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He lowered the knife. “You must promise not to take any part of it,” he said, his firm words echoing.

“I said taste, bounty hunter. I did not say take.”

“Go ahead.”

Darien watched as the spider closed her eyes. The waters of the fountain churned, and Darien felt compelled to look inside.

The contents reminded him of space, what looked like planets and stars spinning within. As the spider tasted his aura, he began to feel weightless, stretched thin, and picked at, as if his soul was being plucked like a harp string. It disconcerted him, and he was about to tell the Widow to stop when the feeling disappeared, leaving him exactly the same as before, not a part of him missing.

Slowly, she opened her many eyes. “Very seldom.” The spider’s words slithered over the dank walls. “Yes, very seldom seen.”

“You can keep that information to yourself,” Darien said tightly. “I don’t want to know how dark and corrupted my aura is, thanks.”

The spider merely watched him. There was a peculiar shift to the air, one that Darien couldn’t read, but she didn’t reveal her thoughts by speaking them aloud.

Darien prompted, “Your turn.”

The contents of the fountain started to churn again. “I am intrigued by your love for her,” the Widow said. “It is pure and it runs deep. I cannot say I expected such a thing from someone like you.”

“That seems like a backwards compliment, but I’ll take it.”

“Reach into the fountain, Darkslayer.”

Darien rolled back his sleeve and dipped his hand into the fountain, the cold temperature biting bone-deep. His fingers closed around a glass vial sealed with a wooden cork, the liquid inside clear as pure water.

“Make her drink it,” the Widow said, “and her tongue will be freed. But you mustn’t tell her what you are doing until after she has consumed it. Every drop, slayer. Every last one.”

Darien tipped the vial, watching the liquid slide within. “Will the person who placed the spell on her know when it’s been broken?”

“I cannot tell. You must take the potion and go. Protect the girl at all costs. Protect her with your life.” Darien planned to. “She mustn’t die.”

He tucked the vial into the inside pocket of his jacket and zipped it shut. “You care for her,” he said. “You didn’t ask her for her magic that day she came to bargain with you. She had more than enough to trade for her dog’s life, but you didn’t ask her to give it to you.”

“You give me far too much credit, Darien Cassel. While I may have a soft spot for the human girl, I could not have asked for her magic. When a person comes to me to trade, they must know and understand exactly what they are trading. She did not even know she had magic.”

Darien took the knife and cut his palm back open, pain splitting through his hand. “You beings are complicated.”

“Anything that has been around for as long as we have is complicated.”

He squeezed his hand into a fist, blood sliding through his tight grip, droplets splashing like rain as it hit the surface of the sludge in the fountain. The sound echoed countless times, the many ripples of the water reflecting on the walls in a hypnotic pattern. “Thank you,” he said.

“Something wicked is coming.” Mist began to sweep in. A chill prickled across the back of Darien’s neck. The Widow wasn’t looking at him; she was looking beyond. “I can feel it pushing at the Crossroads.”

“What is it?” Darien’s voice hollowed out as the mist and shadows began to carry him away. “What’s coming?”

“I cannot say.” The spider’s voice was distant now, and Darien was entirely blind, stuck in the in-between. “But I will be seeing you again.”

Darien couldn’t decide if that was a good thing or not, but he was back in Ebonfield before he could ask the Widow anything else.

63

It was a miracle when Loren got through a whole school day without having Klay there. For the first time since this mess started, there was no shadow watching her in every class, no predator stalking her in the hallways. She had no idea why he was absent, but she didn’t care. As soon as three o’clock rolled around, she would be walking out those gates to meet with Darien. She hoped Klay would still be gone by that time, along with the imperator’s other men, not a single one of them here either.

As the hours passed, she kept an eye out for anyone who watched her a little too closely in the academy, but she noticed nothing unusual. It was the most freedom she’d had in what felt like a lifetime, but it almost seemed too good to be true.

By the time three o’clock rolled around, she found herself breathing hard, sweat beading on her back as she hurried through the academy.

The front doors seemed so far away, the staircase endless, the students a sea she had to push through. When she made it across the foyer, she squished through the front doors that were being opened by other students and hurried across the lawn.