Page 77 of Vicious Is My Throne

“To use them as soldiers against the others.” Tristan was gazing up at Bexley with a mix of awe and revulsion. “The conclave really believed they could control them?”

“You act like I was alive back then. I only know what I read,” Bex snapped, bristling as he fiddled with his ring. “We never even tried to bring them back, that’s all I know for sure.”

“Gods.” I rubbed my face. “If the knife was never used, does the weapon even work?”

Because the last thing I wanted to do was go face-to-face with Corvus with a silver toothpick in my hand that didn’t do a thing.

Bexley’s face glowed with the fervor of a true believer. “That blade was forged with the life’s blood of our first High Priestess. The weapon will kill a god, I am sure of it.”

“Whether or not that’s true, we still need the other piece.” I shook off the fog of exhaustion, sharpening my senses enough to finish this conversation. “She and I made a bargain. I mean to keep my word.” Tristan pulled me against him, and gods, it was tempting to disappear into the heat radiating from his muscled chest.

“You’re not seriously thinking of giving her back the magic, Anaria?” Tavion angled his head in that wolf-like way. “You know once you do, she’ll let this world burn.”

“Maybe. Probably.” I inhaled woodsmoke. Male sweat. My sweat. My nose wrinkled.

“But I’ve bought us a little more time. Our next stop has to be Varitus. With luck, I’d only need a day to drop the ward and unite the magic.”

Raz’s eyes met mine. “When you do, you know what will happen next.”

My stomach constricted, something like hopelessness swallowing me up, but I made myself shove the fear down, down, down to where worthless things belonged. “The blight will sweep into Varitus and destroy everything there.”

“Do we have a plan for this?” Raz asked, crouching down beside us to peer into my face. “Do we even know where we’re going?”

I gazed blankly over Tavion’s head at what remained of Bexley’s ruined experiments, the mage methodically arranging books and parchments, wiping them clean and carefully restacking them.

“A plan? Not exactly.”

I’d bought us time, but without the other piece of the weapon, we were carting around a worthless blade, and we couldn’t be in two places at once, so Blackcastle would have to wait.

But Zor knew we needed that pendant.

He’d been the one to figure out the secret in the first place.

All I could hope for right now was he’d gone back to Blackcastle for exactly that purpose.

“As far as where we’re headed…”

I took a deep breath, my stomach tangled into knots. “Ravenshade Castle sits on the eastern-most edge of Bloodwood Forest, close to the northern portal. We can…get our bearings there and decide how to best drop the wall with minimum casualties.”

The words came out in a staccato rush of cold, clear facts, while I ignored the emotions tangling up inside me. Messy, ugly emotions I didn’t want any of these males to see.

“Fuck, Anaria.” Tavion’s eyes cleared enough for him to gaze up at me in concern. “You don’t want to go back there.”

No, I didn’t, but Ravenshade was the only place in Varitus I was familiar enough with to choose as a starting point. “It’s fine.”

“That entire realm is in chaos,” Raziel pointed out. “The refugees flooded through the wall then crossed to the western shores weeks ago. By now, they might be off this continent altogether. Gods knows the chaos they left behind.”

“Actually, that would be a blessing.” I blew out a long breath. “But we’re usually not that lucky.”

No, scratch that. We were never that lucky.

But no refugees meant less casualties, and while I didn’t give a good godsdamn about the Descendants, there were innocent slaves on every single royal estate who didn’t deserve to be caught up in the chaos I’d unleash.

We had to come up with a way to mitigate the damage before I dropped the wall.

“Tristan, could you fly Bex and me there if Raz carried Tavion?”

My dear, sweet husband grumbled something wickedly foul. “You can’t walk there, Tavion. Flying is the only way. Would you rather have Tristan fly you there?”

---