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“Then are you a worldwalker?”
Cora was struck with the most potent hatred, and her answer dried in her throat. Similar emotions came from the two fae behind Fanon, but theirs was tangled with far more fear. Fanon’s contempt, on the other hand, was too strong to carry much else.
Whatever a worldwalker was, he despised it with a violent passion.
Tell them we came through the Veil, Valorre said.
She shuddered beneath Fanon’s icy stare but finally managed to find her words. “I…I think we came through the Veil.”
He watched her for a few silent moments, then reached toward his waist. Her heart slammed against her ribs as she expected him to unsheathe his sword—
To her relief, he simply extracted something from inside his robe. Her eyes widened as she took in the strange item. It looked like a large cuff made from two pieces of curved obsidian that ended in tapered points. Like talons. Or claws. A wide gap remained between the sharp tips, and as Fanon tugged on both sides, it widened further on a hinge.
He stepped even closer, bringing the cuff-like object toward her neck.
“What is that?” Cora asked, voice trembling. She struggled against her invisible bonds but they were just as strong as ever. Valorre gave another futile whinny.
“Fanon,” Etrix said, his tone brimming with warning. “You don’t have to—”
Fanon ignored his companion and proceeded to hook the cuff around her neck. She couldn’t see when he closed it, could glimpse no part of it beneath her chin, but as she felt a sharp pain bite into her skin, she realized he hadn’t hooked itaroundher neck; he’d hooked the tapered points into her flesh.
Vertigo seized her, first from fear, then from…
A hollow feeling crept upon her awareness. An empty void. An unsettling quiet.
It took her several long moments to realize what was happening.
Her magic…
Her awareness of outside emotion, her connection to the dance of the elements all around her…
It was…gone.
This wasn’t the quiet that came from using her mental shields. This was an absence of clairsentience altogether. A rent in her very identity. Frenzied grief rattled her bones, sent her head spinning, lungs tightening, tears springing to her eyes…
“Is this entirely necessary?” Etrix said, striding up to Fanon. With hollow awareness, Cora realized the translation enchantment remained in place. It seemed the strange collar only affected her own use of magic. She cast a glance at Valorre, tried with all her might to convey some silent thought to him.
She didn’t know if it worked. Didn’t know if he understood the words she couldn’t form.
Then she heard a subtle,I’m here.
It was simple. Stilted. It reminded her of how they’d begun to communicate when they’d first met. Perhaps their connection was weak when only one of them could use their magic. At least they could converse at all.
Etrix spoke again. “She said she isn’t a worldwalker. Even if she was, no worldwalker can move through the Veil. She can’t leave, with or without the collar.”
“We don’t know that,” Fanon said, his cruel gaze still on Cora. “The Veil was woven to keep a worldwalker from entering our world; one could still worldwalk out. Besides, if the Veil is torn, who knows what a worldwalker can do? I won’t risk letting her escape until we’ve sorted out the truth.”
With that, he turned his back on her and began walking away. He was no more than a few steps ahead before Cora found herself pulled forward by that unseen force. She stumbled to keep her feet beneath her, and when she finally managed to match the pace she was being dragged at, it was too fast. Or was she simply too drained? Too broken in the wake of her stolen magic?
Valorre trotted beside her. Though he too moved against his will, his presence provided some semblance of comfort.
“I’m sorry,” Etrix said, keeping pace at her side, “about the collar. I know it hurts, but it’s a necessary precaution.”
The physical pain she felt biting into the sides of her neck was nothing compared to the absence of her magic. “Where are you taking me?”
“To the Veil,” Garot said, grinning over his shoulder like the situation was nothing more than run-of-the-mill amusement to him. He outpaced Fanon and paused at the edge of the meadow. He made a complex gesture with both hands, and the landscape turned to a swirling vortex of green and brown that opened into some sort of tunnel. It was just like what the three males had emerged from when they’d first appeared. Fanon strode straight into it, while Garot waited at its entrance for Cora and Etrix to bypass him.
“Don’t worry,” Etrix said as they approached the unsettling whirl of color. “So long as you aren’t a worldwalker, you have nothing to fear from us.”
