by K. A. Linde
“Yeah,” she said with a sigh. “That’s what Helly said too.”
“You’re so young.”
“I know.”
Amond frowned. “I’ve treated magic sickness in older Fae before. It doesn’t have a cure, but there are some things I can do that will ease it. You said that you had been experiencing blackouts. Tell me about that.”
She described the feeling of her magic enveloping her and then draining away. How she would black out and that everything only happened when she was stressed out. And no, there was no option where she wasn’t stressed. He listened curiously, moving the blue blob around all the time.
“I see,” he said quietly. “What happens with magic sickness is, the unused magic slowly poisons the blood, causing mental instability and eventually death. However, here, it doesn’t appear that your magic has moved into the blood at all. It looks like it’s just gone. Which should be impossible.”
“I love being one of a kind,” she muttered.
He laughed softly. “Typically, I’d drain away the excess magic, and that would help for a time. Truthfully, I’m not certain what to do here.”
Kerrigan groaned. “Great.”
He removed the blue light. “If you have time, I would like to run some more tests. They might take a while. I could keep you here most of the night. Just because I don’t have a solution, it doesn’t mean that one doesn’t exist.”
“All right,” Kerrigan agreed. “As long as Dozan doesn’t care.”
“Dozan doesn’t care,” he said, appearing in the doorway. “You may remain the night. I never minded before, did I?”
He grinned that licentious look at her. She almost laughed. At least he was predictable.
“Then, we will begin.”
Hours later, with the sun rising on the horizon, they were no closer to an answer than they had been at the beginning. Kerrigan promised to return for more testing when she could and stumbled blearily back to the mountain in the early morning light. She had, at most, an hour before she needed to report for dragon training. She had neither slept nor ate. Today was going to suck.
She stepped into the mountain through the hidden entrance. She wanted to catch at least an hour of sleep in her room. But as soon as she crossed over, she realized she wasn’t alone. Her instincts were null from lack of sleep, so she could do nothing as the guards rushed her.
“Take her,” Lorian said with a sick, twisted smile.
Kerrigan gasped. “No, wait, please…”
But it was all she got out before the butt of a sword hit her in the back of her head, and she collapsed forward, only half-conscious.
48
The Council
The last few hours were a blur. Kerrigan had succumbed to unconsciousness by the time she was dragged to an iron cell. She woke, shaking. The iron couldn’t touch her the way it did full Fae, but it still left her feeling unsettled and disoriented. It certainly did nothing for the lack of sleep from the previous night. The only comfort was that she wasn’t back in magic-dampening manacles.
No one came to see her. Not even Lorian. Not even Helly.
She would have demanded information from a Society Guard if she’d seen one. But iron did enough to keep the guards away as much as it kept the prisoners within. When no one came for her, she lay back down to try to sleep. Only just after she managed to finally relax enough, a contingent of guards appeared before her.
“Stand up,” one grunted at her.
She realized that she recognized this man. He was one of the guards who had herded the protestors into the street. He was the one who had “disappeared” when the Red Masks showed up.
He looked at her with such hatred. Seeing that look on his face told her she needed to play this very carefully. She slowly rose to meet him, calm and collected.
“Don’t make any trouble,” he said, roughly grabbing her out of the cell and hauling her toward the stairs.
It took so much effort to not back-talk him. Oh, how she wanted to.
But she had no idea what was going on or where she was being taken. She needed to try to figure it out and figure it out fast. Because she was starting to lose that calm, and the last thing she needed was to black out in the middle of this.
Kerrigan saw no one in the mountain. Whatever Lorian had orchestrated, he’d done it well. It left Kerrigan with only one option.
She dropped into the spirit plane, like dunking into water. Her feet still moved along at the even pace the guards were carrying her at, but she spent all of her focus on reaching out to Tieran.
He soared over. Kerrigan? Are you hurt?
“No. But I was detained. I don’t know where they’re taking me, but Lorian set this up.”
