Page 39 of The Edge of Darkness

A sudden realization hit me. “I-I saw you in the crowd.”

Niall looked at me with a raised brow. “You saw him?”

I nodded. I thought I’d glimpsed his golden hair and familiar face that night, but I’d written it off as my mind playing tricks on me.

“I made sure you were safe, and kept an eye on you from afar until I made my move. Once I had the talisman, I had to lie low with it for a while, so I took it to Neveshir while things calmed. I knew you had garnered the High Lord of Calledan’s watchful eye, and that he would take care of you in the meantime. I could sense something between the two of you as I watched you dance that evening. Mates are a thing to treasure.” Silas leaned forward and nodded to Niall, placing the talisman in his hands.

It was a simple, gold band, formulated to sit across the forehead of its bearer. There was nothing extraordinary about it—no exquisite detail or texture.

Yet, it felt other-worldly.

“How did you extract it?” Niall asked, trying not to seem as fascinated as I knew he was.

Before Silas could answer, footsteps sounded at the base of the stairs across the room as Aremis strode over to us, his eyes brimming with questions.

“Apologies for the interruption,” he said as he embraced Niall with a hard clap on the back. “Glad to have you back, Brother.” He smiled down at me next. “All of you.” Then his attention turned to the new Dionach, giving him a once-over.

“This is Auren’s Dionach, Silas,” Niall explained. The last part he tacked on with obvious skepticism.

Aremis flicked his eyes over to Remic, then back.

“Aremis is my second-in-command,” Niall told Silas.

Silas dipped his head in acknowledgement, but when he lifted it again, his brows were pinched. “You’re not like the others,” he said warily.

Aremis took a seat in a large leather chair next to Niall. “No, I am not,” was all he deigned to reply. He addressed Niall next. “Fallon’s awake, and Maeson is still working on Roirdan’s injury. She says . . .” His voice trailed off at the sight of what Niall held in his hand. “Is that what I think it is?”

“The relic,” Niall confirmed.

Aremis’s eyes filled with awe as he beheld it. “How is this in our possession?”

I pointed to Silas. “He was just getting to that, actually.”

Silas inclined his head toward the golden band. “Karios tasked me with its retrieval and told me where it was being held.”

“And where, exactly, was it?” Niall asked.

“At the base of Lord Killian’s library. There was a chamber on the bottom level—hidden to the naked eye—where several objects of value were housed. The talisman was one of them.”

I snorted in disbelief. “There’s no way it was that easy.”

Silas shrugged. “Karios had his hand in this. Who are we to question him?”

“And no one saw you take it?” Aremis asked with genuine curiosity.

“Not with the distraction.”

“The urn . . .” I recalled the commotion. “You caused the urn to fall to create a diversion, and then you slipped away.”

Silas nodded.

Niall leaned into my ear. “Told you it wasn’t me.”

I had half a mind to smack his arm, but I opted for nudging him with my shoulder instead, keeping my eyes on the talisman, afraid to let it out of my sight.

“But there is something you should know,” Silas continued. “While no one saw me take it, I saw someone while I was down there.”

“Who?” Niall asked.