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Stella fidgeted with her hair, her brow creasing. After another short hesitation, she continued, “He would greet you and invite you to stay and eat I’m sure—actually, he’d probably wish you well on your journey and bless your speedy return and progress. He doesn’t like being delayed places either. But when a curse seizes him—measures have to be taken. It isn’t him, though. Not really.”

Stella, voice unsteady, recanted a tale of how her husband was cursed to slaughter her and how desperately he tried to fight it. My chest tightened. I fought the urge to take Kage’s hand. He would not want the attention drawn to the fight against his owndegeneration.

I gave her a pinched smile. “I am the curse breaker of Magiaria.”

“Wildling,” Kage whispered. “Not all magics can impact others. The serpent king’s curse is likely made of different power than ours.”

A weight pressed on my spine, and I offered Stella a regretful sort of look. “Even still, should you need help—for what you’re doing for us—we’ll stand with you. We know what it is like to have others try to destroy that sort of love.”

Cy clicked his tongue at Hakon. The hawk shrieked and nibbled Cy’s thumb affectionately before he burst into the sky.

“He’ll scan the return path back to the ship, but I do not think we should be out in the open on the Wildlands long.”

Arjax offered meat and a meal more than once. He wasn’t alone. His cousin—a woman who was mere inches shorter than him—joined in until Gwyn spoke for us all and gratefully accepted a few strips of meat we could dry or cook back at our camp.

“I guess you need that venom.” Stella said once our packs were filled.

“We will be indebted to you,” Kage said through his teeth, as though he were fighting an urge to be stoic and unpleasant to a stranger.

Arjax waved the words away. “So long as you use the basilisk venom wisely and do not waste it, then it is a gift. We’ve added more to the top. Basilisk venom is wretchedly toxic, so be certain to cover the hands.”

“If it’s so toxic, will it transport well?” Asger asked.

“It won’t eat through this stone,” Arjax insisted. “Use it with purpose, use it with care, and never use it on supper. At least if it’s supper for people you care about.”

I snorted a laugh. If only we knew if cruel ones still lived throughout the kingdom. A drop of the venom might stop all our troubles without battle and bloodshed and complicated spells.

The man abandoned the stone pot in front of Cy and Asger. Cloth straps secured the lid in place and on one side was a jagged shape painted on the stone, reminiscent of a massive snake.

Kage frowned, watching each careful motion they made tosecure the pot between them, then faced Stella. “As Adira said, should you have need of our aid, we will stand with you.”

“You sure there isn’t another ingredient for your spell?” Stella said, a touch of warning in her tone.

I shook my head. “We need the potency to truly kill the cruel magic in our soil. It’s embedded so deeply, only such a poison as this will do to lift it.”

Stella gave me a wane smile. It faded when Brandt shouted intelligible words.

“Thank you,” I said. “I wish you and your king luck.”

“Be safe on your return, Adira,” she offered, voice low and soft.

I gave her beringed hand a gentle squeeze. “I’m sure we will meet again one day. We’re back where we belong, after all.”

Stella, Arjax, and others in their camp bid us farewell, and watched as we faded back through the thorny hedges and trees toward our camp.

CHAPTER 45

Adira

On the seconddawn on the sea, Magiaria came into view. The air was sticky and wet with a coming storm.

Gwyn and Asger fought to keep the wards in place around the ship while we rowed into a narrow inlet cove near Gaina’s hovel. The old woman’s knoll was darkened and empty. Not surprising, she was a wanderer, and had left a rolled note pinned to the pillow over her unmade bed.

Written to me, I read it out loud.

“Sweet Iron, I’ve gone away to see to something. Seems my mind could not stop spinning since you lot left and as I said, curious things have been stowed by this old woman over the seasons. Know this: open the pits of rage for your love. Stand shoulder to shoulder, side by side, warriors for your hearts. In those moments, where you would give it all, that is where your power lies.”

Kage clenched a fist at his side. “Those were the same words written on the pleasure spells.”