Page 9

I had enjoyed what little time we had spent at the seaside cabin and was sad to be leaving it behind so soon.

We hadn’t brought anything with us, and the pack that Amiyah offered me was light.

There was only enough room for some food and water, along with a change of clothes.

I strapped Stormslayer back onto my thigh and swung the pack over my shoulder, heading into the living room to meet with the others.

I wasn’t ready to face the tension with Annelise yet. She was staying behind with her sister. We would see her upon our return with the antidote spell, in hand.

Hopefully.

Zion agreed to stay with her as well. That left Tess, Puck, Saanvi, Kenna and me to make the trek back to Prins. I was counting all my lucky stars and praying to the Mother above that Alastir would know of the spell we sought—or at the least—where we could find it.

Kenna had turned into the black raven, soaring ahead of us to guide our path and search for any obstructions or trouble we might encounter on the way.

Her black wings unfurled as she took flight, but that wasn’t the last we had seen of her.

She continued to circle back over and over, as if to say we were moving too slowly.

I was thankful for the watcher and felt safer on the journey with her gliding through the cloudless sky ahead of us.

The last thing we needed was another ambush from Donika, or to run into any of her other monsters.

The thought sent a shiver down my spine with the acknowledgment that Nikolai was now one of them.

I swallowed back the grief that threatened to grip me and pushed it down once more. I couldn’t retreat back into myself again and forget about recent events. My friends were counting on me.

Istmere was counting on me.

I couldn’t let them down.

I hadn’t remembered the journey to the seaside cabin taking us this long when we initially came, but then I recounted how I had slipped into unconsciousness for more than half of it.

By the time the sun had sunken behind the horizon we had only made it past the first river crossing.

We set up camp for the night and Kenna returned to us.

We took shifts keeping watch through the darkness.

By the time the sun crested the horizon in the morning I was thoroughly sore from a long night of sleeping on the cold, damp forest floor .

It had to be mid-morning by the time we made it to the second river crossing and traversed the empty plains towards the main city of Prins.

I was both nervous and excited to be closer to the prospect of an antidote, and prayed we weren’t being sent on a pointless mission.

Tess walked ahead with Puck; their heads bent together as they spoke.

We stepped onto the city streets and headed towards The Shadow.

As she had the first time we crossed, Saanvi seamlessly turned into a lithe black cat—an emerald hanging from her collar—to guide us through.

She slipped down the staircase and into The Shadow, glancing at us over her shoulder to ensure we followed closely behind. We had crossed The Shadow so many times at this point I no longer needed a guide, but we kept our heads down and our mouths shut all the same.

Donika could have spies in the city and we needed to remain off her radar. I made a mental note to pick up some glamours when we visited Alastir, though I didn’t have any coin on me and doubted the others did, either.

Saanvi led us through the darkened tunnel and the spelled door beyond it that led us up and out before turning back into her regal human form and slipping into step beside me.

“Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to be a Nightshade, and what my animal form might be,” I told her.

“Something fierce,” Saanvi replied, nodding to herself as she thought. “Maybe a lion… or a jaguar?”

“Or a honey badger,” I mused with a laugh.

Saanvi smiled, turning towards me as we continued to walk. “Sure, you can be a honey badger, My Queen. ”

Her use of my title surprised me, my foot catching in the space between two cobbles, momentarily tripping me before I regained my balance.

“Please, call me Diana.”

I had been jealous when I had first met Saanvi, thinking there was something more going on between her and Nik. Those thoughts were quickly quelched when I saw the camaraderie between them. Saanvi was smart and loyal—I was thankful to call her a friend and to have her at my side.

“Ok, Diana,” she replied, a blush rising to her cheeks and painting her tawny skin in the most beautiful shade of rose. “Thank you, for trusting me to come on this mission with you.”

“Of course. You are one of my best advisors, and nobody knows the streets of Prins the way you do.”

“Being a cat certainly helps. I can slip in and out easily without being seen. It’s a common enough animal that hardly anyone pays attention to me.”

“A trait I wish we all possessed. I would give anything to be invisible,” I replied, biting my lip. “I fear even if we are successful in this mission, we have no chance at winning the greater war.”

