“Absolutely not,” Vesryn bit back, steering the three of them toward the end of the corridor.
Jassyn seized the prince’s arm, dragging him to a halt.Thalaesyn raised his brows but ignored their scuffle. A slow-blinking gray dracovae roused to hang its head over the stall door that they stopped in front of. The magister busied himself with stroking its feathery cheeks.
“You arenotgoing to rend the coercion if there’s any present,” Jassyn insisted, tightening his grip around Vesryn’s taut muscles. “This needs to be delicate work. What if we manipulate the telepathy improperly and damage their minds?”
Vesryn opened his mouth, presumably to argue that they were feral, but Jassyn interrupted. “The king could’ve incorporated magic that prohibits anyone from tampering. If we provoke a reaction, we could lose all opportunities to obtain answers—or possible locations of where they came from.”The conclusion sounded painfully obvious to him, but Jassyn assumed the prince could benefit from more pointed reasoning. “As unlikely as it seems, what if they’re not actually mindless and they’re compelled to act in that manner? We know there are higher thinking wraith, so it’s possible. We’re doing thismyway or we’re not doing it at all.”
“Do you even care about getting Serenna back?” Vesryn elbowed his arm out of Jassyn’s fingers. “If the wraith are hiding in the Hibernal Wastes like we’re suspecting, then that means those beasts likely have her—and who knows how many others who’ve disappeared over the years.” The prince’s eyes flashed with what looked like anguish and devastation. “I won’t hesitate to flay their minds if it gets me answers.”
“I know you’re worried. I’m worried too, but you need to trust me on this.” Jassyn blew out a breath, releasing his pent-up frustration with his cousin.
With an indecipherable expression chiseled into his features, Vesryn clenched his jaw, looking away. He didn’t meet Jassyn’s gaze, staring at Thalaesyn petting the dracovae.
Jassyn lowered his voice. “You heard how the magister said everything was his fault. We need to discover how. If we canuntangle the coercion on the wraith, I should be able to use the same techniques to dispel the rest of the magic on Thalaesyn’s mind. We’ll figure out what secrets the king is concealing.”
Vesryn’s shoulders slumped, like wind vanishing from sails.
“I need his help—this is unfamiliar territory and magic we’ve never studied before,” Jassyn said, sensing he was finally wearing the prince down. “But itispossible to unravel the compulsion. Elashor dispelled it on me before I returned to Centarya.”
Vesryn yanked a thread off of his uniform. “Elashor should be the one we seize to pry answers out of. He’s closer to my sire than anyone else.” The prince shook his head, fingers twitching at his sides. “I can’t stand here and do nothing.”
“Then dispatch your rangers.” Jassyn placed a hand on Vesryn’s shoulder, knowing he needed to convince the prince to concentrate on something else—so as to not disturb the sensitive work. “You have Serenna’s general location. Organize your warriors so they can start patrolling in the morning. Let us handle this part. You focus on what you’re good at.”
Vesryn blew out a sigh. “Fine.” He jerked his chin down the stall-lined corridor. “Our command room is down there. You’ll inform me if you discover anything.”
Jassyn relaxed, watching the prince hide behind a mask of annoyance to conceal his unease. “Of course.”
“I’ll leave you to it then.” Vesryn pivoted on his heel, prowling down the hallway.
CHAPTER 27
LYKOR
Finally liberated from the gold portion of the dungeons, Lykor punched out a volley of force. The remaining rubble blasted out from the top of the prison stairs, crashing into the caverns. Strangled by a cloud of debris clogging the air, he and the girl both broke into a fit of coughing.
Her name is Serenna,Aesar chided, clearly still furious that Lykor had snatched back control, interrupting the recounting of his complete life story. As if the elf cared about every moment back to the second of his conception.
WHATEVER.
Lykor figured that Aesar had droned on enough that the elf was now sufficiently informed of the wraith. In return, the girl had filled the gaps in their knowledge of what little she knew of the elves’ activities these past few decades.
Lykor lifted his eyes when the sting of flying sediment receded, the air hazed from fallen stone. Barnacled to the rocky walls, mushrooms, lichens, and moss shimmered with glowing cyan hues, eliminating the need for illumination. A winding channel flowed ahead, feeding the various underground lakes within the volcano’s depths.
Striding toward the crystal water, weariness rippled off Lykor like the waves skimming the surface. Exacerbated by Aesar’s prattling and the stars knew how many hours ticking by since the elf had portaled to him, Lykor’s throat felt drier than the settling dust.
Staggering, the girl stumbled past him like her life depended on reaching the gravel shore first. She peeled off her boots at the water’s edge and glanced back at him. Uncertainty and grime streaked her face.
“Is it safe to drink?” she asked.
Lykor’s boots crunched on the shale as he approached the creeping stream. Curious how she’d react, he considered saying no.
In their mindspace, Aesar whirled from a window overlooking Kyansari’s spires.Do you have to be such a prick?
DO YOU HAVE TO MONITOR MY EVERY MOVE?
What else is there to do?Aesar muttered.
YOU DON’T FIND HER A LITTLE IRRITATING?
