Page 33 of A Blade of Lies and Spirits

Walkerdidn’t slow as he used his other hand to blast the side door that led to the garden. The inner wards cracked like an egg under the blow, and what few alarms weren’t already going off now joined the cacophony. His familiarity with the layout of the house confirmed my suspicions of his social status. He slung me down as a gardening robot whisked out of our path. Just ahead of me, Walker skidded through the adjoining door by the hedge. I took the lead into the lush greenery, following the full-lunged howls. The scent of smoke and burned flesh overwhelmed my nose.

Dmitri stood by the ruins of his shattered and burning play fort, the grass blackened beneath his feet. His green shirt was slashed shoulder to chest, and he bled, the red drops charged with blue light.

A charred body smoked by his feet. Judging by the size, it was an adult, wearing the remains of a nanny’s uniform.

My son’s shrieks echoed in the lightning dancing overhead. He shuddered, his fists clenched, his head thrown back, and his pale skin shone crimson with rage. The magic gathered around him exploded outward and a shower of sparks sprayed across the garden, stinging my skin and burning holes in my shirt. The air, greasy and heavy, slid across my goose-fleshed skin as I tried to step forward. My leg muscles spasmed and locked.

Dmitri was calling the lightning. I needed to get to him.

“Protection,” I snarled under my breath. Walker’s hand brushed against my back. Magic slid silkily over me and I could walk forward.

I blinked, dazzled, as lightning struck between me and Dmitri. The air singed my skin, something that would normally have been only an inconvenience, but could have injured me in my current state.

A circle of glowing violet enclosed an area perhaps fifteen feet from Dmitri. It stood where the wide glass doors from the dining room overlooked the garden. Behind it was intact glass; the rest of the floor to ceiling windows lay in sparkling drifts on the ground, reflecting the purple light.

Chance’s magic. What was he doing here? The fact that it stood, meant those behind it were still alive. I hoped Robert and Elise sheltered behind it. If they were dead, it would hurt Dmitri, and he’d become very fond of them.

I drew in a breath, calming the intrusive thoughts. Dmitri stood on the knife’s edge, between the storm and his humanity. He hadn’t chosen yet, too young to understand anything but his pain and rage. Someone had hurt him. They were dead.

My son needed me.

I crouched beside him, gazing down at his face. My heart clenched. His eyes were squeezed shut, and tears streamed down his face. Beneath the mask of inhuman rage, his nose ran.

This close, I could feel the strings that bound us together, even through the protective magic Walker had set on me, allowing me to get to my boy. Emotion and magic spun from the time he grew within me. Elise and Robert had established tiny delicate strands too, but mine were far stronger. I twisted the gossamer strands that connected us into a rope anchored in his heart and mine.

I twined the connecting rope in my fingers, tugged hard to break his focus. Simultaneously, I shouted, “Dmitri!”

His eyes snapped open. Lid to lid, they shone charcoal gray as his father’s. The sight punched me in the gut.

“Mama?” He flashed from rage to uncontrolled tears, burying his face in my shoulder. A stroke of lightning hit one of the apple trees in the garden, static making all the little hairs on my body stand up. The scent of charred wood joined charred flesh.

“I’m here, I’m here.” I crooned the words.

His little body shuddered against me as I wrapped my arms around him. His short, pale blond hair stuck up in spikes as he rubbed his face against my breast. I shifted him to see the wound. A pink line from his left shoulder down to his sternum. That would explain the corpse. I turned so Dmitri wouldn’t see it as I held him.

My son’s wound had already closed, healed by the magic rampaging through his body. I shifted and sat, pulling him fully into my lap. The greasy texture of the air diminished further as he pressed himself against me.

I struggled to breathe steadily, to unclench my muscles, as I murmured nonsense to him. Someone tried to kill my baby. Why? A political threat, to deny Robert a resource? A strike from Greene’s family at someone I cared about? Dmitri’s identity was buried in Silver’s office; had that been compromised?

Cold water ran down my back as the storm above raged, pouring rain down on us. Steam rose from the shattered tree. A fire alarm wailed in the distance. The ward across the garden, just where I should be able to see the back entrance, faded from dark green to transparency.

Within stood Robert and Elise. Surprisingly, also Kara, Chance, and Joan. Joan must have been waiting back at Silsprin and joined them when they returned to Capitol after the incident by the river. Could this attack have been provoked by that? How?

Chance’s hands glowed palest emerald, maintaining the shield. Elise pressed against the shield, then turned her head toward Chance. He shook his head in the negative. Behind her, Robert put a hand on her shoulder. It was clear she wanted to be the one holding my baby. She wanted to be seen as his mother, not just to the Guild, but to him, too.

But she wasn’t. In this moment, she finally saw it. She saw that only I could calm him because he was mine, and it killed her inside. What she didn’t understand was that if Chance removed the shield, it wouldliterallykill her.

Kara’s mouth moved rapidly, and she waved her hands. Joan kept motioning for silence.

Dmitri opened his eyes, golden brown again, the only facial trait he had from me rather than his father. “Mama.” His thumb crept toward his mouth. The other hand held my shirt in a tight grip.

“I’m here. But you need to settle down, baby. You can’t hurt people when you’re mad. You do that when you’re calm.”

He snuggled his head into my shoulder. Over his hidden face, I met Elise’s eyes. She strained against the shield, her hands sparking with her weak magic. Robert’s hand was white-knuckled on her shoulder as she pressed against the ward, toward my son. The lightning still flashed above us.

The body next to us needed explanation. Dimitri had clearly killed the nurse, but why? What did she do to frighten him to the point that all of this happened? I didn’t know, but I would find out. As I rocked Dmitri, Walker levitated the burned bits of the woman to the edge of the garden, away from us.

Elise loved my son. It pained me that she did, because he was stolen from me and given to her like a prize, but she didn’t deserve to die. I couldn’t fault Chance for saving her, however conflicted I felt. Nor Robert, though in my pettier moments I wanted them both to experience even half the pain that they’d caused me.

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