“What have you done?” Veli demanded, tone full of wrath as she stared at the fountain.“What. Have. You. Done?!”She turned to us then.
“I knew bringing her was a mistake,” Zaela murmured from where she stood, and my gaze shot to her as my lips curled back in a snarl.
A sob broke from Avery. “Veli, I—”
“You have no idea what you have done. Not a singlefuckingclue.” She moved toward us and my hand shifted to my sword at my hip on instinct. “What I risked centuriesago…what I havehidfor all that time, was to protect the innocents of this gods-forsaken world from them. And you just destroyed everything.”
“How did she even get the book?!” Zaela snapped as she stormed to where we all stood.
I looked at Avery. “Well? How did you get the book?”
“Lia, I’m so sorry.”
“This is not a time for apologies.” I held up my hand to halt her efforts. “You need to tell us how you got that book and why you even thought to bring it here.”
The thought hit me then…of Avery disappearing below deck just after I had told her where Veli was putting the book.
“I brought it in case it was needed. If Veli needed it and we were under attack…I never planned to hand it over. I never knew Veli stole it to begin with or that it was something they desired!” she shrieked as tears ran down her cheeks.
“It never should have been brought here!” Veli boomed.
“You never told us youstoleit!”
“Little Princess Avery stillneverminding her own business. People are allowed privacy! You are not owed everything just because of the last name you bear.”
“Enough!” I shouted. “Everyone calm down.”
Veli looked at my sister with disgust. “You have doomed us all.”
Avery winced.
“Will it hold?” I asked. “The barter. Will it hold since they took the book? That they will aid us in the war.”
“There was no barter made in magic or blood. No true bargain exists now. Just a reclaimed artifact.”
“Fuck,” I muttered.
“And you!” she hissed at me. “Letting her taste your blood?! She has access to all your recent memories now! At the very least, for the last day. Just as I was about to scold you, the wind picked up, and the chaos ensued.”
“My memories?!” I shrieked as I glanced down at my bleeding fingertip she had slithered her tongue across.
“Yes! Which means she knows how we arrived here and what awaits us in the sea,” Veli revealed.
“Mother of the gods…Nox!” I gasped, terror taking over me at the thought of those witches on their way to him as we spoke.
Veli’s attention moved back to the archway from which we came, her eyes widening in alarm. “We will need to argue about this all another time.” Her gaze found mine, and I pressed my lips together tightly, clenching my teeth. “Evil lingers in the marshes.”
My eyes slowly widened. “Jace,” I breathed.
The four of us took off into a run instantaneously, back through the archway, as I desperately reached down into the bond to get a sense of him. Panic immediately consumed me, making it impossible to distinguish between whether the fear that I felt was his or my own.
Chapter thirty-three
Jace
The twisted trees, withtheir roots springing from the marsh floor, held my gaze as I stared into their secretive depths. I couldn’t feel Lia. It was driving me absolutely insane.
I never felt pain, or panic, or hurt—the bond just felt as if it emptied. To calm my nerves, I told myself that it could have been the work of the magic that lingered in this strange land, but I was losing my last bit of patience that remained.