I was taken in the aerie. I’m being held in a guarded room. They won’t tell me what’s going on either.
Kerrigan sighed heavily. Great. No easy escape. “Try to speak to Netta if you can. Tell her what’s happening and to send Fordham. He can help get you out.”
Do you think this is the end? Am I going back to the Holy Mountain?
“Not if I can help it,” she told him.
He nodded once fiercely. I’ll reach out to Netta.
Kerrigan bounced back into her body, a shiver of fear settling through her as the guards hauled her before the open council doors. All twenty members and the presiding officer sat in the chamber, wearing the black Society robes. She caught Helly’s eyes across the room. She looked stricken, and for the first time, she didn’t offer any comfort. Kerrigan looked to Bastian, who looked equally grim. Lorian looked smug as hell. But it was the forbidding faces of the other council members she was acquainted with that made her nervous. Masters Kress and Lockney didn’t make eye contact. Master Boze looked perturbed that she was even in the council. Mistress Anahi kept twirling a box braid, her face perfectly blank. Even Mistress Alsia looked worried, and she had been firmly in Kerrigan’s corner.
“Please step forward, Kerrigan,” Presiding Officer Malwin Zoh said. He was a grisly, old Fae. Though he’d taken care to keep wrinkles from his face and gray from his hair. Rumor had it that he had personal healers on hand to keep him looking as young as ever. No chance he was going into the abyss anytime soon.
The guards released her with a little shove, and she stumbled forward into the cavernous council room. Not only was it large enough to fit the entirety of the Society if need arose, but the room also soared ever higher with places for dragons to be in attendance. Today, there were no dragons to speak for her.
She stopped at the podium before the twenty-one assembled elected officials. “Thank you, Master Malwin. Perhaps you could illuminate the reason for my detainment and being brought before the council.”
“If I may, Presiding Officer,” Lorian interjected.
“By all means,” Master Malwin said.
Kerrigan bristled. That wasn’t good. Having the head of the council defer to Lorian couldn’t mean anything good.
Lorian stood. “As you are well aware, you were arrested last year for your part in a violent riot. You were put on probation for your crimes. You were also grounded from flying during that time.” Kerrigan glared at him. Violent riots. What a joke. “Yesterday, you flagrantly ignored the terms of your probation by leaving the bounds of the mountain to meet with insurrectionists.”
“I did what?” she gasped.
“You were seen walking into the area in the Dregs referred to as the Wastes,” Lorian told her plainly.
“So? I’ve gone there before. It doesn’t mean I’m working with insurrectionists.”
“Did you or did you not meet with Dozan Rook?”
The council buzzed at the name. Clearly, they knew who Dozan was. Not good.
“Dozan Rook,” hissed Alsia with a sneer.
“The so-called King of the Wastes,” Lockney informed them.
“He killed his own family, you know,” Boze said with a glare. He’d always been a toad-faced jerk. Kerrigan had never liked him. “Nothing but a menace.”
“Miss Argon?” Zoh prompted.
Kerrigan gulped. “Yes, I was with Dozan Rook.”
“And were you aware,” Lorian continued, “that he had sympathies to the violent group, Rights For All?”
“I… yes, but…”
“And that he was funding their mission, which involved the events of the night of your arrest.”
“I knew he was giving them money, but—”
He cut her off, “As you can see, ladies and gentlemen, she willingly went into the Wastes to meet with Dozan Rook. She is friends with another orchestrater, who goes by the name of Clover. She met with them despite her probation and broke the rules.”
“I can speak for myself,” she snapped back.
Helly stood and gestured to Kerrigan. “I believe that we should listen to what she has to say.”
“Of course you do,” Lorian sneered.
“No infighting,” Malwin said with a wave of his hand. “Let’s keep this civilized.”
“I second Mistress Hellina,” Lockney spoke up. He gestured to his notebook. “For the record.”
Zoh nodded. “Tell us what happened last night, Kerrigan.”
