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“We will be in the Void tomorrow.”

“And?”

She paused; her bright golden eyes were even more beast-like in the dark. “And I want to remind you of our bargain. You made a deal with me.”

“I haven’t forgotten.”

“I am on your side, you know,” she cooed, her tone was all saccharine and poison saying she was anything but on her side. “You can give me what I want. Therefore you’re precious to me. My precious little mage.”

Layala rolled her eyes with a scoff. And lay back down. The audacity of this lady. “You ripped my mate bond from me and tried to murder him, but somehow you’re on my side?” Layala actively avoided thinking about the Black Mage or what they might do to get her to bring him back the last few days. It made her stomach hurt. She feared she wouldn’t be able to stop Mathekis from controlling her. At least that was a better alternative to having her friends murdered until she broke.

Varlett ran her black taloned fingers through her golden hair, clicked her tongue, and a cruel smile grew. “So, you want your mate bond back? I know your gallant prince will want to be bonded to you,” her smile turned into a pout, “when I broke that bond, I felt it rush through me. The connection you both harbored—” she pulled a deep breath through her nose, “it was intoxicating. It vibrated my very bones, filled me with euphoria before it vanished. A bond like that is rare even with magic. To have that stolen away, he must be slowly dying inside.”

Layala touched her chest; the ghost of the pain still lingered there.Hemust be. Not her.

“His bond to you was stronger than yours to him.”

They weren’t the same? She glanced down. It made sense since Thane always embraced their bond, and she hadn’t until recently. The broken bond didn’t physically hurt anymore but it was a cold loneliness, like an endless night, intensified by everything else.

“If you want a mate bond again Zaurahel will have to do it. That same spell can’t be restored.”

Layala gently took her lower lip between her teeth. She couldn’t be mate bonded to Thane again? Was that even true? The spell was back in the castle library. She shook her head and pushed herself back up to stare at the dragon shifter. “I wouldn’t make a deal with the Black Mage even for that.”

Varlett slid her talon down the bar, scraping it quietly and licked her lips. “Thane would.”

“You don’t even know him.”

“I know him better than even you.”

Layala’s skin flushed hot, cheeks burning. The nerve. She’d never even met Thane until she tried to kill him. “Why are you even going through this negotiation when you could just call in your favor? To bring him back is clearly the reason you negotiated the deal in the first place.”

The dragon’s yellow eyes seemed to shimmer in the dark. She clicked her tongue. “You don’t have all the pieces to this game of chess yet. My favor won’t be to bring him back. It will come after. All will make sense when Zaurahel is with us again.”

Layala narrowed her eyes. What could Varlett possibly want from her after the Black Mage was alive? She did say she craved power as much as he did, but how could Layala be involved with that? There must be another reason. “I don’t understand.”

“And you won’t, until you bring him back.”

More coercions. Layala rubbed her temples. Her magic had nothing to do with regeneration or giving life; none of this made sense. “Why is it me who can bring him back and not any other mage? And saying it’s the mark on my arm isn’t helpful because I don’t know why I have that either.”

Varlett clicked her talons on the metal bars. The pinging sound grated on Layala’s nerves. “I can’t tell you that.”

“Why?”

“Even if I wanted to tell you—” she ground her teeth as if struggling to speak, “I couldn’t. My tongue is tied.”

Layala’s brow furrowed, unable to speak the truth? How? “As in, he somehow magically forbade you to speak of it?” That didn’t make sense either.

“I can’t say.”

Layala groaned. “What can you say?” She’d wondered about her magic, about this mark on her all her life. And ever since Thane told her that the enemy wanted to use her, she couldn’t fathom why it was her. Why did The Black Mage have an apparent fascination with black lilies? Atarah said he’d had them tattooed on his forearms, and then there was his chair in the mage’s tower; the likeness of it to her magic was too uncanny to deny. Was it simply because he foresaw her coming birth? That she was his savior, so he worshiped her before she even existed? And if he could see into the future, couldn’t he have prevented his own downfall?

“Look I just thought I’d come over here and chat so we could prevent killing your friends tomorrow to get you to cooperate. Although, a goblet of the redhead’s blood would be delicious. One way or another we will force your hand. You won’t stop this. He will come back. That isn’t a hope. It’s a fact. Only then will you know the truth.”

“Piss off.” But her mind started working. “The stone,” she murmured, tapping a finger against her lips. She didn’t need Varlett or the Black Mage to give her answers. The All Seeing Stone would hold the answers to every question she had about her bond, her connection with the Black Mage and how to destroy the curse on this land.

“Stone?” Varlett questioned tilting her head slightly. “You mean the All Seeing Stone.”

Layala turned her head away. Damn it all. Why did she say that aloud?