Page 27

Talon

Talon guarded the door while Raevina sifted through the drawers, yanking papers out before tearing the entire wooden desk apart. They already had a handful of important documents stuffed into a bag. He’d scanned a few, but there wasn’t time to read through the content. If it looked official, they grabbed it and moved on.

But Raevina seemed far more focused on this particular room. As if she were looking for something specific. She’d insisted on being part of the intel recovery team when they were making plans with Conall. He hadn’t questioned her about it at the time.

“What are you looking for?” Talon asked, his gaze still locked on the long halls. They’d turned darker somehow after separating from Arianna, as if Vairik couldn’t be bothered with proper lighting.

The air in the castle was warm and stagnate. They currently occupied an interior portion that gave off the illusion of being trapped underground. He would’ve thought Fae who possessed the power to manipulate the wind itself would at least see to proper ventilation.

Raevina kept shifting through the papers and pulled out another drawer before shattering it across the desk. Bottles fell out of a hidden compartment and shattered on the floor.

Talon grimaced, certain they shouldn’t be making so much noise. Then again, if anyone showed up, it wasn’t as if he’d let them live anyway. None of the scum in this castle deserved to. Not after what they’d seen in the dungeons and those other rooms.

He shuddered at the memory.

One of Conall’s warriors peeked out from a doorway and met Talon’s gaze. The two nodded to one another, indicating all was still clear as they kept rummaging through the rooms. There hadn’t been much time to get to know them, but the little he’d seen made Talon confident in their abilities at least. They’d run through a few drills, practiced runes, and memorized the layout before setting off.

He supposed he’d worked under worse conditions while hunting The Demon and searching for Arianna.

But Rion wasn’t a demon anymore.

Talon sighed. If any of this went according to plan, it’d be nothing short of a miracle. Hell, it was a miracle in itself that they’d gotten this far.

Talon stared up at the ceiling. Just a few more floors and they’d find Vairik’s study. Ellie was nearby, he could feel it in his bones. Before long, Arianna and Rion would find his future High Lady, then they’d blow this hellhole to bits, hopefully with Vairik still inside.

He doubted it would end up being that easy.

Talon watched the other end of the hall. A chill swept through him. It was quiet. Too quiet for his comfort, like the world had taken a breath it hadn’t yet released.

They’d dispatched a few guards and had waited countless minutes for more to appear. None had and whoever sat on the council hadn’t come to collect their things either.

It wasn’t a holiday or the solstice, not that Talon expected Vairik to honor such things. Still, he’d expected to find someone of importance. He’d wanted it, in fact, if only to have the chance to question them himself.

Talon checked the rune on his arm again. It remained, as did the bracelet that was still counting down. Only hours remained. He prayed they would have enough time to free the slaves outside. Saoirse and Zylah would create a distraction for their escape. He could break a few chains on his way out and urge them to follow.

Raevina’s sudden pause caused him to glance back. She was reading a document, her eyes moving quickly down the page. Her face contorted in rage before she crumpled the paper and slammed her fist on the desk, splintering the wood beneath her hand.

“That bastard,” she seethed.

“What did you find?”

She slammed her fist into the desk again. “He completely sold out. The coward gave up everything.”

“What are you talking about?”

Raevina didn’t answer. Instead, she stuffed the paper into her pocket, then spun toward the map hanging on the wall. Her eyes traced the lines near Fiadh and he noticed the pins that ran from Ashling all the way down the strait.

Talon glanced down the hall again, then joined her to study the various points. This map was different from the one he’d always known. Instead of Ashling sitting on the northern part of the continent, this map showed it slightly further south, at the edge of the mountains, right where Conall’s maps had shown it too.

He tried to memorize the marked points along various roads, then his eyes caught on a line running straight through the mountains. Talon’s heart sank.

He knew. Despite Conall’s beliefs, Vairik had known where the rebels were all along. Which meant he might already know they were here.

Shit.

He needed to find Arianna and get her out of here. It’d been a trap from the very beginning. He should have known better, they all should have.

Talon stepped back, ready to move when another mark grabbed his attention. A red ring surrounded one place. Whoever had circled it had done it several times while also pinning a black flag over top.

