Page 209 of Commanding Scythe and Sky

Like she saw.

“It wasn’t nothing,” she said firmly. “To you, that kind of magic might be a parlor trick, but you restored our life to us, Doctor. Briar.” She ruffled her daughter’s hair as she emphasized my status.

“I find myself indebted,” the man said in that English tenor, stretching out his hand. I accepted, unsure of how to get the hell out of here without raising suspicion. “I’m Will. The boys told us you were talented, but I didn’t mean to find out firsthand.”

“The boys?” I inquired sweetly, even as I blinked his threads into existence, my magic snapping to a familiar midnight cord between two others.

“Cáit’s cousins told us you were powerful. Personally, I never did the nomad life, so I’m not privy to the Hazelharborian’s gauge on such a thing.”

“I’m nothing special,” I promised. “One of many.”

“And yet you’re part of the prophecy.”

“I don’t make the rules, Will. I just try to survive them.”

He smiled, and godsdammit, it was genuine. I should hate him. Should have refused to heal any of these motherfuckers simply because when they went back out there, they’d be targeting my people. My sisters. My friends. Aren’s hierarchy at the front of their wrath.

And yet, like the betrayer, I’d put them back together, unable to leave a soul aching.

That awareness left me feeling vaguely seasick.

“Don’t we all, beautiful? Don’t we all? It’s getting a bit harder to do, if I’m honest.”

I nodded, holding my smile in place as I asked, “I hope you don’t think poorly of me, but I overheard your conversation. What the soldiers are saying—is it true?”

“An ancient magic has awakened,” Cáit said, tone thick with promise.

“I heard you mention a queen?”

“The new Paladin monarch—more Commander, really. She leads her forces herself. Tiny, furious redheaded thing they call The Wraith.”

Every inch of my body froze in place because…

What did he mean the new Paladin monarch? Freya was a queen? Since when? I had a million questions, but only one came out. “The Wraith?”

“Aye,” Cáit said, nodding. “She’s a notorious thorn in our side—a bit of the curse of Rhiannon, some say. Personally, I’m not so sure. She sounds like a woman scorned, if you ask me.”

I lost control of a breath that nearly sounded like agreement. “She was with…” I hesitated, realizing the more distance I put between me and August, the better. Hope bloomed in my chest at the idea of both of them working to find us. Between the two of them, they had to be close. “The Great Commander? The new Paladin queen was with him?”

Will shook his head. “She was gone—we retreated when reinforcements arrived, but The Great Commander brought a massive storm with him—pinned us between the Assassin’s ridge and his fury.”

I nodded, poorly concealing my relief that he was still free—more of a threat for every day he breathed. “And the queen—she wielded this forgotten light? How did that work?”

“At first, it was just her blade. But then… saints, it was like orbs that floated up around her like a wall between us and her people—like balls of that lightning, only brighter—warmer. I never thought I’d see the day…”

But my brain had stopped tracking Will’s tale. An image burned through everything else.

“What… what kind of balls?”

He snorted, evidently amused with my phrasing or curiosity. “I dunno. It was like… fireflies.”

Fireflies. Like a wall of fireflies. Like lights… floating in the air.

Some secrets are best when kept.

Nodding, I swallowed thickly before wrestling one word past my vocal cords. “Wow.”

Barry saved me from needing to say more, making a beeline not for his still-recovering brother-in-law, but for Cora. He scooped her up in his broad hands and threw her into the air so high even Cáit gasped.