Page 97 of Death Warden
“What is the Mageri council so concerned about?” Dax asked.
Tobias took his glasses off and wiped the lenses with a small cloth square. “The Mageri council is made up of mages from the three bloodlines. Not necromancers like Adi and Mary, able to sustain the lock, but regular mages. If Dralos breaks free, they’ll be faced with an awful choice.”
I frowned in concentration. “What choice?”
“Their power comes from him,” Logan said. “He made a trade.”
“What trade?” What the hell were they talking about?
“They locked him away so they didn’t have to pay the price,” Curo said.
“What fucking price!” My voice rang out sharp and nutso throughout the room. All attention fell to me. I took a couple of short breaths and licked my dry lips. “What price?”
“Your life,” Tobias said. “They’ll be faced with paying the price of their power with your life.”
CHAPTERTHIRTY-THREE
“Like hell,” Dax growled. “If they want my pup, they’ll have to go through me.”
“Through all of us,” Spectre ground out.
“The whole damned Grave Spirits,” Curo added.
“And they will,” Tobias said. “Power is addictive and there will be war.”
It finally made sense. “They need the lock to continue working or they need my life, is that it?”
“No,” Tobias said. “If you die without an heir, the debt won’t have been paid and they’ll lose their power.Theywon’t kill you, they’ll give you to him, for him to feed off your life force.”
Didn’t matter how they went about it. Dead was dead. I scanned the room but Death was nowhere to be seen.
“We won’t let it come to that,” Curo said.
“No…we won’t.” Tobias looked away.
It seemed to me that we were out of options. “Can my revelation help?”
Tobias’s expression said it all. “Not now that the Crescent and Thorne necromancers are dead.”
“So then I’m dead either way.”
“Excuse me.” Logan hurried out of the room.
My head swam for a moment, and I closed my eyes and rested it against Spectre’s shoulder. “I need a moment.”
“Your energy boost wore off already?” Curo asked Spectre over my head.
Spectre’s chest vibrated against me. “Hush, sleep. I’ve got you.”
Was that my whimper?
I was weak. I hated being weak. Hated it…
I allowed myself to drift away from the horror of the partial revelation.
A man standsinside an arcane circle, head canted to one side, smirk playing on his lips. I know that harsh feline face. Those slanted emerald eyes and that dark hair with a white stripe in it.
Finley? I take a step out of the shadows and his gaze zeroes in on me. He brings a finger to his lips and holds it there in ahushgesture.
