Page 93 of Amethyst and Iron
Son.
14
~Cassius~
He was doing well.
Almost too well.
I walked back into my bedroom, the shower running in the ensuite as Velrafreshened up, as she’d called it, following our rather voraciously carnal morning.
It was something that Sylas had been driving, something Velra had been needing, and something I had taken to relishing immensely.
However, as pleasurable as it had been, without ourwild onepresent, the loss had been duly felt. It hadn’t been the same. For any of us.
Carrying a mug of coffee that he’d politely requested, I approached Sylas who sat up against the headboard poring over complex spellwork.
He smiled out at me pleasantly and reached out when I was close enough, taking the mug and sniffing it. “Mmm… smells great. Thank you.”
“You’re most welcome. With you switching to coffee now, do not forget to also hydrate.”
He needed the caffeine boost now that he was without his magic, moving from his favored blackcurrant tea to strong, heavily sugared coffee instead.
I could also see that he’d felt the strain of our morning of lovemaking, despite his attempts to hide it.
I was sure that was why he was in bed even though he was still covered in a wealth of sticky fluids from all of us. He was using his interest in the spellwork he was investigating to shield that fact, having told Velra and I that he worked better solving complex magical puzzles when he was at his most relaxed.
A definite falsity as the revered Sylas Morgrave could do that to the best of his ability even when under the greatest stress and the worst of circumstances. He had a gift for it and that did not waver, no matter what came his way, or afflicted him.
“Got it. Hydration is on the menu,” he told me easily, before taking a couple of big gulps.
He then put it down on the nightstand beside him and returned to scribbling in his leather bound journal, while his gaze flicked back and forth to the papers spread out on the sheets around him.
I perched on the edge of the bed and snatched up the one with Dark Fae markings all over it that had many notations from him beside the formulas and incantations.
“You’ve already solved this? From the additional information Charles Petrone was able to procure for you?”
“That assisted, filled in a couple of the missing pieces. The rest was courtesy of us at Arcanum Order working well together, fusing our knowledge as one.”
“Then what are you doing now?” I asked, returning the paper to him, then moving to lean against the wall opposite the bed as I regarded him curiously. “You’ve determined the precise details of the spell that certain Dark Fae beings are using to violate theminds of others—in their own realm and that’s now spreading here also.”
“I thought that too, that we could engineer an antidote based off this. Reverse-engineer the spell.”
I frowned. “And why is that not the case?”
He put his journal down, glanced over at the closed door of the ensuite, then lowered his voice, telling me, “After the call Velra got yesterday from Warlow informing her of the results of the Guardian investigation into how the fuck Sorin escaped fromThe Void, it got me thinking.”
“Thinking, because Dark Fae mind-meddling was used?”
“The fact it was used on an Ancient, the guard in Sorin’s section of that supernatural prison who opened the damn gate for him and let him out.”
I folded my arms across my chest. “Dark Fae magic, when potent enough, has been known to impact even Ancients before, to even override their own coercion ability.”
“I had Cornelius send me the investigation documentation. I wanted to see for myself. I guess he took pity on me in my current state and convinced Ryker to allow me access.” He gritted his teeth. “Ry probably figured there’s not much I can do to cause issues in my current powerless state, right?”
“Sylas—”
“Either way,” he said, holding up his hand and cutting me off. “According to the investigation, there were no puncture wounds. The guard wasn’t injected with an elixir, which is one way Dark Fae mind-meddling can be achieved. Another is through ingestion, and that was ruled out also. So that means the wielder would have had to call their power and infect the guard that way. AnAncientVampire with incredible reflexes. It’s also not just a matter of calling power, it has to grow as the caster chants, then it has to be sustained.” He gestured at the spell. “Three paragraphs worth of invocations to get through. That’s howcomplicated and multifaceted this spell is to be able to do what it does to the mind of powerful supernatural beings.”
