Glancing around the kitchen and dining area, I found everything to be exactly the same.
Noir guards were filtering into the room. Ketos still remained on the floor. Auric wasgone.
Everyone was who they said they were, which meant this wasn’t one of Sayir’s mind manipulations.
No, this was a different sort of spell. One that purposefully kept us all calm and at ease…
And distracted.
That’s when I felt the negative energy from outside.
Something big was coming.
Something hidden.
Something I should have noticed but hadn’t because of whatever these damn angels had done to me.
Iston and Netiri,I realized with a snarl.
I wasn’t sure how I knew… I just did. The wrongness wafted off of them like a stench. Or maybe it was the energy I felt pulsating in their auras, like they wore a personally signed note from Ketos that said,Bad guys here.
Am I imagining that?I wondered.Making up evidence to support my theories?
Maybe.
But it was the only conclusion that made sense after days of insanity.
The wrongness.
The betrayal.
The sense of somethingother.
And suddenly everything was clear again.
And I couldhearIston chanting. Not speaking. Not uttering words of apology or orders or asking questions.
No.
A chant.
And the residual magic underlying those words made my skin crawl.
This is your doing, you asshole.
The guards finally looked at me, realizing that I stood over here rather than in the middle of the room.
I growled as they charged forward, only to bounce against the invisible shield between us.
An energy shield.
From Ketos.
This was all him. The wake up shove. The energy signatures over Netiri and Iston. My ability to hear the chants.
He was doing this.
He washelpingus.
