Page 104 of The Stone Secret
“What happened…” My brain felt like cotton wool. “I was…I…Oh shit. Derek! Where’s Derek?” I tried to sit up, but my body was like a noodle. “Fuck!”
Levi stepped into view. “Derek is fine.”
“No, they hurt him. The wraiths, they…Oh gods, he was protecting me, and they were tearing into him and—”
“He’s alive.” Levi pressed his hand to my shoulder. “But he’ll be much better onceyou’reup on your feet. You need to calm down. Breathe.”
I closed my eyes, but all I could see was Derek’s devastated face, all I could hear were the sounds of the attack and his grunts and cries of pain. “He’s alive?”
“Yes.”
“He’ll be okay?”
“Yes, Cameron.”
Derek had given all of himself to ward off the wraiths, but it hadn’t been enough.Wehadn’t been enough. But Levi had shown up and… “Hawke has a golden sword?”
Levi’s mouth tightened. “Not important. What’s important is that you’re safe.” He had a look on his face, the barely restrained anger look. He was fucking pissed, and it wasn’t difficult to guess why.
“The wraith attack wasn’t planned, was it?”
“No,” Levi said tightly. “It was not. The elite are investigating.”
My pulse spiked. Serath was out there? Back in that settlement? “No. It’s too dangerous.”
“The wraiths are dead,” Levi said. “The settlement has been cleared. The elite are sweeping for a breach. The area is warded. The wraiths shouldn’t have been able to get in.”
“But they did. And they were after me.”
Levi frowned but didn’t argue.
“The others told you, didn’t they? They ignored everyone else and targeted me.”
“Yes, Curi told me. But it makes no sense why they’d target you.”
He had no idea how much sense it made. “We have a fucking traitor here in our midst, and I’ll bet my ass that he or she set me up. Sent the wraiths to kill me and leave us without a fully functioning elite team.”
“But that would mean the traitor can control wraithsandsomehow bypass Stone Council security.”
I was beginning to think our biggest weakness was underestimating my wannabe murderer. “Then that’s what it means.”
He gave a curt nod. “I’ll file a report with the council. We will find the culprit. You’re safe, that’s all that matters.”
“Yeah? How safe am I without my shield?” An awful thought occurred to me. “What if thiswasn’tabout killing me? What if this was about disabling me? Take away Derek, and I have no protection. Take away Derek, and I might not make it through the cadet exams, let alone the elite trials.”
“Then you don’t take the cadet exams,” Levi said. “You can skip them. Derek should be back on his feet for the elite exams.”
But he didn’t sound so sure, and my heart sank.
“Levi, how bad is he?”
Levi’s throat bobbed. “He hasn’t regained consciousness. It’s hard to tell. Yarrow is with him doing what he can.”
“But if I get to full strength, then so will he, right? We’re connected.”
“You are. He’s your shield, and his power comes from you, but it isn’t just his power that’s depleted. The wraiths wounded his body. It’s his body that we need to heal now. Willowman is the only one that can do that, but he’s not here.”
But I was. I was here, and I was Willowman’s student. I knew the basic rejuvenation tinctures.
