Page 166 of A Warrior's Fate

“Crystals like that are known to be conduits for certain types of witch magic.”

He’d been right.

The dagger clanked to the table as Isla took in a sharp breath, and almost all of them instinctually crept back.

Jonah hadn’t moved. “If it was cursed, you’d be dead by now, believe me,” he deadpanned. “I’m just making an observation. It could just be crafted jewelry and a weapon.”

Davina had gone a ghostly white with a tinge of green. “How do you know it’s witch crystals?”

“I don’t. I just know the witches use crystals to better focus their power. It’s one of many methods used in their craft.”

“How do you know so much about witches, brother?” Rhydian prodded.

“Pick up a book, brother,” Jonah countered. “Our continent isn’t the only one in this realm. Our realm isn’t even the only realm.”

“I know that.” Rhydian brushed him off before nodding at him, Kai, and Ameera. “I went to the academy same as you three.”

Jonah narrowed his eyes in challenge. “Name them then.”

Ameera put her hands up between the twins. “Can we focus please, the two of you?"

Isla heard Kai laugh through his nose beside her. “If you ever wondered what things were like for me growing up,” he said.

Before Isla could respond, Jonah looked back at her. “What about the crown? Where’d you find that?”

She opened and closed her mouth, her face paling. “The pieces were left for me—given to me—by whoever is trying to kill us.”

“Oh, of course, how kind.” That vein still pulsed in Ameera’s forehead as she leaned forward to pick up the map. “What’s this?”

“Callan had that,” Kai said after having gone oddly quiet. “You were tailing him. What was he doing?”

Isla’s brows shot up. Ameera had been the one following Callan around the city?

Ameera placed the map back on the table. “I told you, it looked like a lot of nothing, even when he went down to Abalys. He was just looking at things.”

“What things?”

“I don’t know—storefronts, waterways, trees? I was watching him, not everything around him.”

“Certainly not a spymaster,” Jonah muttered under his breath, earning a swat at his arm.

Beside him, Rhydian peered at the map. “And he obviously saw something—many somethings.”

Ameera growled, snatching the map off the table and rising to her feet.

“Where are you going?” Davina questioned, her voice nearly a whisper as she fought sleep.

“To find the somethings.” Ameera’s voice was saccharine, though she glowered at the men of the table.

Isla perked up in her seat. “I want to go with you.” Kai made a sound of confusion, and she looked at him. “I want to know what he was doing. Maybe figure out if the messages are really supposed to be warnings about him.” A wary look appeared on his face. “Go to the hall and take care of the pack. I have us,” she assured before he could offer himself to go too. Her fingers went up to brush his cheek. “I’ll be safe, and I’ll have Ameera to protect me.”

“Me too,” Rhydian said, nodding towards the passed-out Davina on his shoulder. Carefully, he rose, picking her up effortlessly in his arms. “She’d kill me if I brought her on a train like this.”

Kai watched them disappear behind the stacks, avoiding the eye contact Isla kept fixated on him. Eventually, he let loose a breath and met her gaze. “Okay.”

Isla smiled, pecking his lips and getting to her feet. Her eyes snagged on the diadem and dagger on the table. A sinking feeling lingered in her stomach. “Can you tell Jonah the rest of what I told you before you go?” Kai nodded, and she looked to the shop owner, who’d since picked up the book and one of the scribbled messages to compare. “Do you think you can figure it out?”

Jonah glanced at her and then at Kai. “Can you get me into the estate’s library or any of the royal archives?”

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