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Agenor snapped his head around to me. I hadn't told him of my research yet, and deliberately so; I didn’t need him to spend time thinking on the matter and conclude Creon’s influence was all that had me working on this project.

‘Thebindings?’ he repeated, a hint of bafflement in his deep voice.

‘Yes.’ I suppressed the urge to look at Creon for support, for approval, for help. We’d discussed the strategy. I was going to present this plan, I was going to make this argument, because enough of our audience would suspect selfish motives behind every word he spoke and believe my plea for the greater good much more easily. ‘I’ve been looking into them, and from what I’ve seen so far … I think we may have a bigger problem than we thought we did.’

Eyes narrowed. Fingers tightened. Nenya scoffed and muttered, ‘As always.’

‘Could you explain yourself, Em?’ Lyn said, resting her chubby arms on the edge of the table and lowering her chin onto them.

‘If I understand everything correctly …’ I slouched in my chair, a sudden calm sinking over me. To hell with it. Ididunderstand everything correctly. Who was I trying to fool with my false modesty? ‘So far we’ve always assumed the bindings simply protected the Mother, yes? Your magic can’t hurt her, so none of you can storm into the bone hall and set her on fire – pretty straightforward, all in all.’

They waited, no confirmations or objections.

‘Here’s the problem,’ I said. ‘Ophion survived Creon’s demon magic at the Golden Court. Lyn says she tried to send a burst of fire into the prick’s face as soon as she saw him but didn’t manage to – she thought it was exhaustion, so she nosedived into his back instead, which saved me anyway. But combined with the point of Creon’s magic …’

‘You assume our bindings are protecting Ophion as well?’ Lyn finished slowly, her amber eyes such thin slits they might have been closed.

‘I think they’re protecting everyone and everything close enough to the Mother to have direct unpleasant consequences for her. That the definition of “not harming her” is broader than we thought.’ I braced myself and turned to Agenor, whose fingertips had stilled against Oleander’s slender body. ‘Have you ever tried to use magic against her close allies since you turned against her?’

‘I … no, but …’ He hesitated, then nodded at Creon. ‘You killed Deiras. A few decades ago. Achlys and Melinoë definitely missed him, so that should have given you trouble, shouldn’t it?’

Creon shrugged and tapped his knife. No magic involved.

‘Ah.’ Agenor let out a mirthless laugh. ‘Still, if everyone in her personal circle is included in the bindings, that would mean that until recently the two of us should also have been protected by— Oh.’ His eyes abruptly widened. ‘Gods help us.Wait.’

‘Any returning memories?’ I said dryly. ‘Creon had a few of those.’

Agenor parted his lips, then abruptly turned away, rubbing his jaw with too much force. ‘There have admittedly been a few occasions where my opponents turned into remarkably poor mages, but I always assumed …’ His next glance at Creon was more bewildered. ‘Fear and nervousness can have that effect as well. It doesn’thaveto be binding magic.’

Creon grabbed his pencil.Your red was defective when you captured me below the Golden Court thinking I was there in her name. Do you usually lose your colours when you’re scared?

Agenor stared at him. ‘Fuck.’

Creon chuckled.

‘And it makes sense if it’s never been very noticeable,’ I said quickly. ‘The Mother doesn’t give a rat’s arse about anyone but herself, so fae attacking each other rarely harmed her to the point of evoking the bindings – not as long as she had enough of them not to care about a few dozen lives more or less. The other magical peoples were only bound after the Last Battle, and most have never been close to the Crimson Court since. In the few cases where the bindings might have taken effect, the intended victims were arrogant enough bastards to believe it was their mere presence paralysing their opponents …’

Tared huffed a laugh. Agenor gave me a dignified glare.

‘But now it’s war, you see?’ I continued, ignoring them. ‘Now she suddenly cares about losing armies and protecting herself, and who knows what effect that may have on the binding magic? Who knows if there are more people she actively wants to keep alive now?’

‘Starting to see the problem,’ Nenya said, her voice low and ominous. ‘For all we know, the walls of the Crimson Court are binding-protected as well, if she’d dislike losing them. One unbound mage isn’t getting us anywhere if she has to break through all defences single-handedly.’

‘Exactly.’

Disconcerted glances crossed the table. I held my breath for four, five heartbeats, but still no one objected.

‘I suppose you have a plan?’ Naxi said, jolting straighter in her chair.

‘Well …’ Bloody demon eyes. I had planned to introduce the next stage more carefully, but there was no escaping it now. ‘Ophion’s answers have been haunting me – he told us that the Mother is able to break a binding, so it must be possiblesomehow. But there’s just too much we don’t know – why she’s taking a part of the people she binds, how the magic is contained, and if getting your powers back means you also get back whatever else you lost. So …’ Even though I’d accepted the hard truth weeks ago, it still hurt to say it out loud. ‘So I don’t have a plan to break them, per se.’

‘Which is nothing to be ashamed of,’ Lyn muttered – kind of her, because I knew she’d hoped for more, after weeks of answering my feverish questions. ‘Hordes of us have looked into it. There’s just not that much we can do.’

‘I know,’ I said. ‘I had to acknowledge that, too. So my suggestion would be to ask the experts.’

‘The …’ She blinked and raised her head to glance at Creon, as if he’d laugh and confirm I was joking. ‘What are you talking about? There are no experts when it comes to binding magic, that’s the entire point.’

‘It’s divine magic, isn’t it?’ I said.