Page 229 of Swords of Soul and Shadow
He hadn’t heard much about specific people since he returned, but he vaguely remembered hearing something before he’d left Kyvena with Hallie. He wet his lips. “Lucy wasn’t in the city, to my knowledge. Rumor was she left for her family’scountry estate because of the pregnancy. Another rumor actually suggestedIwas the father.” Kase rubbed a hand down his face. “She’s probably the least traumatized out of all of us.”
Skibs lifted his head, the blazing relief and stark sorrow in his eyes at odds with each other. “I should’ve just run away with her. We’d be destitute, but at least we’d be together. Now, with everything…it’s probably better, I guess. This way, she’s far away from me.”
“We can find her after this is all done.”
“Kase, this is the end, unless my uncle has found all the Essence wielders. We’re still missing the Essence of Spark, who I think you know was Abram Loffler.”
Kase felt like he’d missed a step on the stairs. That was right. The card game. It was one of the things he’d revealed during that awful event. The bombing run had been the next day. Someone had told the Cerls. Probably Eravin, though he’d denied it.
It was then that the curtain opened to admit the Stradat Lord Kapitan, Fely, and Saldr. The Yalven man kept a hand on the shadow sword.
Kase cursed in his head. He was going to pay for that slip-up. Now they knew who had been the one to leak the information. He would never find Hallie.
It was Harlan who spoke, “You, Asa aven d’Correa, also known as Benjamin Reiss, are thereby under arrest by the power vested in me from the High Council of Jayde, as Stradat and Lord Kapitan. Any attempt to flee or use the Yalven power in your possession will result in your immediate execution.”
He nodded toward Saldr, who unsheathed the shadow sword.
“I understand, and I deserve the punishment for my crimes.” He stood and bowed to Harlan. “However, I do wish tohelp you, truly. My power is under control, and I fully intend to cooperate and share all the knowledge I possess.”
It was Fely who spoke up next. “You are different, Asa.”
“As are you, Lady Fely. Where is Filip?” Skibs looked around as if expecting the Cerl King to be hiding in plain sight. “Or Uncle? Have you abandoned them as well? I’ll applaud you for it, if so. They deserved it.”
Saldr shifted in front of her, the sword shimmering slightly in the light. “How do we know you are in full possession of your senses, that the Essence you wield is not controlling you? This sword will sever it, and you will die, your soul slipping away through a wound only Toro can fix. It is our only assurance. Can you offer a better one?”
Skibs looked a little puzzled by that. He shrugged. “All I know is that I woke without the weight that usually pushes my real self aside. That’s the best way I can describe it. I feel like myself again, like I was before my uncle forced me to take the Essence power from Owen Christie.”
Kase glanced at Saldr. He nodded, seemingly knowing exactly what Kase was thinking. Not only had Hallie slowed down time or whatever to save Skibs from falling to his death, but somehow…somehow, she’d healed him. No wonder she’d nearly burnt herself out. That was the only explanation. “Hallie’s the one that saved you. She’s the—”
He didn’t finish the sentence. Screaming started in the ward. And Kase knew.
Eravin had arrived.
Chapter 45
FOR A CUPPA
Hallie
HALLIE CRUSHED THE DAISIES BETWEEN her fingers as she sat up. Deep green grass rolled out before her like a fine carpet, lush and well-cared for. The color threw her off. Kyvena was still on the outset of spring. Little patches of brown should’ve been woven into the more vibrant blades. This was somewhere entirely different.
The Myrrai Gate held numerous timelines. Was this one the same? Had she ended up in an entirely different time or world? Was she even still on Yalvara?
Her heart squeezed painfully, and she grabbed her chest. It didn’t matter how beautiful the place she found herself in. The only thing that mattered was getting back to the Catacombs.
She pressed her hands into the ground and wrenched forth her power, thrusting it into the soft, loamy dirt. It came quicker this time—a cruel twist of fate. It’d failed only moments earlier in the Catacombs. “Kyvena vreali Toro!”
A smoky spark like lightning shot up from the ground and twisted around her hands like yarn, but no Passage appeared. She tried again. And again. And again.
The strand of light thinned each successive attempt, and no Passage appeared.
“No, no, no.” Her lungs were tight. “Please no.”
Don’t panic.
But holy stars, no matter how many times she told herself that, she couldn’t help the dread settling into her bones.
She switched up the words. Maybe those words of power were only good once.
