Page 125 of Rose and Shadows
I was vaguely aware of my dad stepping back and pulling his phone out, mobilizing The Shadowed, then my mom reaching out to Jaxon.
But in the moment all I was fully aware of was the fact that it took something absolutely major and painful to take down Sylas Morgrave. Or some really twisted means.
He couldn’t be… he couldn’t be dead.
Sylas couldn’t…no.
Morien must’ve come for him. But even that was just a step away from death itself. That fucker’s plan for Sylas had been made all too clear.
So, if he had him now… it meant… it meant that….
Fuck.
Sylas was at death’s door.
21
~Velra~
My fingers tightened around the rattle to the point of painful pressure.
Blackline Protocol had been amplified and that resonant hum had now become an undeniable reverberation. The additional intensity was only to last for a few hours as Ryker used the system to disperse the Dark Fae mind-meddling antidote.
The deadline for anyone who didn’t want it to touch them had passed. Only handfuls had contacted the Guardian Movement to reject it. So soon most of the supernatural world would be immune to it going forward. Not only that, once the antidote was ingested via the magical sweep of Blackline Protocol that Ryker was embedding it within, anyone infected would also be cured, be free of that control.
But that majorly good news and all the relief that went along with it had been wrecked to pieces two hours ago when Lazriel had come bursting in here to report that Sylas had been taken.
By Morien Morgrave and Gregor Varsellis.
Sylas had sent the baby rattle to the closest one of our foursome to his geographical location at the time, which hadbeen Lazriel. That act alone had signaled that he’d been in dire straits, believing that he would fall, because the rattle was vital to our unborn baby’s wellbeing. He wouldn’t have given that up under normal circumstances.
Since then both The Shadowed and then the Guardian Movement had determined where it had been sent from—very close to Ryker Morgan’s former home.
They’d picked up both Morien’s signature and Gregor’s, along with a mass amount of black magic and Celestial power. No wonder they’d been able to incapacitate Sylas. It took a fuck of a lot, and that combination was certainly it.
Ryker had gone there himself and even brought Ketheron along, and they’d picked up on something else as well—energy reads that shouldn’t have been there. That shouldn’t be anywhere. They were messed-up versions of revenants that had been there, dozens of them surrounding Sylas. Beings that were beyond death-touched, and should have been inside the Valley of the Dead. But they’d come through to the living world, indicating that the damage to the Valley had worsened. Majorly.
Ryker was with Gabriel trying to determine apatchingsolution until the place could be healed properly.
There was also an issue between Ryker and Remnant right now, despite them starting to get to a good place with Ryker’s proposal in play. Ryker knew Remnant and The Shadowed were in possession of something that could heal the Valley of the Dead—with the assistance of death magic from a learned necromancer—but Remnant was refusing to hand it over to Ryker. He wouldn’t until Sylas was back in the picture. He only trusted it in his hands and with the addition of Sylas’ necromancy.
Cassius, Ketheron, and Ariana were at Haven Initiative briefing the children on the plan to pull Celestial magic from all non-Celestial beings like Morien, Gregor, and their army.
And with black magic master, Ambrose Wisteryn, still missing and having not answered any of Sylas’ communications, Kai and Nyx were currently inside Kai’s lab here at Solumira with Lucian Black working on a way to gather the black magic users that Corvin Morvain had used before his death months ago. Their plan was to use them to intercept black magic that was infused in the Celestial power being used by those fools, so it didn’t connect with the children. The idea was they could soup-up Lucian’s coercion ability as an Ancient so he could make them do what we’d intended for Ambrose.
My phone buzzed as I rose from the couch inside Ariana and her love’s home after finishing feeding the baby the necromantic energy from the rattle.
I pulled it out to see a text from Lazriel.
Lazriel:Vorzyr and I have a trace we’re following now.
My heart leapt into my fucking throat.
Velra:You’ve managed to pick up Sylas’ scent?
Lazriel:Yeah. Ryker’s idea of having Jaxon with us to clear the magical interference away has made it possible. The trace is really weak, though, so it’s gonna take time, and it keeps petering out, causing us to have to double back. But wanted to tell you there’s hope there now that we can find our almighty necromancer.
Velra:Thanks. It is hope.
