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Cord’s heavy sigh of disappointment was loud in the silence. “We will not win this war if we are too afraid to make sacrifices for the greater good,” he grumbled.
“We will not win this war if we are eager to die either,” Marcus rebuked him. “You had the audacity to be angry at your mate for being willing to die for her fight, but now you are ready to throw anyone to eternal rest.”
“This is different,” Cord said heatedly. “She was willing to die in a skirmish; this is to free hundreds and hundreds of Akrhyn, who weneedif we want to win.”
“She is part of the Prophecy,heis part of the Prophecy, the Prophecy does not state that we kill ourselves—there is too much still to be done. Too much that we do not know.” Marcus gripped his hands in frustration. “I cannot believe I have to argue with you to save your life,” he said with an angry glare to Leonid.
“Maybe we would all benefit from some Reflection,” Lucas offered, trying to ease the tension.
Cord went to argue, but his Mark tingled. “Yes,” he said instead. “An evening apart may be best.”
The others mumbled their agreement, and Cord hastily climbed the stairs to his room. When he was in the bedroom, he crossed to the window and opened it. Moments later, Leonid slipped into the room.
He looked at Cord, who gave a quick assertive nod to confirm the room was sealed. “Well, that went well,” Leonid said dryly.
“It went about as well as expected,” Cord said with a smirk. “The Mark started to react when we were down there,” Cord said as he lifted his shirt to look at it. “Any change?” he asked Leonid as the Vampyre came closer to inspect it.
“I do not think so,” Leonid said as he stopped to study the small of the Castor’s back closely. “Oh wait, I think—” He stopped and met Cord’s eyes in the mirror. “I do believe the wolf on your back is growling.”
Cord snorted out a laugh as he dropped his shirt. “I did not think he cared that much for you,” he said casually as he picked up his hooded jacket from the bed and pulled it on.
“No,” Leonid answered with a slight smile, “I too was taken aback at his vehemence to keep me alive.”
Cord fastened his coat and looked at the Vampyre. “You sure about this?”
“Of course,” Leonid confirmed as he went to the window. “It is the only way.”
“It really is,” Cord said quietly. “I even have the Ancient confirming it.”
“Well, then it is a decree of the Ancients,” Leonid said over his shoulder as he climbed out the window. “Who are we to argue?”
“Who indeed,” Cord muttered as he followed the Made out of the room, over the rooftops and down into the snow below. “We want to leave tracks, remember,” he said to Leonid as the Vampyre moved with hardly a trace on the snow. Leonid gave a sign of acknowledgement, and with a firmer foot, he pressed into the snow.
Swiftly they ran over the ground, heading for the mountain where the Made were gradually dying. As they got closer, Leonid slowed down, his hand out to Cord to do the same.
“Do you see?” he asked, his voice barely audible.
“I do.” Cord looked down at the basin below them. “I admit, I don’t think I would have if not for you and the cave.”
Leonid said nothing as they both watched the Drakhyn move below them. There were several tents pitched, fires burning and wagons sitting off to one side. When Leonid and Cord had arrived back at the house, Cord had realised the mass that was the Drakhyn army was an illusion. He had dispelled it, and the Darkness had run from his power.
Or so he had thought.
What had really happened was the Drakhyn stayed exactly where they were, the handful that had been there to start with. A spell to uncover one illusion while another was cast as quickly as the first one was broken.
When Cord realised what was needed to break the spell over the Court, he also remembered one detail he had forgotten in his journey to retrieve Leonid.
There had been Drakhyn on the mountain.RealDrakhyn.
Leonid had seen and heard nothing but the Darkness, but the Darkness could not penetrate the mouth of the cave, and even as Leonid could not see out, nothing could see in.
Velvore was known for his trickery, and he had protected Leonid from the Drakhyn that were hunting for his body. The traitors inside the Court knew that Leonid lived, and despite what Cord had said to Marcus, they knew it was the blood of an old one that they needed to break the protective spell Kateryna had cast. Why not the Prince of the Made?
As long as Leonid lived, every being in the Court lived inside with no Drakhyn to enter and kill them. However, Leonid was not wrong, the Made were slowly dying. They were starving. The Castors who had been slipping into the mountain that Leonid’s old friend Malack had witnessed were still there, they were as trapped as the rest of the Made.
Which was why Cord could not get in, and they could not get out.
All they needed was wood from a Mountain Ash tree to carry out the true death to one of the Made, and the Mark of Velvore to perform the counter spell.
