Page 88 of Cage of Starlight
He starts slow, stretching it just to see if it will spread. It does—eagerly. It passes over Iri, and the burning energy at the core of him collapses. He shudders, and Tory spreads it farther, over the clearing and then beyond it, to the tents and past them. He doesn’t realize how alive the camp was with energies until they die. Therearepeople still here. Maybe not many, but enough. The hair-raising buzz from the patrols beyond the tents flickers out, then something shimmery-bright that made the air feel warmer. Others go like background noise. Perfect silence with Tory at the center of it, electrified.
Sena sucks in a breath.
“Okay?” Tory asks.
“Feels strange.”
It spreads out and out like warm butter, easier than anything he’s ever handled. It must be far outside the camp and into the woods—and he’s not nearly at his limit; it would gofartherif he asked it to—when he lets it go.
It snaps back like a rubber band, and Sena staggers.
An apology half-forms on Tory’s lips, but Iri speaks before he can voice it.
“It’s strange, how slow it is to come back. It’s not immediate, it feels . . .”
Tory lets his eyes drift closed. It’s a sort of reverse crumpling. All around the camp, like insects starting their songs again after a predator passes, distinct energies flicker or whisper or crackle back to life.
It’s alot. Everything feels crisper, clearer. He’s not even trying and he gets the electric zap of the energies from beyond the tents flaring back, so clear they could be right beside him—
A choking noise precedes a non-verbal growl and a torrent of curses, and Tory’s eyes snap open. He knows that voice.
His body flares with remembered fear as he turns to find Judge with Sena on the ground, hand at his throat. No.Bladeat his throat, thin line of red welling around it.
“I’ll kill you this time, don’t you fucking doubt me.”
Tory’s moving before he registers the desire to.
Iri is faster. Judge has at least a foot on him, but he wrenches at Judge’s arm, the fingers around his bicep too small to go all the way around.Don’t pull,Tory wants to beg. If Iri pulls—if the hand holding the knife snaps back against Sena’s throat—
Iri shoves at Judge. “Leave him alone! He acted on my request!”
“Hewhat?” Judge rounds on Iri, fingers releasing their grip on Sena’s throat and dropping him.
Sena levers himself onto an elbow and rolls onto his side, choking his way into a rattling coughing fit. Tory winces at the wrecked sound, the way Sena goes ghost-pale and tries to stop.
His insides knot. He can ground a carriage, drop an arrow. He disabled a Legion unit the other day, too, but there’s no way to stop a body from tearing itself apart. This must be how Thatcher felt—restless, helpless hands that want tofix. It might be the worst feeling Tory’s ever known.
But making sure no one else goes in for the kill—if nothing else, he can do that. Tory steps between Judge and Sena and holds his ground.
It’s then that a group of three breathless Seeds breaks through the trees. One is Spark, soot-stained, singed, and ready for a fight.
“What did you do?” She advances on the group. “We were ’porting back and Travindroppedus all in the woods mid-’port, said something cut him off. He nearly split his skull open on the rocks. Two of the boxes were damaged when we landed.”
Iri pales. “Shit. I didn’t realize—”
Riese stalks into the clearing as Travin flickers into view, chest heaving, arms wrapped around a stack of cracked crates.
Riese checks on Travin first, a whispered exchange, but then turns to Iri. “I need you to tell me,” he says, quiet in the way some murders are quiet, “whatexactlyyou just did.”
Behind Riese, a growing group mutters, bitter and accusatory.
Iri looks at his feet. “It was an experiment expanding the Voidseed’s nullifying energies. I didn’t know you’d be coming back so soon.”
“And that’s why we didn’t take you along. You’reimpulsive, Iri. You acted yet again without considering the consequences and risked disabling every Seed in this camp. Youknowthere are soldiers in the woods hunting us. I owe your father my life many times over, but . . .” Riese rubs at his temples. “You can’tdothings like this. Unrestrained emotion like yours is what cost your father his life. I was emotional, too, back then. Idealistic. And he paid the price. Unity and caution are important above all. Iri, if we’re going to stay safe, Ineedyou to listen to me.”
“But you’ve said it a thousand times! Every Seed deserves to be able to understand and exercise their skills. Those Westrian fools know nothing about the Voidseed, and Sena—”
Judge turns back to Sena, bristling, the slicked edge of his knife ready to cut. Tory relaxes his stance, ready for anything.
