Page 88 of Galadon
Just beyond him, Rayna spotted a black metal box with faint yellow smoke pouring out of it. She gestured in that direction. “There. What is it?”
His eyes widened in dread. “Nothin’ good, considering the last time the damn Kandoran used weird fog like that, it infected any of our human forces who didn’t wear masks.”
“Morgan is the only one in here who’d be susceptible to that stuff,” she said, shaking her head. “It wouldn’t be worth the trouble.”
Conrad worked his jaw. “That other fog had a gray tinge to it. I got a feelin’ this shit targets somethin’ else—either slayers or shifters.”
Other than her nostrils burning a bit, she didn’t feel anything else. Many others around them were sneezing and wiping their noses. Their eyes were watering, too.
Titan walked up with an alarmed expression on his face and his nose wrinkling from the fog’s effects. “Some of the shifters are getting agitated. Whatever is in the yellow smoke is influencing us, and it’s taking all my willpower to fight it.”
“Well, shit.” Conrad drew his sword. “That answers that question.”
Rayna placed a hand on Titan’s arm and concentrated. Within his blood, she could feel the evil taint working its way through him. She pushed her magic inside and eradicated it in seconds, but slivers of it slid back into him before she even pulled away. He was breathing it right back in, and she couldn’t make him immune.
“That’s a little better,” Titan said, shoulders relaxing a fraction.
She shook her head. “It won’t last, but stay close, and I’ll keep doing what I can.” Her gaze turned to Conrad. “Get the shifters as far from that box as possible while I tell Galadon.”
“You got it, girl,” he said, then turned to start shouting at the others. That was a task he excelled at, so she was sure he’d get their attention.
Rayna kept her grip on Titan, continuing to eliminate the infection in him as they hurried toward her mate. Galadon’s back was rigid where he stood arguing with Astaroth. She caught him describing how he would disembowel the Kandoran once they were free.
She touched his arm with her free hand, relieved to find he had no infection. Because he had sorcerer blood, that might have given him some protection, but he’d also mentioned that he had the ability to push the taint out with his own magic. Either way, Rayna was relieved he was safe from exposure.
“He’s infecting the shifters with some kind of smoke,” she informed Galadon.
He nodded. “I heard your discussion.”
Of course, just because he appeared to be focused on the enemy didn’t mean he hadn’t tracked her the whole time. It warmed her to realize that, but she couldn’t focus on it now.
“Isn’t it lovely?” Astaroth asked, preening. “I worked so very hard finding a way to infect only dragons and shifters. We managed to acquire a few during the war so I could experiment on them while your little alliance was too busy to notice they’d disappeared. Of course, it took months to get the formula right, and I lost all but one before I succeeded. Such is the way with science and magic, you know.”
“You fucking bastard,” Rayna swore.
When they’d spent days conducting memorial services for the fallen, she’d heard some bodies were never recovered despite exhaustive searches. They’d assumed the missing had been obliterated by the green fire some Kandoran could blow. It burned anything. Titan’s best friend, Eliam, had died from the potent flames when they blew at his head.
The Kandoran sorcerer gave her a malicious grin. “Now, the fruit of my labor will finally come to pass. I knew I’d face you again, and I prepared for it. You will be trapped in there while all your beastly allies slowly turn against you. I’ll get to watch as you debate whether to defend yourself and kill them or get torn to pieces by dragon claws. The last time I set you up failed, but it won’t this time.”
Rayna, Galadon, and Titan turned to witness in horror that fights had already broken out between shifters. In the few seconds she spent scanning their group, she estimated a third had already fully turned to the Kandoran side.Shit, shit, shit!
“Come,” Galadon said, pulling her away while she kept her grip on Titan.
Astaroth’s laugh followed them. “Good luck!”
That sorcerer would pay once she escaped this trap.
Rayna continued to pulse power into Titan every twenty seconds to keep the infection in him at bay and would keep doing it as long as she could. Over half the shifters still hadn’t turned after ten minutes, so it was clear some could resist much longer than others. That would give Titan time once she had to stop helping him because if anyone could resist dark evil, it would be him. He was honorable and strong.
Last year, when Aidan discovered the previous Taugud pendragon and many from his shifter inner circle were tainted, he’d had people study some of the bodies afterward to figure out how it had happened. Rayna learned the details once she joined their side.
Based on their slow behavior changes, they deduced that it must have taken months of being slowly tainted, if not years. They all had greed as a primary motivating factor, making them more susceptible. Somehow, Astaroth had found a way to massively speed up the process and, most likely, the same types would turn more swiftly.
They stopped at Morgan’s side. He crouched in front of the barrier, sweat beading his brows as he chanted in a low voice. Two Taugud shifters in beast form were fending off anyone who came too close.
He paused his chanting and glanced up at them. “Yes?”
“How long will it take you?” Galadon asked.
