Page 116 of The Court of Secrets
Florence gulped. “I’m not leaving you.” She gripped his arm, tears in her eyes. “I’ll go in.”
“Winter’s right. We should go alone. You and Nissa can hold the fort back at the castle.” He brushed a lock of her blonde hair out of the way, landing a kiss on her forehead. “Be careful and always—”
“Watch your back,” she said. “I know. Be careful.” She looked at me, her violet eyes glossing. “If he dies for you…”
“He won’t.”
“I’m her royal advisor and was her general.” He gave Florence a look. “It’s my duty to protect her.”
She looked back at him. “Come back to me.”
He smiled a sweet, genuine smile. “Always.”
She and Nissa watched us disappear under the thick black canopy. The smell of dung gave way to damp soil and decaying leaves. The ground moved as we walked. A shiver twisted up my spine, and bile bit at my throat. Short, thick worms rippled the mossy ground. I scrunched my nose, seeing a half-eaten carcass of a rabbit swarmed by bloodworms. As each second ticked into the other, more of the rabbit’s flesh eroded into their mouths. The putrid smell of death followed us as we hurried, crushing them under our boots.
“We can’t stop, not even for a moment,” Adius warned, but I’d already had enough experience with bloodworms to know. If we stopped, they’d have enough time to latch to our boots and travel up our legs, eating holes through our skin. The last time it happened, a lady and servant boy had snuck into the forest to go somewhere private to have relations. That same evening, they were found mostly eaten, surrounded by the smell of rotting flesh. Since then, no one went in there, except Morgana, who’d had to collect some on occasion for a rare potion here and there. She was the one who’d explained to me how to surpass them if needed. Just keep moving.
Every so often, I checked my boots and black pants, sweeping them down just in case. We moved quickly under the contorted shadows of low-hanging branches and web trapped between them.
“Hell no.” Adius flicked one from the side of his boot which had managed to latch on, despite our speed. His pause stopped me, and they swarmed my boots.
“Adius.” My eyes widened as I kicked my boots.
Adius pulled out his staff and pointed it at my feet. A blast of white light shot from it, and the worms on my boots shriveled and died. He did the same to his, then motioned for me to keep walking.
“I thought you weren’t going to use it anymore?” I glanced at his knotted ash-wood staff. “Not that I’m not grateful, because without it, we’d have been worm food.”
“It makes me worry how we’ll manage in such a volatile world without it.”
My heart panged. “I’ll miss magic too, but we can’t, Adius.”
“I know.” He scanned the area around us, then beckoned me east.
“We did use spirit magic before the spirit realm. It just wasn’t as strong. It required practice and focus. I’ve read all about it.” I smiled, thinking about the books I’d read that Morgana and Blaise had left me. I closed my eyes for only a second, pushing on ahead, and continued to check my boots every thirty seconds. Paranoia clung to my anxiety, and in this scenario, it was finally a good thing. Adrenaline kept me moving fast, and the worry meant I was extra vigilant against stray worms. I could feel my senses heighten, listening to every sound. A distant howl erupted the night. A flock of birds took off the from trees nearby, and a slither and rustle of leaves told me a snake was nearby.
“There is elemental magic too,” Adius said, and my eyebrows shot upward.
“I never thought I’d hear you say that.”
“Me either, but we need to replace ancestral magic with something. We can’t be left without it, not with anumi in our trees.”
“For now, I just want to stop Magaelor from tearing itself apart.” My stomach swirled as I stepped over an overgrown root knotting up through the ground. “Those who don’t believe me are using magic more now, and those who do can’t fight back because they won’t use their staffs.” I rubbed my temple as a headache threatened to break through.
“How are you going to stop it? I haven’t questioned your motives because I trust you, but I must ask, now that we are alone, what your plan is.”
He did deserve to be in on the know, at the very least be told a condensed version of it. “The man who killed our people is a centuries-old necromancer. He came back from the dead, and I’m going to kill him with this.” I pointed at the Sword. “The Sword of Impervius. It’s why I had Florence wear gloves when fetching them and why I am wearing them now. It burns anyone who touches the handle. It can kill them.”
He paused for a moment, but I pushed him forward. “Don’t stop.”
He shook his head as if to scatter his thoughts. “A necromancer?” His eyes bulged. “They’re things of myths.”
“This one is very real.”
“How is it here?”
I swallowed thickly. “It’s a complicated and long story, one I am sure one day I can explain, but for now, just know I have a way to kill him.”
“Why is it here?” he asked, the question so obvious but one I had overlooked in the overwhelm of events.
