Page 110 of The Court of Secrets
Shock erased all my feeling as he approached us. Every micro-movement was calculated. Morgana hunched over. I’d never seen her so weak. The necromancer was draining her of her energy. I looked from her to Licia. She wouldn’t be able to stop him in her state.
Licia hurried forward and bowed at the necromancer’s feet. I clenched my jaw, looking at Morgana whose hand slipped off her staff.
“Where is the Berovian princess?” His voice, while coming from a man, was hollow and otherworldly. I gulped, pointing at the carriage. He reached out his senses. I wasn’t sure how I knew what he was doing, but I think it lay in the gift Morgana was intent I was suppressing. I allowed it to consume me, filling me up. Invisible arms reached from him and into the carriage. He could hear her breathing, sense the elemental magic lingering on her. Her heartbeat sounded in both our ears. As he retreated, so did I. “You are a seer,” he said deadpan, then looked at Licia. “You are responsible for my return.”
“We are.” I spoke for the first time since seeing him. “Not him.”
“He orchestrated the plan,” he stated, “giving Morgana the spell to bring you back, allowing me to enter your minds.”
I swallowed thickly. As I edged closer to the compartment where the Sword remained hidden, my fingers trembled. The necromancer approached Morgana, sneering as he looked her up and down. He radiated anger, and I feared for her. I could sense how he was feeling, perhaps because he shared a similar magic as seers. Or so I’d read. He hated that she had kept him at bay for so long when he’d attempted to possess her. She’d bested him in moments when he thought she’d weaken and give in. She was his strongest resister, and for that, admiration flowed with his rage.
I reached out slowly and grabbed the hilt of the sword. My hand was shaking, and my bottom lip shook as I pulled it from between two cases. It glid out of its scabbard. The cold wasn’t the only reason I wore gloves. I didn’t want it to burn me, as the curse was still upon it. I was glad Morgana had the Dagger. She possessed the strength to resist its allure into madness through sheer willpower alone.
I inhaled deeply and held my breath as my grip tightened around the hilt. I had one chance. Morgana couldn’t stop Licia from interfering. I only hoped I was quick enough to dupe them both. I had no other choice, not with Morgana drained of her energy.
I held my next breath, my fingers firmly gripping the hilt of the Sword. Charging at the necromancer, I forced every ounce of strength I had into my legs, getting to him as quickly as I could. The Sword cut through the frostbitten air to where the necromancer stood.
Fingers gripped my wrist and wrenched me back as the Sword reached his neck. My eyes widened as the necromancer turned to face me. I glanced to my side.
Licia.
Anger warped the necromancer’s emotionless features, sharpening them into something deadly. My heart pounded. Morgana let go of her staff and ran at him with the Dagger in her other hand.
He forced a magical blast her way before she could reach him. When his back was turned, I went at him with the sword again, but Licia intervened.
“I’m going to kill you!” I screamed at Licia, wishing I had done it while I’d had the chance. If he wasn’t there, I would have killed the necromancer. That truth hurt the most, that we’d actually had a shot at this.
The necromancer’s eyes locked onto mine, sending shivers through my soul. Morgana went at him again and was thrown back by another magical blast. Growling lowly, he rushed to the carriage with impossible speed, thrust open the door, and grabbed Neoma.
“No!” I screeched, but it was too late. She was in his arms, unconscious, unable to even fight back. We should have awakened her. We should’ve done something. He was meant to be dead by now. Neoma’s being there was meant to be just a show of good faith so he trusted our presence, enough so we could reach him with the Sword or Dagger. Licia had ruined everything. The necromancer was poised to fight, and we were no match for him.
Licia joined his side. The necromancer spoke loudly, incantations whispering into the night, taking on a life of their own. Morgana grabbed her staff and pointed it at him, muttering her own spell.
His was more powerful.
We were both knocked back. Snow powdered up and around us, burying us under an icy blanket. I grappled for the surface and tried to stand but was kept down by an invisible barrier. The air was knocked from my lungs when he pushed me farther into the ground with his magic, until I couldn’t breathe. I was going to die in the same place twice.
The thought pushed energy through me. Gripping my fingers into the frozen ground, I forced out a breathless cry and winced as I sat up through the thick magic. I felt as if I were pushing through deep waters. The pressure and thickness evaporated as fast as it had come. I grabbed the Sword, which lay several inches from me, and rushed forward, but as I emerged through, he was lost to a flurry of snowflakes. Licia and Neoma were gone too.
Morgana fought her way through the snow too and caught her breath as she stood. Disbelief parted my bluing lips. We’d failed. I’d lost Neoma to be sacrificed, which would only anger Kiros into going back on the treaty we needed, and our small chance to take down the necromancer had gone. He could wreak havoc on all the kingdoms. The Objects of Kai were still cursed, and unless I was planning a murder spree to match the energy we’d just used, they would remain so.
My tears fell thick and fast. I turned toward Morgana, who’d paled. “We’re doomed.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
My dreams were an ocean of layers, sinking me further into darker nightmares where the necromancer walked the earth, killing anyone who got in his way, and the forest of our land burned to the ground. Jolting awake, I gasped, catching my breath. Morgana’s orb-like eyes regarded me. The carriage wasn’t moving, and she looked pensively out the curtainless window. The pale-blue sky brightened with arrows of orange and yellow light. I must have been out for hours. Glancing down at the drool-stained, red-cushioned seat, I sighed. “How did it take us so long to get back?”
“We’ve been here for a few hours,” she said, tapping her finger against her knee. We waited just past a large gray building with bars on the windows. Blaise had had it converted to house more of the feral fae in his bid to clean up the kingdom.
“What are we going to tell them? Blaise… Kiros?” I sat upright, huddling my fur coat around me.
She pressed her lips together until they whitened. Finally, letting out a tense breath, she moved her gaze to meet mine. “I’ve been attempting to formulate a plan. I want to offer up an idea of how to solve this before we explain what happened.”
“Have you come up with anything?”
She looked at the ceiling of the carriage. “I may have something, but I have no idea if it will work.”
“What is it?”
