Page 12 of Shadows of the Lost Relic (Vanguard of the Ancients #1)
Chapter 12
Evan
T he team was in shambles for days after the mission. Caspian and I were both confined to the infirmary for most of the week. I had to endure a lot of tutting and lectures about wearing appropriate safety equipment if I was going to use ropes. Because I’d been planning on saving my brothers from falling to their deaths. I knew I was lucky the damage hadn’t been permanent. I was grateful for the healing magic I had access to.
The nurses had struggled to keep Caspian in his bed. He was worse than Kane was when he was injured. Unlike Kane, Cas didn’t cause a fuss or try to stop the healers from treating him. He didn’t want that sort of attention. He would wait until they were done treating him, or fussing, as he called it. Once he was alone, he would sneak out without making a sound. It got to the point where the healers set an alarm that went off every time he left the bed.
Kane and Theo came to visit us both, going over the debrief of the mission. It took them three days to convince Lyra to take off the amulet. Even then, she wouldn’t leave the research labs, not wanting to let it out of her sight. It was troubling, but there was nothing I could do from the infirmary.
Finally, after a week, we were all gathered in the living area of the suite I shared with my brothers. Caspian was still under orders to rest, but the healers had grown tired of him sneaking out. He was on one couch, with Lyra curled up with her back against his side. She tapped her feet against the arm of the couch, like she couldn’t keep still. Kane and I shared the other couch.
Theo leaned against the wall, looking too tense to sit. “We have two of the artifacts that make up the web now. The researchers have confirmed the Mirror and the Amulet are tied together.”
Lyra’s head snapped to Theo when he mentioned the Amulet. Her obsession with it was worrying, but bringing it up with her made her get defensive and shut down the conversation. I had thought we’d earned more trust from her. Maybe I was wrong.
“Do we know how many artifacts make up the web yet?” Trust Caspian to keep us on topic. He looked between me and Theo, waiting for an answer from either of us.
His gaze stirred the guilt that was sitting far too shallowly within me. I should have the answer to his question. That was what I was good at, seeing the ties between people, places, and things. But these artifacts were proving difficult. They were so powerful, so old, there were so many fate lines tied to them that trying to sort through them to find what we needed was like looking for a needle in a haystack.
I had been hoping that now we had the Mirror and the Amulet I would be able to see the tie between them more clearly, and that would make finding the rest easier. I had made some headway, but not as much as I wanted, and it was frustrating. The team was relying on me. I was letting them down.
“We’re doing our best to map them, but fate is fighting us.” I was glad Theo saved me from answering. I knew he was just as frustrated. The future was dark when he looked. Cloaked in shadows maybe, or just hidden from him, it was hard to tell.
“I will see what I can rig up. Now that we have two of them, maybe I can search for similar energy signatures.” There was no criticism in Caspian’s tone, but his offer to help still made me feel worse. We relied on him for a lot of things, and I wanted to take some of the pressure off his plate while he was healing.
“So, are we going to talk about the way Lyra flipped out in the field? Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad Caspian isn’t dead, and that she took out those Shadowborn, but how the fuck did she do that? Was it the Amulet, or was it her?” Kane was always putting words to things Theo and I were reluctant to say.
Lyra didn’t look at any of us, her focus on her tapping feet. “I didn’t flip out.” Her voice was soft, and not at all filled with the attitude I was used to from her. “Caspian was hurt, and you were all surrounded. I did what I needed to.”
I didn’t like seeing her like that. Distracted, distant… It felt like all the progress we had made as a team had been undone. None of us were mad at her, and I hoped she wasn’t feeling guilty over it. I got up from my seat and moved over to her. I scooped her feet up, slid under them, and let her legs drape over my lap.
“No one is upset with you, Lyra. You aren’t in trouble.” I gently patted her calf, hoping to reassure her. “We just haven’t seen you transform like that. We didn’t know you were capable of it. We are glad you could keep Caspian safe. We all owe you. He’s part of this team.”
She didn’t look at me, still staring at her toes like they held the answers to all of life’s problems. If only. “I have never done anything like that. I saw Caspian was hurt, and everything became black and white, and slow. Two of them were on the ground before I knew what was happening. Before I realized it was me.”
I reached over and hooked a finger under her chin, lifting it until she had to look at me. “We’ll work it out if you want to. You were protecting someone you care about. We are all capable of incredible things under those circumstances.”
Her hand came to rest on my arm, over the top of where the ropes of fate had cut into me deeply. The small smile at the corner of her lips was a relief. She shouldn’t be feeling bad for what she had done. The Shadowborn would have killed all of us if given the chance. Especially since she had been wearing the amulet around her neck at the time.
Theo cleared his throat, always one to shy away from displays of emotion. “We have other things we need to be focused on right now. We came very close to being beaten in that ambush. The Shadowborn are stronger than us. We’re not an offensive team. But this prophecy is insistent about bringing us into conflict with them. We need to be better prepared.”
Kane groaned from where he had stretched out on the couch I had left. “We are already training more than most teams. What more could you possibly want from us? We need time to rest, Theo. Not to mention all the research you want us to do.”
We trained more than many of the other Vanguard teams, but we had been bringing Lyra up to speed. And Theo wasn’t the only one who could be competitive. Kane just liked to make a joke out of his drive to be the best.
Caspian interrupted before Theo could chide Kane. “I have been thinking about this, about something we could use against the Shadowborn. I have an idea, some plans drawn up, but it means a trip to the Forge.”
Interesting. Caspian didn’t head to the forge often. We all knew he’d had a traumatic incident there as a teenager, although we didn’t know the details. He didn’t like to talk about it. And he was very secretive about the forge and what he did there.
“Do you need anything from us?” Theo thrust his hands into his pockets as he asked, knowing the answer, but offering anyway.
Caspian shook his head. “I was going to ask Lyra to come with me.” Well, today was just full of people saying surprising things. She tilted her head back to grin at Caspian, and I had to stamp down a surge of jealousy.
“I would love to come with you. When are we leaving?” The tapping of her feet had stopped.
I shared another look with Theo as Lyra and Caspian made plans to leave the next day. Getting off base might actually be the best thing for her. The researchers would be glad not to have her hovering over the Amulet. And it would give us time to do some research into her lineage, see if what had happened at the temple was something that had happened to other Tooth Fairy Scions before.
“All right. We have plans. Everyone knows what to do.” Theo dismissed us like he was our commander, but we still did as he said.
Caspian and Lyra left together, Kane practically running from the room before Theo could give him work to do.
I decided to spend the time looking at the bonds between the artifacts again. Maybe by the time Lyra and Caspian were back, I would finally have a new lead for us.