“I’m sorry,” I whispered, blinking back a tear.
I closed my eyes and began the spell.
“Are you okay?”
I rushed to Nol as he was deposited in my room.
“I’m fine.” He brushed me away. “They brought me to the healer before bringing me here.”
“I’m so sorry, Nol.” I let my arms drop to my sides.
“Don’t you dare apologize. I can take it, Lennox. You forget I’ve been a prisoner for three years.”
“Still—”
“Did you think the spell would work?” he interrupted.
I leaned in close, whispering in Nol’s ear. “I didn’t even try the reversal spell, I made it look like I was before I made the female’s heart stop.”
Nol’s eyes widened, but he said nothing.
I’d wear her life on my soul for eternity, but I had to, I had to for Nol, for Luka. I couldn’t do the spell, I never would. I’d fake it until Nol and I made it out of here.
Or Adreona killed me.
Whichever happened first.
9
LUKA
“They moved to this location about five days ago.” Luciana pointed to the dot where the blood now pooled on her map. The blood had left a trail from where they had traveled before, the red stained into the parchment.
The Panateia were now stationed at the base of the Ignis Mountains, at the border of the Twilight Court, a couple of days’ ride from the Twilight Court’s capital city, Verbial.
“Why are we waiting so long to go?” I pressed. Nico, Declan, and I had arrived back from the Aquatic Court this morning. We had spent the last several days spreading the news of Lennox’s kidnapping, and the people across Lethenia were enraged.
Being able to do something productive had felt good. It didn’t keep my mind from lingering on Lennox, but it helped loosen the knot in my stomach.
“We need to be smart, that’s why.” Luciana reached for her leather-bound notebook. “Now that we’re tracking them, we need a plan. What are we going to do when we get there? How are we going to get her out? We can’t go in the front door.”
My knee bounced as I thought. “I’m guessing they have a block on magic like they did in their camp at the base of the Abode Mountains, that will complicate things.”
Luce flipped through her journal. “I hadn’t mentioned anything before because I didn’t want to get anyone’s hopes up,” she gave me a pointed look, “but I’ve been working on something, a spell to counteract their spell. They have to have a witch working with them, I don’t know how else they’d block out magic if not by using a spell. I’ve searched everywhere, and I couldn’t find any spell of the sort, the only thing I could think of was if a witch had created the spell.”
“You can do that?” Kara asked. “Create a spell?”
“Technically no, it’s not something we were ever taught. But every spell had to be created at some point, so why couldn’t you create a spell now? Just because we’ve been using the same spells for centuries doesn’t mean we still can’t make new ones.”
“So you’ve been creating a spell?” I asked, trying to keep my hope in check.
Luciana smiled, the first smile I’d seen from her since before Lennox was taken. “I createda spell.”
“Holy shit,” Nico murmured.
“I’ve been working with a couple of other witches in my coven. I think I’ve finally gotten it down, we tested it last night, and I was able to nullify their magic.”
I let that seed of hope take root.
