Page 167 of Quicksilver

“They're setting up a space to treat Layne,” Ren said. “Iseabail brought everything with her that she thinks she'll need for her sedation spell to work. Te Léna's confident that she can suppress the venom in Layne's blood long enough to start healing her body, but...”

“But?”

“This has never been done before. That we know of, anyway. The cure for the blood curse was lost over a thousand years ago, and that only helped the Fae who had been cursed, not turned. Turned vampires need to die before they transition, and witch magic can't affect the dead. There's a chance Malcolm's venomwill kill Layne before she can be healed, even if she is frozen by Iseabail's magic.”

Lorreth fidgeted in his seat. “I don't trust her. The witch,” he clarified before I could ask who he was referring to. “Dragon lovers. They're the reason we're in this mess in the first place. If it weren't for them, there wouldn't evenbeany vampires.”

“Come now. Don't tell me you still believe that,” a soft, lilting voice asked from the doorway. It was Iseabail, of course. Her thick red hair flowed down her back, the top section clasped back in a clip. Her aquamarine eyes bored into Lorreth, sharp as daggers. “My people have been persecuted my whole life thanks to those vicious rumors. We proved centuries ago that we had nothing to do with the curse that afflicted your kind. The Balquhidder Clan was one of the five families charged by your dead King Daianthus with finding a cure for the Fae curse. We were instrumental in breaking it. I've come here of my own free will to help you heal the daughter of a tyrant who has a bounty on my family's heads. Anyone would think you'd be grateful, Warrior.” She squinted at him. “What was your name again?”

“You know damned well what my name is,” Lorreth rumbled. “We’ve met before, Witch.”

“Oh?” Iseabail shot Lorreth a feline smirk. “Really? I must have forgotten.”

Ren brought his fist down onto the table, startling all of us. “Enough. We're already on edge and stressed. We don't need to be bickering amongst ourselves as well. Lorreth, Iseabail's right. She came here to help us, and she didn't have to.”

Lorreth's eyes burned with surprising hatred, but he ducked his head and did the right thing; he only sounded slightly insincere when he apologized. “I'm sorry. We're all very grateful to you for coming.”

The redhead looked as if she enjoyed watching the warrior squirm. You could have cut the mounting tension in the roomwith a knife. I didn't have it in me to repeat any of the terrible jokes Carrion had told back in the forge, though, so I was going to have to diffuse the prickly energy another way. I stepped toward the table, glancing back at Carrion over my shoulder. “Come on. Why don't you tell everyone what you named your new sw—”

A hole opened in the air, black and angry.

A streak of dark blue hurtled from it and crashed onto the table.

Books flew everywhere.

The wood shattered.

“FUCK!” It was Ren. He was ahead of everyone else in the library, rushing forward to help Everlayne.She'd fallen from the fucking ceiling.The shadow gate wasn't a vertical doorway this time. It was horizontal and ten feet up in the air...and Everlayne had just smashed our only means of reaching it with her body.

“Fuck!” Carrion cried.

“Quickly!” Lorreth raced around the shattered table and roughly grabbed my arm. There was no time for pleasantries. I saw what he was going to do written on his face, and I was okay with it. But...

“Wait! My sword!” Idiot. I was such a fucking idiot! Solace wasn’t strapped to my waist. It was still light outside. Taladaius had said Malcolm would meet Fisher at dusk, but it was still very light outside. I wasn't ready! “Carrion first!” I hollered.

The sword was on the reading stand by the far window. I sprinted for it. Grabbed it. Turned.

Lorreth and Ren were lifting Carrion through the gate. His torso had already disappeared. As if he suddenly pulled himself up from the other side, Carrion’s leg's whipped upwards and he was gone.

“Saeris!” Everlayne croaked. She wasn't dead. Even as I flew across the library toward Lorreth's outstretched arms, I hadenough time to thank the gods that she was fucking alive. I couldn't stop to comfort her, though.

“I’ll be back soon, Layne!”

Lorreth's hands closed around my waist. Renfis grabbed my legs.

Everlayne's frantic cry pierced through me as the fighters below thrust me up into the shadow gate. “Saeris! Wait!The water!”

But it was too late to panic. No time to ask her what she meant. The gate took hold of me, a frozen, wind tearing at my clothes, tearing me inside out. I reached blindly for whatever handhold Carrion had used to pull himself up, but there was no handhold. There was a swift, disorienting shift in gravity, and suddenly I was upside down.

Suddenly, I was

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