Page 40 of Amethyst and Iron
Kelsana:Who was the caster? Who was the Blood Trace performed on?
Lazriel:Blood Trace was on me. Caster was Sylas.
Kelsana:Dammit. Seriously?
Lazriel:You wanted to help Velra, this is the way to do that.
Kelsana:I’d need a direct connection to him. Blood, magic.
Lazriel:I have his blood.
Kelsana:I’ll see to it.
Lazriel:Meet me on the northern grounds just outside the Guardian Compound. One hour. Our interaction will have to be quick. Come prepared.
Kelsana:See you there.
No. No. No.
The Blood Trace.
He had headed out to do what Sylas had intended.
To track down Lazriel’s estranged father.
Remnant.
A member of The Shadowed.
7
~Lazriel~
They thought I hadn’t heard.
They thought I’d been too distracted with a wolf run to be paying attention.
But I’d been listening and scenting my surroundings the entire time, initially just to keep hearing Velra and Sylas breathing, their heartbeats sounding.
Until Cassius and Kai’s voices had reached me.
“What he did, invoking Auctoritas Mortis, won’t go unnoticed by the Guardian Movement. It’s a severe and undeniable violation of his conditional freedom—as he likes to refer to it.”
After I’d heard that, my wolf run with Warlow had been cut short when the toxicity of Velra’s blood had gotten to me and I’d thrown up.
He’d given me one of those tonics and I figured it was Ryker’s magic in it that had cut through theauditory reductionspell Kai had put in place, so I’d been able to hear what they’d been discussing.
“I overheard Ryker and Cornelius discussing the overarching situation that led to these near tragedies tonight.Their priority is to tend to the Puritas situation. Something I know you and Sylas were already aware of.”
“I understand your frustrations. Our goal, however, was to obtain actionable intelligence before we fanned the flames of panic. Or fueled the flames of wrath and vengeance unchecked.”
That was the full scope of why Sylas had been acting off those few days prior.
It hadn’t just been about my father or the Blood Trace.
Well, it had been… it was just much more deeply tied to it than heorCassius had led me and Velra to believe.
And, honestly, I wasn’t actually angry about that.
