Page 90 of Fate Unchained

With a hiss, Morana launched her orb of magic directly at Lilah’s heart. Lilah raised the dagger in front of her like a shield. White and green collided, and the scent of ozone sizzled in the air. The green orb didn’t splinter into sparks this time; the magic flowing through her dagger engulfed it, forming it into a larger ball at the tip of the blade.

Lilah swung.

In a flash of white, the ball of magic shot straight at Morana, hitting her directly in the chest. The enchanter flew across the room, over the overturned chair, and out past the blurred edges of the memory.

Lilah stood there, chest heaving, and the room spun.

The dark memory was replaced by the golden light of Herskala Hall’s library. Lilah spun around. No Morana, but Boris and the leshak still stood by the windows.

The door to the library slammed open, and four vulk vaulted through it. Her heart leaped. Kyril.

He ran straight for her, but Boris yelled and charged. The leshak hissed, and the other three vulk peeled off and ran towards it.

Now in its full, large form, the rune bobbed over the leshak’s head in its normal golden color. The smaller version she’d held during Morana’s memory was gone, but the rune was still here. Waiting for her. It gleamed as if catching all the light in the room. It hadn’t disappeared because she still had to make a choice.

She hadn’t used the rune to bind herself to the leshak because she didn’t want power. She wanted a vulk. The one who put his head in her lap and watched her as if there was nothing else in the world he’d rather look at. The one who called her lalee. The one who made her heart sing every time he walked into the room.

This rune wasn’t here to be controlled. It was a gift.

For one flashing moment, she saw herself sitting at the table. Alone. Yes, it was possible Kyril may not choose her, but she was going to take a chance.

Lilah put her hand out, and pure white encompassed her. She whispered the runic word for love.

The rune shimmered and shot back onto her chest. Warmth flooded through her. Lilah put her hand on her chest, and she chose.

36

The leshak crashed into the library wall behind Kyril, smashing through it. Rain and wind blasted through. Hans yelled to Blazh and Finn, directing their attack. Boris didn’t flinch. He kept his gaze locked on Kyril. “If you’ve come for your lady friend, I’m sorry to say she’s switched sides.”

Kyril didn’t take his eyes off Boris, but he tried to catch where Lilah was out of the corner of his eye. He couldn’t see her. He stepped to the side, circling around Boris. “Not a chance.” Kyril crouched to pounce.

Boris sneered. “Morana is very persuasive, and her vision for Ulterra makes sense. The time of the vulk is over.”

He paused. What had Lilah said? Not to always think like a vulk and consider the bigger picture. Boris had information that might help them. A tug in his chest pulsed like his bond with her had. The faint scent of buttercup swirled around him, and a flood of power, similar to how he felt when the moons first rose, flooded through him, but much stronger.

It was Lilah. Lilah was helping him. That made him unstoppable.

“Morana? Really? She’s nothing. We care about the Dark Cabal.”

Boris circled to the left and laughed. “The Dark Cabal? I’ve been a part of their number for years, and they’ve done nothing. Even that stunt up at Ryba a couple months ago was a disaster.”

“But your leader got the grimoire. The one you must have stolen.” Boris took another step to the left, and Kyril matched by moving to the right, his claws out and his knees bent.

Boris bared his teeth. His face seemed to change, twisting to become less human. His eyes were bigger, with an eerie orange light, and his mouth pulled up at the sides into a rictus-like grin. “My leader? I have no leader. That idiot had the grimoire and couldn’t get it to speak to him, but it spoke to me. It showed me how the runes could be twisted. So I took it.” Boris balanced on the balls of his feet. “It was time to place my bet, you see. The Dark Cabal or Morana. I chose well.” Boris grinned and reached into his vest.

Kyril snarled and launched forward.

Silver flashed in Boris’s hand. The cepl. Kyril twisted, and the cepl sliced through the air, just missing his side. Boris crouched across from him, his left leg forward, his right leg back. Keeping his right side away.

His right side.

All spawn had a weakness. A tell on how to kill them. A chort, even a chort lord, was no different. His right side would be weak, and that was where Kyril needed to sink his claws.

Hans shouted, and a hard strike, with a crunch of bone, shot through the room. Kyril glanced to the right, and Boris’s fist pounded into Kyril’s chest, the cepl biting deep.

He roared and slashed with his claws. His claws sank into Boris’s shoulder, and the chort grunted and jerked back. Black blood oozed sluggishly from Boris’s wound.

The wound would be mortal on many, but not on Boris.

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