Levea.

There was only one other location marked with a black flag. Ruadhán.

His mouth went dry.

They couldn’t have. Avalon had just received messages from their capitol city before he’d left. They had Nàdair’s royal army as back up. Vairik couldn’t conquer two High Lords at once.

Could he?

No, it was circled in red. Ruadhán wasn’t, which meant it was likely just in the plans.

But why Levea? Was it revenge for Ruadhan’s fall? Did Vairik finally want to come out of hiding and stake his claim there?

Talon scanned the map again. Colors dotted the land and sea but he couldn’t make sense of them. Talon wished he had time to write it all down. They couldn’t take a map of this size with them, not with the markers remaining intact.

Talon glanced at Raevina again. “We already knew your father was working with Vairik.”

Raevina whirled on him, her eyes flashing like molten steel. “You don’t understand. Our mountain. Our jewels, the very land is sacred. It’s meant to be—” She stopped herself, her fists clenched and body shaking. “He let the Dark Fae taint the land. He’s using it as a breeding ground for those monsters. There are creatures inside . In the sacred bowels of our mountain. No one is supposed to go down there, we have—” she stopped herself again. “I’ll kill him. I’ll kill them both.”

Talon had no idea what she was talking about. No one really knew much about Fiadh or the mysterious Shadow Weavers they kept hidden from the rest of the world. The only thing he knew about the female in from of him was her drive to restore her honor. Raevina took the failure of her ancestors very seriously.

Talon tried to get her to focus. “Did you get everything you need here?” They still had several rooms to sort through. Even with the rebel’s help, they couldn’t afford to linger.

She glared at him. “No, I still need—” The ground shuddered beneath their feet, and Talon grabbed onto the desk with one arm, wrapping his other around Raevina’s waist. She reached for him in turn, one hand clutching his bicep as they waited for the spell to pass.

“The hell was that?” he asked, voice low and tense.

“We have to go.” She rushed from his grip and Talon gave the desk a final look over before scrambling after her.

“What do you mean, what was—”

Raevina looked up and down the hall before bolting down one side, sprinting as fast as her legs would carry her.

Talon ran past an open door, half expecting to find their new companions within, but the space was empty.

He could have sworn—Talon didn’t have time to finish the thought as Raevina darted around a corner and away from his line of sight.

“Wait,” he called after her. “Where are you going?”

She didn’t stop or answer. Raevina just kept moving as if she could outrun the wind itself.

They passed another set of doors. The lighting around him shifted, turning darker, as if part of them had winked out. He blinked against the sudden shift, then drew his blade, ready to take on those likely hiding in the shadows. Even if those from Pádraigín couldn’t manipulate his mind, they could still hide their bodies, blending them with the environment.

Talon passed another open door and did a double take at the desk inside. His eyes roamed over the papers littering the floor and the broken bits of wood scattered across the lush carpet.

“Raevina,” he called in warning. She didn’t stop or acknowledge him.

Talon cursed under his breath, yanking his sleeve back, relief flooding through him at the sight of the rune still glowing faintly. The runes on his bracelet were fading though, as if too much time had passed.

Talon kept sprinting, turning right again. Then left.

The portraits on the walls seemed to mock him—smiles widening, eyes tracking his every move.

Another door ahead was open. The door to his right.

He glanced in upon passing.

Papers and broken wood.

What the hell was happening?

“Raevina,” he called again, but she didn’t answer, couldn’t, not as something slammed into her from the cross section of the hall. Her body folded in half and she went flying. Talon’s eyes went wide, then his magic broke free, flying down the hall to block the entire tunnel where the attack had launched from.

He rounded the corner and slid to Raevina’s side, a sob already choking him.

Blood was everywhere, leaking out of her mouth, from her leg, from a wound to the side of her head, the hundreds of lacerations along her arms …

She coughed once, then Talon followed the trail of familiar magic to find Rion standing before them both, a look of confusion written across his face.

Something tore through Talon that he’d never felt before. A rage that consumed him.

And at that moment, he didn’t give a damn if Rion was a king or Arianna’s mate. He didn’t give a damn about anything.