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Blood boiled. “Someone manipulated my damn mind?”
“I don’t know, but I won’t let it happen again.” A shadow crossed his features. “What does your mind tell you now??”
“I’m here.” I trapped his face between my palms. “I trust you, and I want to find this Well, even with the risks. I want to remember what it is like to be a mage.”
Kage traced the curve of my bottom lip with his thumb. “Thenkeep to the shadows, Wildling. See if you remember what it is like to sneak about.”
We let the others sleep. Hallucination elixirs needed to conceal us were too few—the stores being used to manipulate Kage’s bedchamber—and we had little time to wake Gwyn for her talent with theofskyspells.
We ducked out of his tower through a back door the servants of the seers used to bring teas and meals.
Near a tall, arched stable, he tugged me behind a few casks. “The Well of Urd is in a cellar. There.” Kage pointed toward an old stone building. Unimpressive, and the whole structure seemed to tilt to one side. He squeezed my hand. “Ready?”
I answered by racing across the open space between buildings, crouched, and lost in the shadows of the moonlight until we both slammed our backs to one wall. Kage spun his hand at his side; the latch clicked open.
Heart racing, I followed Kage. The notion of descending underground added pressure to my chest, like the walls might be caving in, but I kept pace. We’d come this far, and I wouldn’t be the one to turn us back now.
When it bottomed out, only a circle of stones in a narrow room was there to greet us. Wet straw perfumed the air with mold and a thick cloud of unwashed skin.
I peered over the ring of stones. Black water rippled beneath a glass cover, locked in place with a gold chain.
“I need to open the lock. Without a seer, we’ll need to do so with less honor.”
I nodded. “Honor isn’t what’s going to stop this curse.”
Kage chuckled, but didn’t disagree. Mages, I’d come to learn, always carried some sort of pouch or hidden ingredient. Kage was no different. From the hem of his tunic, he unstitched a pouch I’d never have noticed, and took out a black leave with spiked edges. In his fist, he crushed the leaf until the barbs pinched into his skin and drew droplets of blood.
Kage quickly painted the latch in a series of rune markings.
“Careful,” he said when I stepped beside him. “When the spell catches hold, the metal will boil.”
I nodded and watched as he murmured a slow, careful spell. Soft words that brought a vibrant glow across the bloody runes.
Almost right away the gold lock hissed and a bit of white smoke billowed from the crack in the door. The latch bubbled and dripped to the ground until the door’s handle was melted away.
Kage let out a nervous chuckle and dug his fingertips under the shield.
“What?” I asked, helping him ease the glass from over the water. “Were you nervous?”
“In truth, I wasn’t certain if that would work. I improvised.”
“If it didn’t work, what would you do?”
Once the glass was safely deposited on the ground, he locked his gaze with mine. “I was not going through the night without doing all I could to bring you here, Wildling. You deserve to know.”
I traced the edges of my tattoos. “Be honest then—do you worry about the same things as Destin? It won’t change my mind, but I’d like to be prepared.”
“The Well of Urd reveals things, Adira. It takes blood, and shows you what you must see to ease your burden. For you it is finding your magic again. The way the degeneration fastened onto my blood, as far as I know, such a negative impact has never happened.”
It was too horrid, like Kage was specifically targeted.
He gave me a lazy smile. “This is how you can embrace your magic again, I know it. And to put you at ease, remember I am bound to protect you while we are here. Should you fall under duress, I will take it from you.”
“Wait, what?”
“My magic will help balance whatever is about to happen,” he said. “It is part of the sanctuary pact. I was going to explain it to Destin before he closed me out. You’re safe here with me. At least while we are in these walls.”
I cracked one thumb knuckle. “So, if I pass out or something . . .”
