“We’ve been trying to contact you for days,” I shot back. “Avery told us you’d know what this was, but you disappeared.”
Syris slowly stepped up to me. Despite being shorter, the sheer force behind his stare nearly made me take a step back anyway. He was serious.
“I’m not asking again, boy.”
My fangs snapped down before I could stop them.Who the fuck was he calling boy?
“Hey—hey.” Ternin slid directly between us, palms raised.
The fact that he turned his back to me told me exactly who he thought was more dangerous right now. Easton and Manic moved toward Syris too, subtly boxing him in.
“Let’s lower the temperature,” Ternin muttered carefully, then he glanced over his shoulder at me, eyes practically begging. “I don’t think he made the thing, right, Cal?!”
The anger burned hot in my chest another second longer before finally cooling enough for me to think.
This was family. These were the people I was trying to protect. My shoulders sagged.
“No,” I admitted quietly, gesturing toward the blade. “Someone used it against Nova a month ago.”
That changed everything.
Syris blinked once. The fury drained from his face so abruptly it almost looked painful. “What?”
“They tried to kill her with it,” I rushed out. “She sent it to me after her jaguar mate realized the magic came from Faerie. He told us it was some kind of ancient magic the royals destroyed.”
The room fell silent again, but this time it was heavy instead of explosive.
“There’s a group after us,” I continued. “Excitatio. They’ve been experimenting on supes. Creating hybrids. Building weapons with this ancient magic.”
Syris’s jaw clenched tighter with every word.
“That,” he snarled, stabbing a finger toward the blade, “is not fae magic.”
The disgust in his voice curled through the room like smoke.“That’s a perversion. A distortion. It’s sacrilegious and goes against everything the land of Faerie is!”
I stared at him, completely thrown by the sheer venom pouring out of him.
Ternin rubbed a hand down his face. “Sy,” he said gently, “I think you need to tell him.”
That alone nearly made me pass out. Ternin being the voice of reason? The apocalypse truly was coming.
Syris inhaled sharply through his nose, calming himself enough to motion to the chairs in front of us. “You know about the fae royal war?”
Nodding, I sat down next to him while the others circled around us.
“Faerie started shrinking, and the royal families were slaughtering each other over what remained.” Syris laughed once, but there wasn’t an ounce of humor in it. “That’s the story they told the rest of the world, at least.”
His eyes dropped back to the blade. For a second, genuine revulsion crossed his face.
“This,” he said quietly, “is therealreason the war started.”
“Long ago,” Syris began, rubbing one hand over his mouth like he was trying to wipe away the memory before speaking it aloud, “Faerie used to choose someone to speak for the land itself. A protector. A voice.”
The room stayed completely still around him. Even Ternin stopped fidgeting.
“When I was a boy,” Syris continued quietly, “that person was my uncle.” His gaze drifted to the blade again, and the thing twitched faintly under his stare.
“My uncle learned how to commune with the land deeper than anyone before him. He learned how to guide the magic that flowed through Faerie.” Syris’s lips curled bitterly. “And then he learned things no one should’ve ever known and did things no one should’ve ever tried.”
