Chapter 38

38

At some point during the morning, I’d summoned Ryzika’s relics to stop from going insane. The coven was in a gathering, and Wild was there. I’d been attempting to interpret his emotions for the last hour.

I had to just leave the coven to it, come what may.

This really was some solid get-to-know-yourself time, though.

For instance, how many times had I the opportunity to explore these relics? About zero.

“You were part of her,” I murmured. The last twenty minutes had convinced me of that. Upon her death or prior to it, Ryzika had poured her affinities into the four items. I could feel her presence in the robe, dagger, pendant, and gem. How had she rooted her affinities to remain in the items and outside of her body?

No clue.

But Ryzika had sounded like one badass bitch, so I was just fine with my clueless status. Especially because I’d gleaned that the function of each relic wasn’t important. There wasn’t something to unlock within them so they’d work for me. The relics would operate fully for me because I wore them. They’d operate in a unique way in response to my magic. If another person wore them in two hundred years, then the items would work differently for them again.

“That’s why I’ve never felt much inkling to explore you guys,” I said. Like with my grimoire magic, I’d sensed the magic was healthy and willing, and that time and natural exploration would nurture them. Unlike my divination magic prior to recently. But that affinity was more difficult to access from the get-go, being the hiding place for a slice of my demon—and being embroiled in my bloody past.

Now, my divination channel felt raw, like freshly healed skin. My gut said that I had to treat it kindly, but that my affinity was on the way to becoming a real part of me. “Good ol’ Ogham Staves.”

Really, they weren’t to thank. The driveto open myself to the staves had proved more important. Then the mating ritual, too, in that joining with Wild had stabilized my magic further. Most of all, my demon’s return had pushed out the block in the channel. She’d no longer had to lock herself away in a tiny part of me and had instead fully occupied my being again.

I’d felt half crazy for so fucking long. What I’d been through was another reminder that I should always trust in my path. Worrying often didn’t change a thing.

Fuck, the other supernaturals are here, Wild interrupted my thoughts.

I lifted my head. Shit. How did they find out?

They didn’t. We just forgot they were coming to train today.

Dammit, dammit, dammit.

This could mean the end of the alliance. This was part of what I truly feared—the consequences of what I was. King Julius had made his sentiments on demons plain. Kyros and Basilia weren’t in charge of the Vissimo clan.

If I were them, my first thought would be whether I was a two-timing traitor that set all this shit up and if all the information I’d fed them was a lie to strengthen the demon king. Can you speak to them alone?

Unlikely alone. I’m on thin ice with the coven too. I’ll do my best to smooth things over, but everyone here is heightened from the heated discussion prior to them arriving. If I can get the supernaturals to listen, then I’ll do my best to bring them to you to answer any questions. I’m just not sure the coven will agree to that in this state.

I glared at the stone walls around me. Yes, I could leave them. No, that wasn’t without its own consequence. My continued presence here was symbolic of me giving the coven freedom to choose. I couldn’t leave, even when all seemed at risk of falling apart. They had to place me on the authority.

Good luck, I sent to Wild.

He didn’t answer, already focusing hard on the anarchy in the caves.

I paced the holding cell for a time, then sighed at the three relics laid out on the bed. The robe was on my back already.

“No point pacing up the room,” I announced to no one. “Let’s see what you puppies can do.”

The relics dutifully awaited my magic.

I leaned down and picked up the dagger, sliding it free of the sheath gifted to me by Rooke. Opening my magic, I directed power down my battle affinity and into the dagger.

Black smoke exploded in my mind’s eye—and in the holding cell. “Whoa,” I whispered.

The black smoke churned as if trying to tell me something, but whatever it was, I wasn’t cool enough to figure it out yet.

I kept the flow of magic going into the dagger at a steady rate, then poured power down my grimoire affinity into the warm robe covering my body.

A grunt was forced from me, and my knees buckled, hitting the ground in the next instant as an impossible lattice webbed through my head. A ninja spy seeking to steal the crown jewels would find the lattice impossible to navigate, and the red webbing was as impossible to decipher as the black battle smoke.

The smoke picked at the lattice, however, much as a lute player may pluck at the strings of their instrument. I watched the red lattice ripple for a time. It didn’t otherwise react.

Nope. I had nothing.

The coven has elected representatives to sit down with the supernaturals, Wild said.

I barely heard him but managed to hum in reply.

They only let me join them because the rulers demanded it. They seem willing to listen, but they’re wary of the mood in the caves.

He broke off communication again, and I honestly couldn’t care less about the entire state of the coven right now.

My magic was in control and driving me somewhere.

The heavy pendant around my neck was next. I directed apothecary magic into it, and sucked in a harsh breath as a soothing white wave ricocheted out of me and into the void that was filled with the black smoke and red lattice. The wave was a calming force. The heat flushing my cheeks was kissed away, and the aches in me eased.

My mind cleared, and I saw that the black smoke no longer plucked at the red lattice. The white apothecary magic was soothing both of the other affinities and binding them together.

I blinked at the occurrence within me. What the hell?

Once my magic channeled through the pendant had done its work, all was still in my mind. The red grimoire lattice was wrapped in battle smoke, and that was all bound in apothecary.

As always, I seemed to turn to divination last.

The difference now was that one day this would change. I knew it.

I poured power down the divination affinity and into the gem in my other hand. The gem warmed.

Otherwise, the entire world and everyone in it, including me, froze solid.

My mind was seized in a vise as an explosion took place in there that I couldn’t hope to track. The rapid roll and unfurling there belonged to forces beyond me. To these relics. To what Ryzika had been.

To the Mother.

I could only remain frozen. Even as I felt Wild freeze and his thoughts lock down as my own had done. We were being gripped and held far more securely than this prison cell had ever done. There was no hope of escape for us from this.

The only way this could end was by the mercy of the magic within me.