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The voice came from everywhere and nowhere, sliding across my skin like the edge of a blade.

“If you disobey me, if you force my hand—”

Her voice cut off as my body began to violently shake, light crashing back into my sight as Andrues came into view.

“Ataliia.” His voice was distant, slowly fading into the foreground. “Ataliia,” he said again, my name a command as it fell from his lips. And this time, I heard it with biting clarity as my eyes finally focused.

A gasp expanded my lungs and I shot to my feet.

“I had a vision. We have to find Pri. We have to find Cin. Now.”

“What did you see?” His voice was low, calm, as his eyes seared into mine. I could feel the concern dripping off of him as his hands clutched my shoulders.

“I-I can’t explain it. There’s no time. She’s here. Whoever is doing this, she’s here.” The words rapidly fired from my lips as my eyes shot to the door then back to his. Whatever he had come here to say faded to the background as the color drained from his skin.

A black veil fell over his eyes, his jaw feathering against my words.

Before I could speak another word, he slid his hand into mine and pulled me into the tether.

Chapter fifty-one

HYACINTH

Landerswasalreadydressingas the last words fell from my lips. I could see his mind racing, already formulating some kind of plan.

“We go see Cain first, then talk to Pri and see if she knows anything about what Wren said to you. Those two had no secrets, if there is something she hasn’t told us already, it is because she was trying to protect him,” he said as he strapped his sword to his side.

I only nodded, as I slipped into my leathers. My hands couldn’t move fast enough as they strapped my daggers to my chest. I pulled my hair to the side, braiding it over my shoulder then felt it. Felt the weight that was now missing from around my neck.

“My necklaces—both of them—they’re gone.” My voice was frantic as my eyes darted around the room.

Nothing.

I sprinted to the bathing chamber before Landers could speak but found nothing there.

My stomach plummeted.

I felt as Landers stepped into the room behind me, his presence heavy as his hand fell to my waist.

“It’s gone,” I whispered, turning to look up at him. “That stone has Higher Magic in it. If Ammord has it, if daemons have that power . . .” Realization settled into the base of my spine. “That’s why they lured me there. That’s what they were trying to get.”

Landers’s teeth clenched as he dragged a hand over his face. “If they do have it, there is nothing we can do about it now. We need to go see Cain, find out what he is not telling us. And if he will not break, he dies.”

There was no question in his tone, it wasn’t even a threat. Only resolution sounded there as he reached his hand out to me. I took it, stepping to his side, and in the next breath we were tethering, slipping through the ether toward the prisons.

Something in my gut coiled as we drew closer, twisted into a sickening knot as the tether pulled against my limbs.

The damp chill of underground stone bit into my skin before my boots even hit the ground. Landers released my hand as the ether spat us out into silence. Not even the echo of dripping water or scurrying rats haunted the prison’s hollowed belly. Landers’s grip tightened on his sword before it cleared its sheath—a rasp that sliced through the stale air like a serrated warning.

There should have been guards here, should have been a hoard of men standing watch at this entrance.

But there was no one.

Silver light glittered to life in my palm, my other hand pulling a dagger from its sheath as Landers pulled the gates to the prison’s entrance open and took a step inside.

I could smell the acrid air as it seeped through the open doorway and up the steps to the clearing about us. I swallowed back the gag racing up my throat as I followed him through the archway.

The corridor stretched in front of us, my glowing palm the only light. But even my magic recoiled from the dark that clung to the walls like tar.