Kerrigan gulped. “I have been under an immense amount of stress due to Society training. Since I was grounded for a month, I had spent ten days in Bryonica during the holiday training to improve. Mistress Alura passed me for all of my tests, but I was pushing myself to the point of blackout. I spoke with Mistress Helly about these instances,” she said, leaning heavily on the truth, if not giving them everything that had happened. “She recommended a stress reliever, but it wasn’t working. I wanted a second opinion.” There was hurt in Helly’s eyes. Kerrigan hated it, but she had to push through. “I wanted answers to help me complete my tests.”
“Answers in the Wastes?” Lorian scoffed. “What are you, a loch addict now? There’s nothing there but prostitutes, drug addicts, and gamblers. How dare you besmirch Mistress Helly’s name in conjunction to some hack you claim exists in the Wastes.”
Master Malwin banged a gavel on his desk. “Enough, Lorian. That’s enough. I would like to hear more about this. Helly, is any of this true?”
Helly cringed. “Yes. I was treating Kerrigan for her blackouts. I was unaware she was getting a second opinion about the matter.”
“And what was causing these blackouts?” Malwin asked.
Kerrigan’s eyes pleaded with Helly not to tell them. Magic sickness was serious. She couldn’t let the council know. Gods. But she also couldn’t expect Helly to lie either.
“Early signs of magic sickness,” she said calmly.
The council erupted in shouts. Many of the members were calling it impossible. The rest were looking at her in horror. Bastian tilted his head and kept his eyes level with hers. He’d remained silent through the whole thing, but he had to be on her side. She needed him to speak the sense he so often did. She begged with her eyes, but he made no move to help her. He leaned back in his seat and watched and waited as it all went down.
“Magic sickness,” Master Kress said in shock. “Surely not.”
“I’m quite certain,” Helly said.
“How can that be?” Anahi asked with fear in her voice.
“She’s unstable,” Lorian bellowed. “Magic sickness in a seventeen-year-old is unheard of. It’s impossible even. It must be a reaction to the circumstances of how she joined the Society. The bond pushing back against her. No one in the Society has ever had magic sickness.”
“It’s not been documented, but that doesn’t mean…” Helly tried to say.
But it was too late. Lorian’s mania had infected the rest of the council. People were jumping out of their seats to argue now.
“She’s cursed!” Boze shouted in alarm.
“The bond is killing her,” Lockney said. He began to scribble furiously.
“She’s unstable, and she must be stopped,” Kress said evenly. “Magic sickness is too severe!”
“We could never have someone like that in our ranks,” another member shouted, who Kerrigan didn’t even know.
It was all happening too fast. Everyone speaking up at once. Their own fears blinding them.
Master Malwin banged his gavel all he wanted, but no one was listening. Lorian had wrapped them all up in a frenzy. Even Helly couldn’t get through to anyone.
“Please,” Kerrigan managed. “I’m not trying to hurt anyone. The bond isn’t killing me.” But no one was listening. “Wait!” she shrieked. “Lorian is setting you up! He wants all half-Fae eliminated. He’s responsible for Basem Nix’s death. And he’s been illegally smuggling magical artifacts. He wants you to kick me out. He doesn’t want anyone else to oppose him. If you don’t listen, then you’ll be next.”
Helly covered her face, as if Kerrigan had said the exact wrong thing.
“I have proof,” Kerrigan tried. “Check his rooms and his Row house. It’s there. I swear it is.”
Malwin finally stood. “Enough! We will not hear any more of these accusations against one of our most esteemed. You are trying to save your skin with some veiled threat. That is not proof. It is hearsay.” He held his hands up to quiet everyone. “To the matter of Kerrigan Argon, who here votes in favor of removing her from her position in the Society?”
Kerrigan gasped as hands went up all over the room. Helly kept her hand down. Bastian made no move to raise his. A handful of others didn’t vote for her removal—Alsia and Anahi were two of them. Kress, Boze, and Lockney all voted for it. Lorian, of course. Kerrigan counted the hands furiously. A majority voted her out.
