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The tension still vibrated between us, not all the walls down yet. I thought there were fears we were both keeping from the other, reasons for not being able to heal the wound, but I took his hand.

We would repair it.

Chapter Forty

Malakai

Perhaps alliances weren’t as bad as I once thought.

Did I want to be in Mindshaper Territory when the majority of their clan were our enemies in this war? No.

Originally, when we’d found our friends fighting Kakias’s host, and I saw the queen’s power pouring from the trench, I’d said we needed to get far away from there as quickly as possible. When her magic was snapping from her like uncontrollable whips and she was screaming, I’d wanted to run. When Tolek told me where we were going to hide, I’d nearly ripped Ophelia from his arms and tackled him to the ground, convinced he was corrupted, too.

He’d explained quickly, and Mila, Cyph, and the others had followed him without a second thought. I didn’t have a choice.

Now, as we all waited in a large cavern serving as a meeting room with its brick walls and reinforcement beams stretching across the ceiling, I believed we could trust the rebels. Though my skin itched being trapped here, and I found myself counting my breaths frequently, my prejudices did not apply to the entire clan.

Searching for a way to distract myself from where we were, I took out Lucidius’s journal on Firebird’s Field and leaned back in my chair at the large meeting table. He had pointed us toward one emblem successfully. It only reasoned that if we could decode more of his ramblings, we might find more clues.

I’d been in the middle of the next entry while waiting for Ophelia to wake today.

magic is alive here and i both fear and worship it

Would be helpful if he said where “here” was.

it lives in the winds and skies her wings gracing my every breath but when magic takes life from another what happens? is it terminable for the host? can magic be killed? i believe magic can be killed by an extinguishing of that which it relies on or reversing that which spawned its poor life and if living magic is killed the world may be a duller place or the host may be a lifeless husk but perhaps taking that which is unnatural will be better for us all

that is what i will tell myself when i do it

extract the source i must learn to extract the source

Again, he could have been more helpful.

Spirits, this was becoming insufferable. I was a bit concerned with how easily my brain was learning to translate the nonsense. It made sense given how much time I’d spent dissecting these words over the past months, but my skin prickled. Groaning, I shut the notebook and tossed it aside.

“How is she?” Mila asked, taking the seat next to me. The agitation in my chest calmed.

I dragged my hand through my hair, sighing. “She’s confused and worried, but I think relieved.” I paused, then with a laugh added, “I’m glad I’m not Tolek, though.”

Ophelia was always frightening when she was angry, and I doubted him making a fae bargain would go over smoothly.

Mila assessed me for a moment. “Is it weird for you?”

“Is what weird?”

“Them,” she said.

Them. The girl I’d loved and thought I would spend my life with, had received the Bind with, and one of my best friends, practically my brother.

“No,” I said, honestly. “It once would have been, but so much has…changed.” I thought of the way Ophelia had clung to Tolek when she woke, how a piece of him had been untamable when he waited for her. How both of them relaxed in the other’s presence. “It makes sense, really.”

They had always been that way. They fit together—were pulled toward each other. I’d always known it, even before I signed the treaty. I hadn’t been jealous or threatened back then. I was aware of where we’d all stood.

Ophelia and I used to belong to each other even more than they did, but where they still fit, we did not. After everything I went through, seeing them together now didn’t hurt. It was okay.

Mila nodded. “Being down here is hard for you, isn’t it?”

“You noticed?” I asked, but of course she had. I’d been on alert, waiting for a threat, since I realized we were venturing into tunnels and caves.