Page 129

Silas swallowed me up in his arms, holding me close. I wrapped my arms around his waist and fell into the slow, steady beat of his heart. A peace found only here, only in his embrace.

“Are the shadows taking you?”

Silas let his head tilt, so his lips were pressed to the top of my head. “I keep having a thought that makes little sense and it gets . . . frustrating.”

“What is it?”

“Dreams descend. You’ve said it, the rune seers have mentioned it, and it won’t leave me.”

I stroked my hands up his back. “Maybe we should rest our minds, and it might be clearer.”

Silas’s body seemed to relax into mine. He nodded. “Stay with me?”

I nudged his ribs with my elbow. “Where else do you think I’d be sleeping?”

His smile sealed the final bit of peace I needed to hold me through the darkness of the bloody night.

A hand was shaking my body like I was a damn dried leaf in the wind.

“Cal.”

“Go away.”

“Wake up.”

I cracked an eye. “Kind Heart, this is unbecoming of you. You’re usually much more thoughtful than this.”

Elise snorted, but there was a bit of exhaustion behind it. “We’re gathering to plan. Our scouts brought something back.”

Silas shifted at my side, lifting his head. His arm fell from the place it had been wrapped around my waist, and I felt emptier than before. Elise’s insistence didn’t give us much time to dally.

We brushed off the dirt and twigs and joined the others near the fire. Junius laughed and nudged Tor’s ribs when he and Sol emerged from the trees, Sol adjusting his belt. Tor didn’t even hide the flush to his face and simply held tightly to Sol’s hand.

Frey and Axel and Raum were already explaining what they’d seen.

“The battle lord is never unprotected,” Raum said. “He has wards about him, sea fae guards, and he seems to have absorbed enough of their power that he can crawl back to the sea much the same as he did before should it come to that level of desperation.”

“He has vulnerabilities,” Saga insisted. “Ari’s heirloom blade for one. It will kill him.”

“Not if we do not rid him of these new rune wardings,” Frey said.

Saga frowned. “How do you know he is shielded against the blade?”

“We all saw him,” Valen offered. “Every time a blade struck him, it wouldn’t break his skin. He’s like a damn shield.”

“But my sword was created to slaughter him,” Ari said.

“Come on, Ari,” Axel said. “This battle lord knows what that sword can do. He’s known for ten turns how close he came to death. You think he did not prepare?”

“So what,” Ari barked with a tone of frustration he rarely let loose. “We just drop to our knees? We just accept he can’t be touched?”

“We’re not saying that,” Raum insisted.

Niklas cleared his throat. “The way they have explained it to me, from what I’ve read of wards and protection spell casts—our best bet is to carve out those rune shields from his damn flesh. Spells were cast by sea witches. Fearsome creatures. Almost as impressive with their potions as Elixists.”

“We can’t assume,” I said, glancing at Niklas. “Don’t you need to know where a spell originates to better understand it?”

“Yes.”