Page 6

Chapter Four

C inaed:

F ather’s voice cut through the oppressive silence of Grandfather’s ruined study.

The devastation around us told a story of violence and betrayal that twisted my stomach. Blackstone hadn’t just attacked Grandfather he’d corrupted our home with dark magic that made my skin crawl. The recent wrongness I’d felt had been a warning of this violation.

“Your Highness.” Roderick’s steady voice grounded me, pulling me back from the edge of rage. “The being who claimed to be Inquisitor General Hoffman was an imposter. We believe it was James Blackstone or one of his associates.”

Father’s face hardened as the implications sank in.

His gaze swept over the crystallized guards, and I watched heat ripple through the air around him.

The weight of command settled on his shoulders.

He was the crown prince, and with the king missing, the fate of the four phoenixes trapped in a nightmare of dark magic fell to him.

“Can you free them?” he asked Bart, who had already begun examining the nearest crystal prison.

Purple light from Bart’s tourmaline stone played across the corrupted surface. Each flash revealed new layers of malevolent energy threaded through the crystal structure. The longer I watched, the more my inner fire recoiled from the wrongness of it.

“The spell matrix is complex,” Bart said without taking his focus off his work. “I’ve never seen this exact spell, but there are elements I recognize.”

The presence of the world’s only archmage was a tiny slice of luck we’d retained. “Can you help him?” I asked Roderick.

My mate nodded and moved to join his brother.

The white light from his diamond meshed with his brother’s energy.

They worked together in a way that spoke of the complete trust they had in each other.

Rod had clung to his relationship with his family as a lifeline against the despair our separation caused.

The two whispered softly and used their free hands to point to things only they saw.

I heard scraps of their conversation, but they used magical terms I didn’t grasp.

The slow pace of their work scraped against my already raw nerves.

Every moment the guards remained in the grip of Blackstone’s evil was a stark reminder of how stupid Grandfather had been.

My brother Colum joined me. As the next youngest after me, he and I had been relegated to the back of the line our whole lives. Next to my oldest sister, I felt the closest to him. Lately, however, he’d been drawn further into Grandfather’s orbit.

“Can we really trust them?” He nodded toward Rod and Bart. “It feels very convenient this happened right after they arrived.”

I glared at him with enough venom in my eyes that he flinched. “Do you want me to gut you with a blade so dirty you’ll need to regenerate a dozen times to cure the infection?”

He held up his hands and scowled. “Whoa, little brother. It’s a valid question.”

“No, it isn’t,” Elspeth said. “Bart and Otto are the Western and Southern guardians. The Earth wouldn’t allow corrupted mages to defend it.”

“Sorry, I’m a bit on edge.” Colum said, having the grace to look ashamed. He pointed toward the guard on the far right. “Yargen is one of my best friends. What if they can’t free him?”

Bart looked up, his expression sympathetic. “I should be able to free them, but dark magic is treacherous. I want to be sure I don’t trigger some hidden attack.”

The clinical way Bart approached his task gave him an air of competence that reassured me. Rod’s admiration for his younger brother was well deserved. They were alike in many ways. Rod’s patient demeanor balanced my impulsiveness.

“I think I’ve isolated all the threads,” Bart announced after what felt like an eternity. “Anchor the containment ward, Rod. Otto come check my work.”

Otto scoffed but joined his brothers. “I don’t understand half of what you do. How can I verify your conclusion?”

“Fresh eyes,” Bart pointed his stone over an area. “Use your stone and make sure I didn’t miss any open lines.”

Everyone in the room watched as the brothers worked like a medical team performing a complex surgery. Father finished giving orders to the guards and joined me and my siblings. This was the phoenix I knew and respected. A being who made informed decisions with the authority to command confidence.

“This is what you felt, isn’t it?” he asked.

I saw the self-recrimination in his eyes. The Earth had given us a warning, and he chastised himself for failing to heed it. Except he had listened. “I can’t be certain,” I said. “In hindsight, I believe it is, but despite our best efforts, we couldn’t decipher the cryptic message.”

The truth didn’t appease my father’s guilt, but at least I hadn’t made it worse. A flash of brilliant purple filled the room and we looked toward the imprisoned guards.

