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“Layala…” Thane shook his head.

“Remember I am Layala Lightbringer. I was always supposed to be the one to end him. Our mistake in that tower was not rendering his magic useless. I can do this.”

“If you think I’ll leave you to face him alone a second time, you don’t know me at all. I should have been there in the tower.” His brows shot up. “Piper, Leif,” Thane said, in surprise, quieting Layala.

Piper looked back and forth between them suspiciously and then hooked her thumb over her shoulder. “I think I just saw,” she shook her head. “No, never mind. It can’t be. Are you two done having a word? Isn’t the Lord of Calladira supposed to be here at any time?”

“Shit,” Thane peeked back down the hallway. “Leif, grab Fennan and get the mess cleaned up in the throne room. You’ll see it when you get there. Then stall the woodland elves. Piper, you go with Layala.”

“I’m on it, but where are you going?” Leif said. “What am I supposed to tell Fennan?”

“I have a problem to take care of.” Thane didn’t stick around to explain and took off.

Layala silently countedone, two, three…seven…ten.Then she grabbed Piper’s arm and dragged her along beside her.

“Thanks for just leaving me to clean up a mess alone,” Leif called.

“What is happening?” Piper whispered.

Layala only pressed her finger to her lips. They needed to stay far enough back he wouldn’t see or hear them following. But to let him face the Black Mage alone wasn’t happening. She’d grab the katagas serum after she found out what he wanted.

Peeking around the corner, she watched Thane disappear down a hall, and then another, and down a set of stairs. Over the last few months, she’d become quite familiar with this part of the castle. It was quiet, with paintings of old elven scholars lining the walls and tapestries of breathtaking landscapes. Often quills scratching over parchment and the flipping of pages were heard. The sign above the double entry doors read: “Knowledge is Power”.

She didn’t even want to know how Thane knew this was where the Black Mage would go. Maybe the library was somewhere they used to meet before.

They paused outside the double doors. “The library?” Piper hissed.

“Do not make a sound,” Layala mouthed silently.

The librarian’s desk sat empty with stacks of papers, books, and an open bottle of ink with a quill left in it. Thane must have sent her away. Poised in the double door entry, Layala listened for voices, footsteps, anything to figure out which way they went. The two of them swiftly and silently made their way down the rows of bone-white shelves under the cover of books. Until Layala heard voices and paused, holding up her hand to Piper. Peering between the cracks in the shelves the Black Mage sat at a round table and Thane’s back was to them.

“Holy Maker,” Piper breathed.

The intruder sat with his boots propped up on the table, crossed at the ankles and a lit cigarette between his lips. A black cloak lay across the wood surface leaving him in a raven-colored tunic with crimson whorls down the chest and the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. He took the cigarette between his fingers and blew out a cloud of sweet smoke. Something about the smell was familiar. It wasn’t a typical cigarette or pipe tobacco with a harsh scent…a civar,she thought, though she didn’t know how she knew that.

“Why are you here, Hel?” Thane asked.

The Black Mage smiled and flicked the ashes off the end of the smoke. “I mean, we were practically brothers and you’re the proper age to remember. You should know why I’m here.”

Layala’s brows tugged down in confusion.Practically brothers? There is a lot Thane hasn’t told me.

“You want Layala.” Thane shook his head and ran his hand over his hair. “I think that ship sailed when she took me to her bed, over and over.”

Hel chuckled and took another pull of smoke and said on his exhale, “You always had a mouth in you for great banter. You can have her for now, but I think we both know it won’t be for long.” He smiled in a taunting sort of way. “And as I said earlier, Valeen has something I need.”

A warmth washed over Layala as the tang of Thane’s magic sprang. “You’re not going to use her.”

Hel’s eyebrow ticked up and he brought his civar to his lips. The wisps of smoke lifted in a stream that formed a hand holding up the middle finger before it slowly dissipated.

“Don’t bother trying to attack me again. You’ll only embarrass yourself. Or do. I enjoyed seeing the look of utter shock on your face. You’re not the biggest and strongest in Adalon anymore and you’re certainly not what you once were. It’s a pity really.”

Thane’s anger rumbled through the room. Books all over the library fell to the ground with thuds, lit candles wobbled back and forth. Several books in front of Layala toppled, leaving her way too exposed. The Black Mage’s garnet eyes swept directly to where she was. Heart caught in her throat, she dropped into a crouch.Shit, shit, did he see me?From her crouch, she peered through the crack of books, but couldn’t see his face from there. Thane stood in the way.

“You know, I keep asking myself why you two were reborn so much later than I was. Why it’s so much different this time?”

This time? And he was so unbothered by Thane’s power as if it were nothing but a passing breeze… Thane’s boots shifted. “You know I can’t allow you to stay here.”

“You don’t have a choice.”