“I don’t have those same fears,” Saanvi said, lifting her chin. She met my gaze as she tugged on her long, midnight braid. “I have every faith in you—bound or not.”

My brows pinched together as I glanced back at her. “Without the binding, I have no magic,” I protested. “I would be essentially… us eless.”

Saanvi shook her head fiercely. “Never useless. You might not be able to call on your storm magic, but the prophecy never said anything about using magic to defeat Donika. Only that it would be an unusually powerful Stormshade of the Kotova bloodline that would do it.”

My gaze fell to my boots as we walked, realization dawning on me.

Saanvi was right.

“But without my storm magic, I’m practically mortal,” I argued.

“I’m not sure it will matter. You are wicked with your blade.” She nodded towards Stormslayer strapped against my thigh. “And you’re forgetting one vital piece of information,” she replied.

My gaze pulled from the cobblestones to meet her amber eyes once more. “And what might that be?”

“Donika is not without weaknesses. Blood. Family. This is her weakness, and we will do everything in our power to use it and exploit it. Even if we can’t save Nik—”

I cut her off with a glare that had her chuckling.

She cleared her throat before speaking again.

“Even if things don’t go as planned and you remain unbound, Donika is weakened by her blood ties.

By her family. She couldn’t bring herself to kill her mother, despite having every opportunity to do just that.

She knows Zion betrayed her—turned on her—but she never sent a contingent after him when the soldiers she did send couldn’t find him in the woods.

And you. She has had the opportunity to kill you many, many times. But she hasn’t. ”

“While that may be true, I think she might have been waiting until she finalized the siphoning spell. She wants my magic.”

“But does she want your magic more than she wants you dead?” Saanvi asked, her brow raised. “She already has storm magic. She has Isaac’s. She claims to want you dead, then why is she dragging her feet? Why toy with you when she ambushed us in Siraleth instead of cutting your throat?”

My gaze fell to the cobblestones once more as I gave what Saanvi has said some thought.

If it was true and family was Donika’s weakness, she might hesitate.

All it would take is one moment of hesitation for me to run Stormslayer across her throat and end this.

Zion and Annelise would be marching with us, and they would serve as further distraction.

She had the opportunity to kill them in Siraleth, too.

But she hadn’t.

Maybe Saanvi was right, and we had finally identified Donika’s only vulnerability.

“I think you might be a genius, Saanvi.” A smile spread across my lips as I felt—for the first time since Nikolai turned—that there was hope to put an end to this war.

“I wouldn’t go that far.” Saanvi laughed. “But I appreciate the sentiment, nonetheless.”

“I would much prefer to march against Donika while bound, but if worst comes to worst, we might only need to distract her long enough to finish the job. She does love theatrics, after all.”

“She sure does,” Saanvi agreed as we crested the narrow hill that brough us into Dragon’s Hollow and towards Alastir’s shop.

Saanvi gave me a reassuring nudge as I tucked a stray curl behind my ear.

“But I don’t think we will need to worry about that too much.

I think we will find the cure to this Noctani bullshit and we’ll be marching against Donika with Nikolai and Isaac in tow. ”

“I sincerely hope you’re right,” I breathed.

The flapping of wings and the stirring of air interrupted us as Kenna landed before us, seamlessly turning into her human form without as much as a missed step.

“Did I miss out on the girl talk?” she asked, tossing her sleek onyx hair over her shoulder. It was such a contrast to her pale, milky skin.

“Not exactly,” Saanvi replied as she cast me a knowing glance.

“Have either of you been to Alastir’s before?” I asked as we began the trek back down the hill, Alastir’s shop coming into view in the distance.

“Sure have. We’ve been trying to get the stubborn old bastard to join the resistance for years until he finally told us not to come asking again or he would curse us,” Kenna replied.

My eyebrows rose in alarm.

“He is an incredibly powerful seer with a vast amount of spells in his repertoire, he could most certainly curse us if he wanted to,” Saanvi replied with a shrug.

Nik had also asked Alastir to join the resistance, but he had claimed he was too old for war.

Maybe there was still hope yet to sway him to our side.

He had been the closest friend and advisor to my father Osiris.

He hadn’t been surprised when I had shown up on his doorstep in Prins searching for stolen spells.