Seren stops dead, head whipping back around. “I can stay?”
Lara’s face does not falter, does not soften. “No.”
She strides forward, stepping in line with Seren and gesturing for her to continue walking.
“We have an assignment,” she states, voice almost bored.
An assignment?
“What does that have to do with… me?” Seren asks, heartbeat hammering in her chest.
Lara walks steady, eyes trained forward.
“You’re coming with us.”
Seren sucks in a sharp breath.
“I can’t,” she says, the words rushing out of her before she has a chance to think.
Lara doesn’t react.
“You can.”
Seren pulls up below the Silent Choir, their bones rattling in the sea breeze like some sort of omen.
“I need to go to Azhareth. My friend needs me.” The words stumble out, more desperate than she intends. “Loyalty, remember?” she adds, forcing more strength into her words.
Lara huffs a laugh at that, and it seems genuine.
“You have one hour,” Lara allows. “Coin is not made by failing assignments.”
One hour. One fucking hour.
“It’s not enough?—”
She cuts herself off.
The bones rattle again—a warning.
Seren’s eyes blow wide in recognition.
Not a warning—a sign.
She reaches up, bones of feet dangling just above her head.
She reaches up, and pulls.Hard. And disconnects the bone of a big toe.
“Another way to beat the crossing—skip it entirely,” she muses, eyebrows raising at Lara.
For the first time since she met Lara, the woman offers a smile that reveals her teeth. Not a beaming smile—a wicked one. Feral. The look of a woman delighted by cunning. And approval from Lara feels dangerous enough to become addictive.
“Lesson one, Seren Calvatere,” Lara says, voice commanding. “Arcanists lack the raw talent to open Gateways at will—they must imbue their Gateways with the essence of the destination. But you? You are full-blooded. Do not lower yourself to the magic of half-bloods. Command your Gateway by will.”
Rage flares hot and sharp in Seren’s chest.
She bares her teeth. “You mean I’ve been doing this fucking crossing when I could’ve just opened a Gateway to the mouth?” she hisses the words.
Lara does not flinch, does not even react to the outburst. “Yes. None of this is necessary, Seren. It is ritual.”
