AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter 16
Sylas wasn’t joking. I mean, that much had been clear. But when he had said he’d already had a few people working on forging nightsteel weapons, I had imagined a smaller operation than what we were walking through now.
A great hall, or something equivalent, had been repurposed to accommodate several forges. Two shadow demons stood at each, working in tandem to mold nightsteel into weapons to be used for war. This was by no means a quick process. Nightsteel had always taken me the longest to work with, and I’d made weapons out of pretty much every otherwise common metal.
I wondered how long Sylas had been working at this. I’d never gotten an exact timeline from Mrak on when he’d been exiled. Had Sylas taken over right when that exile had started? Sylas had been the cause for that exile—or at least, the catalyst for it. If Sylas had taken over right away, and if he’d had this wild plan all along, itwaspossible he had a whole army’s worth of nightsteel weapons. But the longer I spent in Sylas’s presence, the less I believed Sylas was capable of logical long-term planning. He was violently mercurial at best, paranoid and ready to serve a long-dead god at worst.
Which is why I shouldn’t have been surprised that the forging set up Sylas had had prepared for me was both isolated in its own room, but also conveniently had chains for Willa and Quinn. Sylas was going to let them be with me for “assistance,” but not without precautions.
I pointed to the restraints which would see Willa and Quinn anchored to one of the stone walls. “That wasn’t part of the deal. They will not be chained there.”
Sylas grabbed Willa. She yelped as he drew a dagger and held it to her throat. “Would you prefer I hold her here, close to me, with a blade ready to draw blood? That is how you two prefer to exist, yes? Or so sources tell me.”
My fists balled at my sides. Willa shook her head just the slightest bit, her eyes pleading. It was the only thing keeping me from attacking Sylas right now.
“Just leave,” I growled. “I’ll start making weapons. What in particular suits you?”
Sylas threw Willa to the side. She stumbled and slammed into the stone wall with a cry of pain. Fury burned inside me. I wanted to kill Sylas. I’d wanted to kill him from the moment we’d first met, butnow. Now…
“Swords,” Sylas said. “Whatever breed of sword is quickest for you to make. Just know that you’ll be making what slays your king.”
I’m looking forward to it.
And please let that have been the only time I ever thought of Sylas as my king.
“Fine,” I spat. “Leave so I can get to work,your highness.” I injected heavy sarcasm into the phrase, which only caused Sylas’s grin to widen.
“Soon you’ll refer to me as husband.”
A hollow smile graced my lips. “Sure.”
Sylas held my gaze for a moment longer before ordering his guards to chain up Willa and Quinn. Only then did they leave us in peace, alone, behind a very much locked door.
When I was sure they’d gone away, I rushed to Willa’s side. “I’m so sorry.”
Her hands shook. “It’s not your fault.”
“It is,” I said as I summoned enough magic to heal the bruises already forming on her skin. “We wouldn’t even be here if it wasn’t for me.” I’d summoned Mrak. I’d helped him return to Kithonia and placed a target on Willa’s back.
Willa managed just enough leverage to grab my wrist as it passed where her hand hung. “We’d still be being bled by Lazarus and his friends daily if you hadn’t summoned Mrak and gotten us out of there. This, even this, is better than that hell had been, Aisling. We have power here.”
I chuckled darkly. “Doubt that.”
“You two are shadow demons now,” Willa said as she nodded toward Quinn. “And I still have my magic. I know if we act now, we’ll be punished. But when the time’s right, they won’t be able to hold us.”
We wouldn’t be escaping the castle alone without help either, but I knew Willa knew that. We’d be able to hold our ground. That was true. Maybe not against Sylas alone, but against his guards.
“Aisling,” Willa said as it was clear my thoughts had drifted.
I met her gaze. “I know.”
“Make the sword.” Then, to Quinn, she asked, “Do you know anything about the sword your brother wanted made? It had runes to ward against a specific shadow demon.”
“Mrak had said it’d probably kill me to make,” I added, worry shaking my voice. “At least, that’s what he said before I knew the truth about him and Kithonia and everything else.”
Quinn shook her head. “Our family has been in the Lunar League for centuries. I don’t know what specifically Leif was after, but if it had wards that would aid in the death of a shadow demon, itwouldbe powerful. Inexperienced casters would struggle to contain the magic.”
I considered that for a few moments before turning to Willa. “I made a ward against Mrak on a sheet of paper with a pen and it worked. If you helped with the sword, do you think we could do it?”
