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Only when my fireball reaches him does he release me.
I plummet toward the deadly spires.
Thirty-Nine
Aircrashesintome.Iclingtothecrystallinestaff.Therelentlesswindstrytopriseitfrommygrasp,butIrefusetoletgo.
This is all I have of my father. I will not lose it.
Cobalt rooftops surge up to meet me. As do gleaming spires. But I have no time to fear them.
High above, Arluin melds with the shadows. In a cloud of darkness, he descends toward me.
The distance between us rapidly closes. I can’t fall quickly enough.
I must do something. Now. If I do nothing, he will soon reach me.
I gather aether and craft the image of my manor’s gilded gates in my mind.
“Laxus!”
Magic bursts from my fingers. Shadowy tendrils curl around my wrist. But I’m already fading away. The darkness seizes air.
In the next heartbeat, I’m standing outside my manor. Heavy clouds shroud the sky, and the gates glint in the stifled starlight. Now that the Aether Tower is deactivated, the enchantment on the gates is broken, and they are swung wide open.
If Arluin follows me here, the gates will do little to stop him. But with how powerful he is, even if the enchantment remained, it would provide me with little defense.
I don’t know why I chose to teleport here. It offers me no advantage. It leaves me cornered.
My breaths come out in sharp bursts, and my pulse beats to a frenzied rhythm. I almost collapse in a heap outside my manor, but I know I can’t. I must keep on going.
A cacophony of howls fills the night. The undead are not far. Soon they will reach this street, and I will be overwhelmed by a sea of ghouls and wights. I must escape before they do.
But before I can do anything, a sharp stabbing pain sears across my wrist. It feels as though a knife is piercing my flesh.
I glance down. There is no knife. Only an eye that has been inked across my skin. The mark of dark magic.
“Reyna,”Arluin calls, his voice echoing through my mind.“I know where you are. I can see everything.”
A tracking spell. He must have placed it on me before I fell. Now that he knows where I am, he will be here within moments.
I must run. But to where? No matter where I choose, he will find me. The eye etched into my flesh will make sure of that.
But an eye cannot see if it’s blind.
I don’t stop to consider whether my theory is too simplistic. I only act.
“Ventrez!”A fierce gale blasts from my fingers. It cuts through the thin fabric of my skirts.
The scraps fall to the ground. I grab them and wrap them around my wrist. My fingers are clumsy with desperate haste.
“I won’t lose you. Not ever—”
I secure the knot with my teeth. Arluin’s words are cut off. He doesn’t speak again.
Did I succeed? Does his silence mean I blocked his tracking spell?
Even if I did, he knows that I’m here. I can hesitate no longer.
