Page 130 of Shardless

Her hand trembled as she slowly raised the gun and placed the barrel to her temple. The metal felt cool against her skin, and her heart thundered in her chest as she considered what she was about to do. Would this even work anymore? The memory of those startling highborn eyes staring back at her from the river’s edge flashed through her mind.

Yes—it would work. She could see it in the way the shadow mage’s eyes widened, in the way his shoulders tensed. He needed her alive. And even if she weren’t human anymore, if she didn’t have any aether left, her body wouldn’t be able to recover from a gunshot wound to the head before her heart stopped.

“Now, now, little mage,” he cooed gently, stopping his pursuit. He held up his hands in supplication. “Let’s not do anything hasty.”

The edges of the carved snowdrops etched into the side of the gun bit into her skin—her last gift from Skye. She still wasn’t sure if that vision in the relay room was real, but she hoped so. Because if it was real, that meant he would eventually make it back to Ryme. He would be safe. If she had managed to play even a small part in making that happen, then every risk she had taken had beenworth it.

She slowly squeezed the trigger, her thoughts lingering on Skye—on that final image of her family together at the townhouse.

Before she could fully depress the trigger, four distinct claps of deafening thunder shook the ground. The hyaline pillar closest to her shattered, throwing shards of crystal in every direction. Taly flinched, but the shards never seemed to reach her, sloughing off some invisible barrier that encircled the palace.

The shadow mage was not so lucky. Flung off his feet by the blast towards the tree line, he moaned feebly as he was impaled by a large spike of translucent crystal. At almost a foot in diameter and four times as long, it tore a gaping hole in his torso.

Taly’s grip on the pistol still pressed to her head faltered. Was he dead? No—he was still moving, already recovering in fact. And Shards, what had caused that explosion? A possible ally or something else? Should she try to fight? Could she make it to the gates? And what protection could the palace actually afford her at this point? When this man regained his feet, he would eventually tear through whatever was left of the palace’s defense system. Perhaps her fate had already been set.

With that thought, she slowly raised the gun back to her head…

“Darling, no,” a gentle voice said—a woman’s voice. The same voice from the relay room that had told her to run. A hand clasped hers, and as the gun was pulled away, Taly found herself staring at a very familiar face—one that looked strangely like her own.

The woman from her dreams crouched in front of her. Although her body looked almost transparent in the dim light, a soft sheen of shadow magic engulfed her, keeping her from completely fading into the night. Her golden hair was pulled back and piled upon her head in a braided coronet, and she wore armor forged from shadows and embedded with glittering waves of shadow crystals. The familiar symbol of the Water Shard’s personal guard—a kraken impaled by a trident—was set into the breastplate.

“Don’t be afraid,” she said soothingly, her hands moving to cup Taly’s face. “My baby. My darling girl. How I’ve longed to see you again.”

Something, some long-forgotten memory, finally clicked into place. “Mom?”

The woman smiled. “That’s right. I’m Breena. I’m your mother.” She paused to wipe at her eyes. “Shards, and here I was afraid that you wouldn’t remember me.”

Taly shook her head, her overworked mind not quite able to process just what was happening. “How…?”

Arching a single brow, Breena grabbed Taly’s wrist, and her finger grazed the shadow crystal that was embedded there. “A little planning and a lot of luck. I knew they would come for you eventually—to Vale. Ever since the day a human girl with my eyes stumbled up to my cottage, I knew the Sanctorum would come looking for us. Thankfully, you were able to warn us long before they set the fire, and my brother and I were able to make the necessary preparations.”

Taly simply stared at the woman blankly, her mind reeling. An image of that burned-out cottage she’d passed back in Vale flashed through hermind, and her eyes widened. That moment, however brief it had been—when an invisible power had brushed past her and reshaped the landscape right before her eyes… that had been real. That man as well as the woman she now recognized as being her long-dead mother—they had beenreal.

“I… I don’t understand,” Taly stuttered. “What do you mean,beforethe fire? The fire was 15 years ago. I just saw you back in Vale a few hours ago.”

Breena’s other hand came up to graze the pendant that hung from Taly’s neck. A glimmer of recognition and relief flitted through the older woman’s eyes. “Your magic allows you to view time differently than the rest of us. What happened only moments ago for you can be but a distant memory for others. That is your gift. And in this case, it was your salvation.”

Breena sighed, as though considering a long list of painful memories. “I could tell just by that brief glimpse that you had inherited your father’s recklessness. You had that same look in your eyes.” Turning Taly’s wrist over, Breena gave the younger woman a stern look that had her shrinking back instinctively. “Apparently, I was right. You almost burned up your anima when you tore through the last of the spells suppressing your magic.” She tapped the still-healing rune on the back of Taly’s hand. “I’m not sure where you went or how, but I had to bind your soul just to get you back into your body.”

“So that tugging…?” Taly’s voice trailed off as she recalled the strange encounter when she had somehow slipped out of her body. “When I was talking to Skye, that was real too?”

Breena’s brows shot up. “Skye? You mean that boy Ivain took in as his student? How interesting,” she murmured. “I never would’ve guessed that the two of you would’ve already… How unexpected."

“You bitch!” the shadow mage howled, finally recovering from his wounds and pulling the crystal from his body with a sickening squelch. Both women’s heads turned just in time to see him rising to his feet. He now wielded the bloodied shard of crystal like a mace. “Breena. I thought you were dead.”

Breena’s lips curled into a sneer as she rose, her hand reaching for the sword sheathed at her side. “Close, but not quite, Vaughn.”

The man, Vaughn, raked a disdainful eye across the shattered hyaline pillar. “Not bad for a dead woman. I daresay, when I awoke this morning, I never would have imaginedtwomembers of House Arendryl walking into my web. My master will be very pleased, indeed.”

“Your master?” Breena’s silvery gray eyes narrowed as they flicked down to the amulet that hung around Vaughn’s neck. “So, the rumors were true? He’s awake?” Vaughn gave her a smug sneer, and she huffed out a laugh in response. “Well then, that’s just going to make this even more satisfying.” A violet ripple of energy snaked around her hand, and then the ground erupted beneath Vaughn’s feet, throwing him back.

“Aether destabilization?” Taly stuttered as Breena pulled her to her feet. She had to lean against the fence just to keep from falling, her leg still unable to carry her weight. “I’ve only ever heard of Ivain being able to use that spell!”

“Well, who do you think taught me, dear?”Breena replied. A snap of her fingers was all it took to set off another explosion, and more shards of hyaline rained down from the nearby pillar. Vaughn moaned pitifully as he struggled against the crystal spikes that pinned him to the ground. The shadow crystal around his neck flashed, and a roiling cloud of magic curled around his body as he channeled his aether. He renewed his efforts, throwing off sprays of blood as he thrashed about. The crystals began to splinter and groan beneath the onslaught.

Breena started pulling Taly along the fence line, toward the gates of the palace, but Taly stumbled when her knee once more gave out beneath her. Breena moved with the kind of agility and grace that only a shadow mage could manage, quickly catching her and slinging an arm underneath her shoulders. Her mother’s body felt remarkably solid considering Taly could see right through her.

“Now then, my dear,” Breena said, “I wish we had more time, but you need to go.” When Taly pulled against the woman in protest, Breena just hoisted her up to her toes and started dragging her along without missing a beat. “If I were still alive, I’d have a chance at killing him, but as it stands, I only have enough power left to distract him while you get to the palace.”

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