“It’s logical,” Calira says, voice stripped of emotion. “Call it collateral.”
Collateral.
The word lands so cold and hard Elyssara can barely breathe.
Ronyn huffs a humorless laugh. “You and you’re fucking collateral.” He shakes his head, clicking his tongue. “The whole world could turn to dust and you’d be liable to call it collateral.”
Revryn leans forward, reaching for his daughter. “See reason,” he begs, but she pulls away from him.
Revryn’s face falls, and his hand retracts, settling across his chest like he can stop his heart from breaking.
“I can reach him. I know I can,” Elyssara tries desperately to convince the room.
“You can reach him, but can you reallystophim? He’s a Shadowweave with Death magic and a fucking curse of violence and madness in his veins. Can you honestly say you can control that?” Marin argues confidently.
Fuck her.
Seren clears her throat. “Bind it out of him. Bind it to something else.”
Saana shakes her head. “Energy cannot be destroyed, only changed. It would need a living vessel, somewhere else to go. Put it back in nature, and you could create another wall of Decay like before. And we all know we don’t want it inside another person. Who could be trusted with that darkness?” she explains.
Elyssara moves to open her mouth. To tell Marin’s wife to shut the fuck up. But Rubi speaks up.
“She’s right,” she agrees. “I ran experiments on the Decay when we were back in Thornewood, and all it did was infect whatever it touched.”
Fuck.
Saana nods in agreement. “Exactly. Killing him will end him, but it won’t end the Decay.”
Everything expands—the problem, the silence, the weight of it all.
Marin folds her arms. “Then what would we rather have? A future Decay problem, or an imminent threat capable of wiping out thousands?”
Silence settles over the conclave once more, and everyone can see this for what it is: two impossible catastrophes.
“My mother will use him, you know,” Marin states coolly, no emotion. “As soon as she realizes he’s infected—and she will—she’ll use it against you. Ending him is the only way this can’t be used against us.”
No.
No. No. No.
“So what do you propose then? Kill us both likeCommander Calirasuggested? Deal with a living Decay once more?” Elyssara snaps, panic trying desperately to climb her throat. She shoves it down.
Marin does not need to think. The words come out plain and simple. “Yes.”
The space erupts. Arguments detonate. Threats rent the air. But Elyssara is not done.
“What use are you to me if you cannot change outcomes, Marin? What the fuck are you doing here?” Elyssara snaps, emotion clogging her throat.
Saana grips Marin’s thigh. Soothing. Pleading her to stay calm.
Marin’s almond eyes bore into Elyssara, but she sucks in a long, slow inhale. “I’m here because if we don’t stop my mother, everyone in Caeloria stays trapped inside a system that will never let them prosper. I’m here because I am your only hope at facing my kingdom and having a chance at escaping this war without a massacre.”
Okay, quite compelling.
Elyssara composes herself. “Then tell us what we’re dealing with.”
Marin nods, accepting the temporary truce. “You’re dealing with an army of thousands, and weapons of mass destruction—canons, blades, machines that blast fragments of metal far and wide, killing anything in its vicinity, shields of Aether that can repel even magic itself.”
