Page 96 of Amethyst and Iron
Sylas jolted, his hand dropping from her hair.
He didn’t speak to it, though, gesturing instead for her to go on.
“It must have been at the same time that you’d been performing that spell that challenged death itself. It weakened the integrity of the place, I guess, and with me possessing Wraith abilities, I was able to create that tear.”
“I didn’t see a breach when I arrived.”
“It was hijacked by something inside with me.”
“What was it?”
“I don’t know. I just heard his voice. And saw his magic. A blue magical orb, which he passed to somebody on the outside—somebody who was touched by black magic.”
Sylas started shaking his head. “What? No. That’s…” He pushed off the bed and started pacing in his boxers. “Somebody entering the Veil, for one thing… then being able to actually wield magic as well? Also knowing when to approach, where and when to meet this black magic user on the other side, in the living plane… it’s… it’s violations, blasphemy, and a whole lot of other fucking insanity all rolled into one.”
And the one thing he wasn’t speaking to was the fact that if Velra had been able to pass through the breach she’d made, Sylas wouldn’t have had to sacrifice his life.
But he didn’t mention it, didn’t speak one word of it to Velra.
Instead, he sucked in a breath, stopped pacing, shifted his weight, then offered her a smile. “Thank you for telling me. I can’t imagine it was easy. Ending up in that place and alsothinking you’d remain there is no small thing. Especially with the way you ended up there.”
“Sylas, you don’t need to—”
“Wielding magic,” he cut in through his focus on the problem instantly. “Wielding it inside the Valley… outside of a Celestial being, we’re talking necromantic in nature. Either a necromancer themselves, or a magic-wielder possessing a necromantic object, perhaps. But being able to cross into the Veil, step out of the Valley… that’s something else altogether. Then actually passing that object through. No… even with black magic being in use from that outsider, there’d have to be more to it… a connection already established. A deep connection.” His gaze flicked between Velra and me. “Something along the lines of a Soul Brand. Or destined mates. That deep.”
“With the necromantic aspect, we’re back to how Sorin’s escape transpired,” I spoke. “And your theory that it was all engineered.”
Velra’s breath caught, her fingers curling tighter in the sheets as she stared at Sylas. “All engineered to get you to force your way into the Valley of the Dead. First, through that spell, where it temporarily weakened the structural integrity of the place, but secondly when you took your life and forced your way in. They wanted that. They wanted you in there. Fed off you somehow as well, maybe?”
“To what end?” I spoke aloud what we were all trying to determine.
Sylas shoved his hand through his hair. “Was there anything else?” he asked her. “Any other detail, no matter how small?”
“The one who passed that orb through referred to the guy on the other side asScion.”
Sylas jolted.
I frowned. “You recognize the name? Velra and I have been searching, but we’ve found nothing at all.”
“No,” he said. “But it sounds creepy as fuck considering the situation described, and it comes with eerie implications from the word alone.”
Hmm.
“If it was engineered, it means we were being watched all this time. The relationship between the four of us was known to our enemies. How deep it ran for each of us. The precise state of my sickness and what would tip it over the edge as well and leave me no choice but to take my life in order to gain entry into the Valley,” Sylas mused aloud, his gaze flicking back and forth between us. “When Victor Halrow attacked Lazriel and me, he mentioned that hefacilitated accessto you, right? For Sorin, I mean?”
“That’s right,” Velra confirmed.
“He has the means as an Ancient to have been observing us without any of us, including even Lazriel, realizing it.” He strode to me. “I need a ride, or teleporting, back to my house.”
“What? No!” Velra cried, pushing off the bed and storming up to him. “Sylas, are you insane? You’re safe here. It’s warded by Ariana Martel. Cassius and Ketheron live here. No one can get at you. Necromancers are out there being murdered. We just determined that we’ve been under surveillance for weeks, that—”
“I know,” he said, taking her hand, then kissing her knuckles. “I know. All too well. So I’ll have Cassius, or even Ketheron, erect a ward around my place. All right? But I need to return there for a while. Because I need to reach out to my contact, and he won’t even approach me if he feels another presence and if it’s in a place foreign to him.”
“Charles?” I questioned.
He nodded.
Although it was just a nod on the surface, it was actually a leap for him, to open up to that much. And once again atthat, like when he’d first told me about his vampire-sorcerer underground contact.
