathe.
“This is where the Balance is weakest. The Keepers believe Magnus left a mark when he crossed the line.”
“So why isn’t this place warded?” I ask. “Or, I don’t know, guarded?”
Augustus doesn’t answer right away. His eyes track the twisted trees. “Because there was no sign of instability. Not until recently.”
My brow furrows in confusion. “What changed?”
He’s quiet for a beat too long. “We are not certain. But the running theory is…” His gaze flicks to me. “You.”
My stomach knots. “Me?”
“Duals shape the Balance in ways we don’t fully understand,” he says. “Your presence may have tipped the scales.”
My skin crawls.
And then it clicks.
“Oh. This was all a test. Wasn’t it? To see your light? And to see if I could seethis?” I ask, nodding toward the unnatural dark ahead—the place even his glow seems to hesitate touching.
“Yes,” Augustus says plainly. “And the fact that you can... doesn’t hurt.”
My hands curl into fists. They’re still testing me. Still treating me like a variable instead of a person.
“I don’t get it,” I say as we move deeper. “Why even send me if you don’t trust me? Why give me this mission?”
He doesn’t respond.
“I’m just bait,” I press. “ We both are.”
He stops sharply. “Silence,” he says. “Now is not the time.”
“I don’t need silence,” I fire back. “I can feel him. Magnus. Or at least Iusuallycan. But right now?—”
I pause. Something brushes my mind. A whisper. A thread. A flicker of magic, faint but insistent. It pulls at something buried deep inside me, something familiar. Like the echo. I follow it without hesitation.
“Lilith,” Augustus calls softly.
I don’t stop. The trail is fading. I push harder. Deeper. His glow flickers behind me, illuminating the gnarled trees.
Finally, I reach a clearing. The ground is completely charred. There’s nothing but ash where grass should be.
“This is where it led me,” I murmur.
