Page 53

Fifty-Two

Lira shook her head, unable to believe what she was seeing. Malek’s black hair had grown long, and it matched the dark veins that were visible beneath his chalky skin. His face was gaunt, and his eyes were entirely black and hollowed out. The spell caster looked worse for wear, but he also looked very much alive.

“Lira,” he purred, a smile twitching across his lips before vanishing. “I thought I might see you here.” He gestured to Cali. “Looks like we’re getting the crew back together.”

Iris rushed forward and put a finger to the Tabaxi’s neck. “She’s alive.”

Malek’s face contorted. “Did you think I would kill dear Cali?”

Lira didn’t take her gaze off the man. “What are you doing here, Malek?”

He raised a pale hand and flicked his bony fingers at the wall. “I’ve come for this, of course.”

Lira suppressed a shudder, certain that the cellar was even colder than usual with Malek there. The mage might not be dead, but she wasn’t entirely sure he was living either.

“What is this ?” Lira asked. She wasn’t going to give him an inch. She knew Malek too well, knew that he was skilled at extracting information.

“The book with the moonstone on the cover, of course. And the gold. I won’t lie and say I won’t enjoy the gold.”

Despite Lira’s talent at deception, she couldn’t stop her mouth from falling open. How did he know about the book?

Malek appeared bored as he released a sigh. “You only ever talked about a few things in your sleep, you know, and one of them was your gran’s recipe book with the moonstone on the cover.” He gave her a silky smile that almost seemed real. “Of course, you believed it to be a simple book of recipes, didn’t you? I don’t think you had any idea that books of that description were only created by the old magical guilds and only bestowed on mages.”

For the hundredth time since she’d discovered the truth, she’d wished her gran had told her all this. She wished she wasn’t learning this from Malek, of all people.

Instead of talking about the book, Lira locked eyes with him. “What happened to you, Malek? I thought you were dead. We all thought you were dead.”

Instead of answering, Malek shook his head, and limp strands of ebony hair swung across his face. “You were all so scared of me doing dark magic. You were sure it would ruin everything, but it didn’t. Don’t you see?”

All Lira could see was that he’d wasted away as the dark magic had twisted him from within.

His head snapped up and the black beads of his eyes pinned her. “It was dark magic that saved me, dark magic that kept me alive in the sea, dark magic that revived me when my friends abandoned me.”

“We didn’t abandon you.” Lira’s voice cracked as she remembered that night on the cliff. “I tried to save you. Don’t you remember?”

His dead eyes bore into her. “All I remember is pain, and when I finally emerged from it, I was alone.”

Her heart constricted, the loneliness in his words palpable. “If we’d known—”

“You were never truly my friends, were you? You only used me for my talents and tossed me aside.”

“That’s not true.” Lira was vaguely aware of Iris rousing Cali on the floor nearby.

A faraway look danced across Malek’s contorted face. “You know, Pirrin said the same thing.”

Icy talons of fear pierced Lira’s heart. Malek had killed Pirrin. Regret stabbed through Lira as she thought of her ranger friend dying at the hands of someone they’d all trusted. If she knew Pirrin, he’d believed in Malek until the end.

“It doesn’t matter. None of it matters anymore.” Malek slid his gaze from her as if he found her presence tiresome. “Once I have a proper spell book, I won’t have to hunt for spells like a beggar looking for scraps.”

The thought of Malek using her gran’s book curdled her stomach. “My gran’s book won’t have dark magic. She wasn’t that kind of mage.”

“You don’t know what she was.”

Each word that Malek spat out hit Lira like a blow to the body. He was right. She didn’t know what kind of magic her gran had practiced or what was in her book, but she knew her gran had never been like this, had never used magic for evil. She couldn’t let a mage twisted by dark magic get his hands on her book.

“The book doesn’t belong to you, Malek.”

He raised an amused brow at her. “What are you going to do, Lira? I know you don’t have any elven powers. ”

“But I’m not alone like you are.”

Malek looked from her to Iris and Cali on the ground. “Well, our archer friend is indisposed, and I doubt the old lady will be much help.”

“But we might be.”

Lira swallowed a grateful sob as Korl and Vaskel stepped into the light. Sass was only a step behind them with Crumpet riding on her shoulder.

Malek’s lips curled briefly at the sight of Vaskel, but then his placid mask snapped back into place. “This is quite the assemblage.”

Lira knew his remark was meant to be cutting, but she didn’t care.

Vaskel withdrew a pair of blades and assumed a crouch, fire dancing behind his ice-blue eyes. “You should have stayed dead, spell-caster.”

Malek sighed. “I should have killed you before you got here. No matter.” He flicked his hand, sending a beam of blue light toward Vaskel.

The Tiefling pushed Korl out of the way and dove forward, but Malek recovered quickly, flicking his hand again, blasting Vaskel back into a wall of shelves.

With a roar Lira had never heard, Korl lunged for the mage, knocking him on his back. Before Lira could scream a warning, Malek raised his hands from where he lay sprawled on the ground.

As if her hands were moving of their own volition, Lira thrust them toward Malek, sending a blast of energy across the room and killing whatever spell he’d tried to cast. His head swung to her, his eyes wide.

“I knew it!” Sass cried, producing a menacing curved blade from her waist and grinning at Lira.

Lira stared at her own hands in disbelief for a beat then she looked up as Malek pushed himself to his feet. He swung one arm wide, aiming for her, but Korl caught his elbow mid-swing. Malek used his other hand to blast Korl back, and the orc flew beyond the pool of light, slamming into something hard in the dark .

Sass surged forward with her dagger high, but Malek flung her aside with a twitch of his wrist.

Then he turned on Lira again and smiled. “Look who’s alone again.”

Before Lira could attempt to use powers she hadn’t known she possessed, a blur of white flew at Malek, attaching itself to his neck.

The mage shrieked as Crumpet bit his throat, his claws tearing at the papery flesh. Black blood dripped down Malek’s neck as he attempted to pull off the flutter-stoat. When he finally succeeded, Crumpet hit the floor with a thud and lay still.

Lira didn’t think. She hurled all her rage, all her hurt, all her fear directly at Malek. Searing white light poured from her hands and the mage went rigid, his feet lifting off the floor and his mouth opening as if he was attempting to scream. Then he went limp, still suspended in her blinding beam of light.

Lira didn’t realize she was screaming until Korl put a hand on her shoulder. “You can stop.”

When Lira did, she collapsed into his arms.