A large crack appeared on the surface of the crystal in front of Bart.

Thin spiderwebs of lines spread out from the main fissure until the facade looked like a jigsaw puzzle of clear pieces.

Roderick tapped his mage stone to the exterior of the magical prison.

One piece flaked off and an instant later the entire structure crumbled onto the stone floor.

The guard stood still for a moment before he collapsed into a heap atop the broken shards. Bart looked at Father and nodded. Then he and Roderick moved on to the next crystal.

Father waved his left hand and soldiers rushed to help their fellow guards. The next three ensnared phoenixes were freed in quick order. By the time Roderick and his brothers stepped back, the skin of all four guards had begun to flake into ash.

“We should give them privacy for their rebirth,” Colum said.

“I need to stay to be sure there are no lingering spells,” Bart said. “The magic used to capture your guards is among the darkest I’ve seen. It was already seeping into their beings. It is possible it will linger beyond the first renewal.”

Father nodded once to Bart, who then turned back to the guards with his stone still glowing brightly.

It wasn’t easy to watch the bodies of members of our flock crumble into dust. This wasn’t a planned renewal. From the expressions on the faces of the trapped guards, their passing was painful.

One-by-one the four disintegrated into ash and soon burst into flames.

The natural orange and red color of renewal was tainted with a darker hue.

The fires seemed to flicker as if something tried to snuff them out and prevent the rebirth.

From the set of Bart’s shoulders, this was the negative consequence he’d feared.

I held my breath, hoping Rod and Bart could undo the damage. Father tensed beside me and I saw the horrified looks on Colum and Elspeth’s faces. This was truly a vile corruption of these phoenixes.

A sudden flare from the first guard they’d freed burnt away all trace of dark magic and the natural renewal process continued. The other three followed suit and soon four newly reborn phoenixes shook off the dust surrounding them.

Father exhaled, but I felt his anger. “I should have pushed harder to prevent this meeting.”

“There was nothing more you could’ve done,” Elspeth said. “Grandfather refused to listen to anything that conflicted with his beliefs.”

I’d experienced his intractable nature more than any, and I agreed with my sister. He’d changed in recent years. Almost as if…. “When was the last time Grandfather left the palace?”

“What?” Father asked. “Why?”

“Tell me this is the father you knew,” I said before turning to my siblings. “Or the grandfather of our childhood. His bitterness seemed to grow over the last few years. Like someone had put a spell on him or altered his thoughts.”

Crazy as it sounded, no one disputed the possibility.

“It would explain a lot,” Colum said. “But how could we all have missed something so obvious?”

“The change was subtle enough that it didn’t arouse suspicion,” Father said. “By the time he cast the spell, we’d all gotten used to his suspicions of mages.”

Bart walked toward us. “I don’t detect any lingering black magic, but I’m not an expert on phoenix physiology. They should be carefully checked.”

“Understood,” Father said. He turned toward Elspeth. “Contact your siblings and escort our guests to the council chamber. I’m calling an emergency session.”

I threaded my fingers through Rod’s not caring if anyone protested. If what had just happened didn’t convince everyone Grandfather was wrong, I no longer cared.

T he emergency session was a chaotic affair, with councilors trying to assert their power in the wake of Grandfather’s abduction.

I stood to Father’s right, with Colum, Elspeth, my oldest brother Lauchlin, and my other sister Gwyneth.

It was meant to be a show of unity, but my presence had been distracting.

Several of the old hardliners declared that if I hadn’t been cavorting with a mage this wouldn’t have happened.

After a particularly personal attack, Lauchlin stepped forward and slammed his hand onto the table.

“Enough!” The room quieted at the outburst. My brother was a powerful but kind being who’d been a source of comfort when I needed him.

“You shout accusations at my family, but not one fact. The king has been abducted and not because of his kin. Cinaed abided by his king’s rule despite how much it cost him.

Four guards live because of the unrivaled skills of the mages you disparage.

Your role is to provide counsel, not cast baseless aspersions.

If you’ve nothing of value to add, then you are relieved of your position. ”

The room was divided into two parts, those who would support Father and those who cared only about their own importance. Members of the latter group seethed, while the former tried to hide their amusement. Lauchlin’s outburst made it clear there was no division in our family.