Page 73 of Knightfall
“How are you doing on breaking all those spells mother set?”
He sighed. “It’s on the list, Princess. But I did have to finish these orders from Quinn and your fathers placed a few more about chains and rings and whatnot. Everyone’s in a tizzy over this visit. I’ll get them finished soon.”
It was the best I could hope for. I nodded. “Thank you.”
And then I asked, in a low voice, “Wyle, what can undo a geas?”
“Well, now, there’s no human magic that can undo it, that’s certain. I won’t be able to help you. You have one you need to undo?”
I smiled and shook my head. “Just curious. In case I ever need to set one. If magic can’t undo it, what can?”
Wyle smacked my back. “Oh, come on, Princess. You know that. We went over it the first year I tutored you. Only the natural magics can undo a strong mage’s spell like a geas. Elves and djinn have natural magics of their own. But for humans like you or I … you’d need love. But only the truest kind of love. Born of trust.”
My throat constricted. Connor would never trust me. The other men might like me. But love me? Could they possibly come to love me … before the war between Cheryn and Sedara—the war brewing overhead like a thunderstorm—rained down hellfire?
I was doomed.
If I couldn’t break the geas, I couldn’t tell them. My power might not only kill me. It might kill others, too.
* * *
Quinn took me back to my room, and I curled up in the middle of the bed, three of my husbands wrapped around me. It had been delicious the night prior. But, that night, three men and all their body heat became unbearable.
In the middle of the night, I gently extracted myself. Once I was free and cooled down, I was wide awake. I decided I should go bother Squack and see if she was excited for her suitor’s arrival. I tugged on Declan. He was the lightest of my knights. He was also a bit prone to sleepwalking, as I’d discovered the night prior.
I tugged until Declan slipped off my bed and fell the the floor with anoof. He didn’t wake. I almost laughed. But I tugged him to his feet. His eyes cracked open.
“Declan?”
His response was utter gibberish. Perfect.
I tugged my sleeping husband behind me and we went into the hall.
My slippered feet slid across the marble floor.
I was nearly to Avia’s door, when I saw a shadow. I froze. Fear smacked me in the ribs. There shouldn't be a shadow there. The hall was a dead-end. I slid into an alcove, behind the statue of a satyr. I shoved a murmuring Declan behind me.
Click. Click. Click.
It sounded like claws scratching against the marble.
I craned my neck to peer around a goat ear.
It took everything in me not to scream.
Skittering down the hall, toward Avia’s new room, was a monster.
It was twelve feet tall, with the head, torso, and arms of a man but the body of a scorpion. He was a sickly yellow color and his eyes were black. Soulless. He smelled like burnt oil.
I shook Declan. But he didn’t wake. He just backed away and mumbled. He didn’t respond when I slapped him.
Sard. Sard, I thought.
I called out to Quinn. He didn’t answer. Of all the nights for him to be dead asleep. I yelled at him mentally again.Quinn!He still didn’t respond.
The scorpion man neared Avia’s door. Thoughts flew out of my head.
Rage settled over me like a cloak. And I moved on instinct. My only thought was to stop this monster before it got to my sister.
