Page 6

Swallowing thickly, she managed a nod.

Elias would be tortured, and he could be forced to reveal that the goblins had been hiding in the castle.

Goblins were the only mortal beings who could portal from one location to another within the mortal and fae realms, even long distances. Over the centuries, they’d been hunted down for this gift. Most believed them to be extinct. But Elias had hidden a small group of goblins in his castle, using the ward to shield them from prying eyes.

“Are any of them still here?” Arabella asked.

When Breckett shrugged unhelpfully, she turned and strode down a nearby hallway that led toward the kitchens. If they were lucky, maybe one of the goblins would still be in the castle and could help them.

“Vorkle!” she shouted, calling for the goblin who’d helped her get the amplifier from the Witch of the Woods. The stone walls somehow both absorbed the sound and had her shout reverberating. “Vorkle! We need to talk.” But even as the echoes of her words fell to silence, the goblin didn’t appear.

She cursed before turning back to the others and saying, “Time to come up with a plan.”

“The five of us can’t face down Magnus and his army single-handed,” Jessamine said.

“Yes,” Arabella interrupted. “Got that.”

She didn’t dare ask the other enchantresses at Shadowbank for help—not when everyone was needed to protect the village if demons broke through the ward. Losing even one enchantresswas a heavy toll on their defenses. It was bad enough that Jessamine, Cora, and Brynne were here with her.

She turned to Breckett, nodding to a knife sheathed at Breckett’s side. “How many syphens does Magnus have?”

Syphens were magical blades created by the now-extinct shadow fae. New erox could be created—and controlled—through the power of these blades. Erox could also be killed with this blade by one swipe to the heart.

“Once, he had two syphens. Elias stole the first when he escaped. I have the second,” Breckett said, his hand resting protectively on the blade at his hip.

Breckett had stolen one of the syphens that Magnus used to create many of the erox in his army. Before setting his sights on Elias, the sorcerer had been hunting down Breckett to get the blade back.

“He shouldn’t have any,” Breckett said, his tone wary. “Unless he found the one you dropped in the forest.”

Arabella bit the inside of her cheek.

When she’d been desperate to protect Shadowbank, she’d stabbed Elias with his own syphen, stolen the amplifier, and fled the castle. She’d intended to give the amplifier to the enchantresses in Shadowbank so they could fix the failing ward before she’d return to the castle to fulfill her time as Elias’ offering. Instead, she’d been captured by Magnus’ ogres and lost the syphen in the woods during the fight.

Fear filled her at the idea that Magnus might have the syphen that created Elias and could force him to do anything with it.

She had to focus on the present—on what shecoulddo.

“So, you’re telling me that Magnus can’t control his erox,” Arabella said.

If the sorcerer didn’t have either of the syphens, he couldn’tmakethem do anything.

Breckett laughed humorlessly. “There are ways he can control erox without a syphen.”

She tilted her head to the side, weighing his words. “Are there any erox who’d stand with us?”

Breckett shook his head. “None that would dare stand up to Magnus.”

And face his wrath,he didn’t need to add.

“Not without… encouragement,” she said, her eyes snapping down to the syphen at Breckett’s hip.

“No,” Breckett said, his body angling away from her.

It was clear in the way he stood, body lowering into a defensive stance, that he wasn’t sure he’d be able to get away from her even with his invisibility. While he was more powerful than the average magic wielder, she wasn’t just any enchantress. Now, she was also a shadow whisperer.

One who’d caused stones to crumble with a mere thought.

Just what was she capable of?