Malwin brought the gavel down. “Done. Kerrigan Argon, you are henceforth removed from your duties as a member of the Society. You will go to your room and clear out your belongings. A debriefing will take place in one hour. Dismissed.”
Kerrigan was rooted to the podium. She couldn’t believe the words that had come out of Malwin’s mouth. It couldn’t be true. It wasn’t possible. She’d done everything right. She’d kept to her probation. No matter what they’d said about Dozan, that hadn’t been why she was there to see him. And she was going to get her magic under control. That had been the point all along. Oh gods!
A guard appeared at her side and roughly grasped her elbow, yanking her away from the council. Kerrigan was numb. Completely in shock. She hadn’t had enough sleep, and she wasn’t supposed to be around stress. Her magic flickered at her fingertips. She tried to tamp it down, but it was a flood rushing through her. Ready to explode—or worse, disappear altogether. She couldn’t black out. She just couldn’t.
She reached the open doors, and Valia stood off to the side. Her eyes were wide with alarm.
“I am a steward of the Society. I can take it from here,” Valia said confidently.
“I’m here to escort her to her rooms,” a guard said gruffly.
“Come collect her in one hour for her meeting with the presiding officer,” Valia said, dismissing them. “Come along, Kerrigan.”
Kerrigan jerked out of the guard’s grasp and hastened after Valia, trying to hold onto her magic. “What are you doing?”
Valia waited until they were far enough away before whispering, “Getting you out of here. Fordham found me and sent me to help you. Hurry.”
Kerrigan didn’t ask questions. She needed to be out of the mountain and find Tieran. If she was kicked out of the program, then that meant he’d end up back at the Holy Mountain. That was something she would never allow. But if Fordham had sent Valia, that meant that Tieran had gotten through to him. Hopefully, he was safe. She couldn’t drop into the spirit plane to find out right now.
“Through here,” Valia said. She pushed a hidden lever, and a hallway opened before them.
“You really do know all the ways in and out.”
Valia shot her a grim look. “I hoped to never use them like this.”
She rushed ahead until they reached a set of stairs that led down. They came out on the other side of the mountain near the greenhouses.
“Thank you. I owe you a great debt,” Kerrigan said to the girl.
Tieran was waiting for her as Valia shut the door behind her. She rushed to him, throwing her hands around his neck. “Oh, Tieran, you’re safe.”
For now. We need to go.
Kerrigan ran a hand down her face. “I can’t yet.”
What do you mean?
“There’s something else I need to do before I can depart. I want you to go somewhere and hide—somewhere they’d never think to find you—and I don’t want you to tell me where you’re going. Just get safe. I’ll reach for you when I’m ready to go.”
I don’t like this. We should go together.
“I know. They think they can silence me, but I won’t go easy. I can’t. I have to do what I always should have done.” She hugged him one more time. “Now, go. Find a place to hide.”
He nudged her gently. Don’t be long. I’m just starting to like you.
She laughed as tears welled in her eyes. Tieran took off, flying into the distance. What she hadn’t said was that they’d be safer apart, where they couldn’t be each other’s liability or weakness.
Kerrigan still had her cloak and pulled it back up around her curls. She took the long way to the Wastes, knowing there might be eyes and ears watching for her. She even took a back way inside, disappearing into the afternoon rush and reaching Clover’s table.
Her head popped up in alarm as she shuffled and reshuffled the deck in front of her. She motioned for the pit boss that she needed a break from cards and then dealt like a pro. There were only two people at her table, and both won. She was barely tipped and then rushed to her side.
“What’s going on?” Clover asked. “Shouldn’t you be in training?”
“No time to explain. I was kicked out of the Society.”
“Scales!” Clover gasped.
“Tell Thea that it’s time. I’m ready to be the symbol that everyone wants me to be,” Kerrigan said confidently. “It’s time the rest of the world knows the truth.”