After that memory, they’d gone back further. Selene tending to Ronin’s wounds when he’d returned to their family cottage in Denevrae after he’d acquired his injury. Mireille had gotten up to make more tea during that one.
Then even further and further back until they reached one of Ronin’s earliest memories. Two fluffy white wolf pups napping together, the smaller resting her black-nosed snout atop the larger’s neck after an exhausting morning of shifting practice.
But every time Cassandra attempted to leap into Selene’s mind, she was jolted back into her own by a solid white wall. As if something was blocking her entry.
“Shit.” She slammed her hand down on the table, making Ronin and Silas jump. “I don’t understand why it’s not working.”
Ronin dipped his head into his hands, rubbing at his patch, his voice quaking. “What if she’s dead?”
Cassandra pinched the bridge of her nose. “That can’t be it. Mireille’s father has passed, but I was still able to travel into whatever part of his mind remains in the Halfway. If Selene were dead, I’d be able to see her there, too.”
“Unless…” Mireille piped up from the kitchen, walking over with another steaming mug of tea.
“Unless what?” Cassandra asked.
She shot a nervous glance at Ronin. “Unless she was killed in the mists. And her soul is still trapped there.”
Ronin heaved out a shuddering sigh. Mireille placed her hand on his shoulder and he clutched it tightly. As if her touch were the only thing tethering him to this planet.
Cassandra frowned. “I don’t know. I’m not… I don’t think that’s it either. Whatever it is that’s keeping me from penetrating her mind feels intentional. Like someone has put up a barrier.”
“There’s one way to know for sure,” Silas piped up from beside the fireplace. “Wormwood keeps ledgers in his office above World’s End. Records of every single prisoner—their name, number, and sentence—that has ever breached the wards. The wards themselves provide the information.”
“What are you saying?” Mireille asked for Ronin, who was currently incapable of speech.
Silas looked to Ronin, compassion glowing in his moss-green eyes. “If we can get a look at those ledgers, we’ll know whether you need to keep searching the city and the mists.
“Because if her name isn’t in there, then she never passed through the wards.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
“Incredible that something so small could cause so much damage,” Tristan mused, pinching the small translucent device between his fingers.
Toeing his boot through the dust on the church floor, Cael rumbled out, “My father’s business motto.”
“He’s not… He can’t track this right now, can he?”
Cael shot Tristan an annoyed glare. “I lost half my wings, not half my brains. I’m sureTrophoniosof all people can still crack the secrets of an inactive device.”
Tristan chuckled. “High Gods, I’ve missed your grumpy ass, Zephyrus.”
Cael leaned forward, placing his forearms on his thighs. “No one to put you in your place among the rebels, huh? No wonder you need me to join.”
Tristan perked up, his wings rising over his shoulders. “You ready?”
Cael shook his head. “Not until you tell me how to deactivate that thing. How was your trip to Delos?”
Tristan pocketed the device, gnawing on his lower lip. “It was… odd.”
He told Cael everything that had happened to him there. About retrieving the Compendium. About the elemental magic he’d been temporarily gifted after Ione had kissed him. About Eamon’s cryptic parting words.
“Shekissedyou?” Cael asked, brows rising.
“That’s your only comment?”
“That’s the only thing you said that makes me scared for your future. If Cassandra ever finds out…” Cael chuckled, slashing his hand across his throat. “Ethyrios can say goodbye to its new Emperor. Or hello to its new eunuch Emperor. She’ll have your balls.”
Tristan laughed, a loud thunderous sound. It felt good to laugh like that. He hadn’t felt such unburdened laughter since… Well, he could barely remember. Maybe the battle up in the Staurien Pass when all his anxieties had faded into the sole focus of slaughtering his enemies.
