Page 7 of A Baron of Bonds
Rev
I walked into chaos.
Pompeii was shouting at Moira, who was desperately attempting to open the heavy doors to Felgren. Clairannia and Figuerah were speaking hurriedly to the channelers, and Lia, our resident cook, was pacing in front of the dining hall doors, wringing her hands on her apron.
“Where is she?”
At the tone of my voice that vibrated off the stone hall, everyone turned and one look from Pompeii had me riddled with fear.
He stepped forward and placed a hand on my shoulder. “We don’t know. She has not returned since this morning.”
“She was supposed to meet me and Lia to bake cinnamon buns before lunch.” Moira stopped her attempt to open doors of wood and iron and flew in circles around our heads. “When I came to the kitchens, Lia had not seen her since breakfast.”
“Fuck.” It was all I could say as I brushed Pompeii’s hand from my shoulder, throwing open the doors and doing my best to subdue utter panic.
“Parvus and Rauca are missing, too!” Figuerah shouted behind me as she and Clairannia followed while Moira racedahead. “We were just at the den with the channelers—there was no sign of them.” She placed two fingers in her mouth and a high-pitched whistle pierced through the downpour of rain.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
Karus must be hurt. She must be unable to get back to the Fortress or send the lumens ahead of her. She wouldn’t leave willingly—that I knew.
Figuerah’s call and iumenta magic had three lumens racing toward us. We had no time for saddles. We had no time to waste.
I pulled myself onto a lumen, pure black, with eyes glinting silver in the gray light. “Moira, lead us to the field you and Karus explored yesterday. She mentioned a field of clover.”
With the faerie ahead and two conduits behind, we raced through the trees, each of us fearing the worst.
Chapter 7
Karus
Sitting on Parvus’s back,the dim glow of my green light pulsed to my heartbeat. My orb of magic was steady, strong, and pounded eerily to the rhythm of the Blight’s roots around us.
The tunnel I had entered an hour ago was lined with these roots, and I understood then just how deep the parasitic growth ran. The Blight had been gone from the field of clover above, but its roots had never receded.
The Blightress rode ahead of me on Rauca. Both lumens did not seem to fear her or where we were, which helped calm my nerves. She did not speak again for some time, and I tried to hold back all of the questions I desperately held.
I knew I was on borrowed time.
“How much further? I can’t be away too long. They will be looking for me soon.”
The Blightress turned her head, her golden crown reflecting in my green light. “Do you mean the Baron? Is that who will look for you, Karus?”
I swallowed. “Yes.”
She tsked and sighed heavily in the stale air. “Have you forgotten his betrayal then?”
I inhaled deeply, attempting to steady myself. “How is it you know so much about my life?”
“How is it you know so little of mine?” She turned back to face the tunnel ahead which loomed well beyond my vision. “I have been listening, Little Sprout. You, however, have not.”
I clenched my jaw. “Why do you call me that? You used that same term when you helped me wake weeks ago. What does it mean?”
“Precisely what you think. I see you as a little sprout. Just awakened to the surface, not yet everything you have the potential to be. You bask in rays and soak in the rain, yet you do not know what you will become.”
My anger rose swiftly to the surface. I was growing tired of this charade as my guilt of Revich’s reaction to discovering me gone began to overtake my need for answers.
“And you do? You think that because you can speak to me in my mind and help me heal the lumens that you know me? That you understand my power? Yes, Revich will look for me. He will search to the ends of the isle for me and when I return to him, he will be angry with me and love me still. How dare you question him,” I warned. “You know nothing of us.”
