Page 96 of The Bound Mage
“The last I checked, we were all Valenya.” Loren rose, the aetherlamps flickering wildly as shadows curled along the edge of the room like smoke, pooling around his feet and cooling the air around them. “The fae living under the New Dominion areour people.”
He bared his teeth, glaring around the room at his assembled advisors.
“The shadows aremine. They chosemeto lead,” he snarled. “And I do not needyourpermission to pull them back from harming those I’ve sworn to protect.”
The room fell into a heavy, suffocating silence. The only sound was the hiss of the shadows, coiling around Loren’s feet like loyal hounds. No one dared speak, the advisors glancing at each other nervously in the suddenly dim light.
“You’ve overstepped, Cormac,” Eloria said finally. “Ifit’s even possible, we can consider reestablishing some sort of barrier in a careful,controlledmanner that does not harm the fae hereorour citizens still living in the New Dominion. But these ships were already on their way here. Truly, we’re lucky the shadows thinned when they did, or we wouldn’t have seen them coming until they were already upon us.”
“And how were they doing that?” Cormac demanded. “The humans have never been able to navigate the Shadowed Sea—our own ships can barely make it across the Veil.”
A few advisors murmured, the tension thickening with every heartbeat. But it was Eryn who cleared his throat, his soft voice carrying in the silence.
“My intelligence indicates that Jaxon Shaw is now wielding a staff inscribed with runes that offer him some degree of control over the shadows,” he said. “If they’ve truly come up with a way to wield influence overdara’el…there’s no telling what else they’ve done.”
Araya’s stomach twisted as every eye turned to her.
“And doesLadyStarwind have any insight into how the humans achieved this?” Cormac sneered, his sharp teeth bared. “You areintimatelyfamiliar with his work, aren’t you?”
“Cormac—” Eloria warned, her voice rising as the temperature in the room dropped. “This isn’t helpful.”
“Isn’t that why she’s here?” Cormac demanded. “She was his bond—or should I sayis? She hasn’t had her runes removed. How does that work?” He turned to her, his black eyes cruel. “I’ve never heard of someone being bonded to two people at once.”
“That’s enough.” Loren stood, the shadows hissing and snapping around him. “She’s not on trial here.”
“Maybe she should be,” Cormac said, his lips pulling back from his teeth in a snarl.
The shadows seethed, lashing out across the table with a crack like a whip. Splinters of wood flew from the impact, sending several of Eloria’s advisors scrambling. But Cormac just sat there, smiling like this was exactly what he wanted.
Because he wanted them all to see Loren lose control.
And they would, if no one did anything. His fury battered her through the bond, whipping the shadows into a frenzy. He wanted to hurt this male—killhim—for the things he was saying about her.
But if he did…he’d be giving Cormac exactly what he wanted.
“Lord Ironvale is right.” Araya stood hastily, grabbing Loren’s hand and squeezing it as hard as she could. For a moment, she wasn’t sure it would be enough—but then hisfingers tightened around hers, the shadows sliding back to wrap her in their cool embrace. “I do still wear the runes the New Dominion put on me. And Jaxon Shaw does own my true name.”
She took a deep breath, meeting each of their gazes in turn. Some stared at her with nothing but disgust like Cormac—but others met her eyes with desperation, fear and hope at war on their faces.
“If I cared about sparing myself your judgement, I wouldn’t be standing here right now,” she said quietly. “But I am—because I love your prince. And I want to help saveourpeople.”
“Are we finished with this line of discussion?” Loren asked when no one said anything else. His green eyes flashed from councilor to councilor, daring any of them to speak out against her.
No one did.
“Then let’s move on.”
“Our focus needsto be on keeping them from making landfall,” Eloria said, her finger gliding across the jagged edge of the coast. “We don’t have the numbers to face a force of that size on land.”
“I have control of the shadows now,” Loren said. He stared down at the maps, scowling like he could make them give him a different answer. “We can use them—make them pay in blood for every inch of sea they cross.”
“But can we trust the shadows to hold them back?” Galen shifted in his seat, glancing uneasily at her as the shadows rippled, ready to defend her against this new threat. “The New Dominion’s already shown they can move through them. Do we know how they’d react to a direct assault?”
“It’s not something they would have been able to test.” Araya squeezed Loren’s hand gently, trying to project a calm she didn’t feel through their bond. “It’s likely they’ll err on the side of caution, especially with high-level officials on the ships.”
Officials like the High Magister’s son.
“So they won’t bring them in close,” Eloria murmured. “They’ll have to use smaller boats to ferry their troops to shore.” She glanced up at her brother. “Even if the shadows don’t hold completely, we can still make it too costly for them to land. But if they do somehow make landfall?—”
