Page 11 of Rose and Shadows
Ryker’s phone buzzed and he pulled it from the back pocket of his leather pants, his jaw tightening when he opened it to view whatever message had come in. “I need to go. Head back to Wraeven Academy.” He gestured at Lazriel and then Velra in the distance. “Both of you.” He eyed me. “Same. It’s been reinforced now.”
“We’re in the middle of a fucked-up war,” Lazriel said.
“A war that is currently at a standstill, where nothing can be done by you at this juncture. Resume your normal lives in a place of stability that Wraeven Academy provides for you. Blackline Protocol will remain in effect. All hybrids are being evacuated across the supernatural world and secured in our sanctuaries that are being bolstered by Celestial magic as wespeak, and will continue to be over the coming days. There will be no targets forPuritasto go after. It will put this currentwarin a lulled state. Take advantage of it while you can.” He told me, “Ketheron will stay with Ariana atSolumirauntil he has properly stabilized mentally, and I will meet with him there to work on a solution to Morien’s endgame—one of his endgames, that aligns withPuritas’ultimate goal.”
Velra had already told us exactly what that despicable intent was, something she’d discovered when she’d visited Cornelius and Warlow.Puritaswished to use Morien to enact a massive surge of Risen Reckoning that would latch onto a specific hybrid “identifier” and thereby wipe out every single hybrid in existence in one fell swoop.
Ryker didn’t want us going off half-cocked or enacting our own version of justice, nor fighting this war alone, as we’d partially been doing all too much of lately, due to the many secrets we’d had to bear and keep off the Guardian Movement’s radar.
From a personal standpoint, Velra and Lazriel returning to Wraeven Academy at this juncture was the best bet. It was a place of stability for them both, of familiarity, of focus. And it represented a place of growth and working toward their futures.
Lazriel made a move to respond, but I grasped his shoulder, the touch pulling him up short and making him turn to me in question.
“I believe returning to Wraeven Academy is for the best at this juncture. For a myriad of reasons.” I gestured out at Velra, and Lazriel followed it, sucking in a harsh breath as one of those reasons became undeniably clear to him—she needed it.
“Yeah,” he breathed. “All right. Yeah, it’s time to head back.” He didn’t care for the heaviness that came along with it all, and I saw his lips quirk as he then told me, “Also, I heard that the person they got to fill in for you with yourRitual Ethics &Celestial Lawfareclass was a sorcerer from the Unity Council. Not even a Celestial or anybody who’s had a front-row seat to all of that. I’m sure that hasn’t been going over well. I guess, with hybrids not being able to attend until they reinforced the place, at least a bunch of students missed those classes. The reason people were into that class in the first place, which could’ve been really dry subject matter, was because of your animated and passionate delivery, and your deep knowledge that they respected.”
I hadn’t realized that I had been so appreciated as a professor. My students had seemed engaged, but Lazriel was painting a picture that went far beyond that.
“You didn’t know, huh?” he spoke, registering my surprise. “So funny that you’ve become so great at reading emotions and reactions in others now, especially given where you started off, but you aren’t registering the positive way others actually see you.”
I smiled and ruffled his hair, making his eyes light up and a laugh even escape him.
That laugh, that reaction, in the wake of what we had all just endured… it was everything.
In fact, it was proof that we could not only survive this, not only endure the trauma and pain, but thrive through it.
Together.
As one.
3
~Sylas~
“Your pulse is racing.”
I looked over at Remnant as we strode along the dark beach.
“Adrenaline.”
“You are expending too much energy in order to intensify your compartmentalization, when you should be resting and conserving your strength after what just transpired. You only just underwent the transplant and you were then forced to use your power within an hour of the procedure in an extremely heavy and high-stakes battle. And with your father, no less.”
“I’ll be fine.”
“You most certainly will not.”
I shoved a hand through my hair. “I just murdered dozens and—”
“Andyou must allow yourself to process that.”
“You don’t understand. So, just drop it, all right?”
“This is about Glasswake.”
I came to a sudden stop. “What?”
“What you refer to asGlasswake Massacre.”
