The warlock’s eyes narrowed like blades.
I felt the air tighten between us. His breath hitched, then came in slow and controlled draws. His lips moved. I didn’t know the words, but the sound of them scraped against my bones like claws on stone. The magic in them prickled over my skin.
S**t.
Morana’s voice sliced into my mind like a whip. “Move!”
But I couldn’t….not without making it worse. If I stepped, he would hear me. If I breathed too hard, he would smell me.
Valric’s growl filled my head. You fool. You had one job.
Shut up, I snapped back but the shame burned. My pulse thundered in my ears. My wolf wanted to bare teeth, to rip the threat apart, but we couldn’t. Not here. Not now.
The warlock’s chant grew sharper and faster. His hand rose. His fingers were curling as if to pluck me out of the air.
Then Morana moved.
She spun toward the shadowed wall. Her cloak was flaring behind her like black wings. Her hand shot into a pouch at her belt, scattering a cascade of silver dust into the air. The particles shimmered, hung there, then warped. They were bending into the shape of an oval.
The surface inside it rippled, like water disturbed by wind.
And then, there they were.
Lisa and Rylan.
I sucked in a breath. They were not the real ones. This was Morana’s doing. But gods, the illusion was perfect. Lisa’s chest heaved as if she had been running for hours. Her dark hair was clinging to her face. Rylan stumbled beside her. His wrists were raw and free of chains. His eyes were wide with fear.
They bolted down the hall. The sound of their bare feet echoed just right. Even the clink of metal chains dragging was there.
The warlock jerked toward them. His chant snapped off. “They’re loose!” His shout rattle
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Chapter 111
through the stone hall. “The woman and the man have escaped!”
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Footsteps thundered above us. There were shouts answering from other corridors. The air thickened with magic as more witches and warlocks poured toward the sound.
Morana didn’t stop moving her fingers. She was shaping the illusion to make as if Lisa and Rylan were darting around a corner, just ahead of the chase.
Then the floor beneath us seemed to shiver.
A deeper voice, cold and furious, rolled down the hall like a storm front. “Where are they?”
It was Fenric.
Even Valric went still inside me.
The warlocks froze for half a breath, then scattered after the illusions, barking orders, calling for wards to be raised at the gates. Fenric’s heavy stride followed. The scent of his power was sharp in the air.
Morana’s illusion made them turn down the far corridor toward the lower levels. Away from
- us.
And just like that, the hall emptied.
I let out the breath I had been holding.
Morana turned to me. “Are you out of your mind?” Her voice was low, but it cut sharper than any blade. “You nearly blew everything.”
“I tripped…”
“You bumped into him,” she hissed while stepping close. “Do you understand what that means? One brush, one wrong breath, and the cloaks mean nothing. They would have ripped you apart in seconds. And then me. And then Lisa would be dead.”
Shame coiled in my gut. “I said it was a mistake.”
Valric’s snarl scraped my thoughts. You’re too careless. We can’t afford this.
Morana glanced down the hall, making sure no one had lingered. Her hand was still slightly raised, fingers twitching with the effort of keeping the illusion alive until she was certain Fenric and his men were gone.
Finally, she dropped her arm. Her breathing was steady, but I could feel the tightness in her energy, the strain that spell had cost her.
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< Chapter 111
She leaned closer. Her voice was a whisper. “No more mistakes. No one touches you. You touch no one. If it happens again, I won’t be able to hide us a second time.”
I nodded once. “Understood.”
“Good.” She motioned toward a darkened archway. “We wait here until they’re gone.”
We pressed ourselves into the shadowed corner. The wall was cold and damp against my back. From here, I could hear the chaos echoing through the fortress. There were doors slamming, spells cracking and voices raised in urgency.
All chasing ghosts.
Morana’s ghosts.
She finally exhaled. Her gaze tracked the stairwell at the end of the hall. “We move carefully.”
We slipped from the alcove and crossed the hall. The stairwell spiraled upward. The steps were uneven and cracked. Some had crumbled entirely, forcing us to climb over gaps where the stone had fallen away long ago.
The fortress groaned faintly. Dust drifted down in thin streams from the ceiling.
Halfway up, we passed the first ruined floor.
It had once been a hall, maybe even a grand one. Now it was nothing but collapsed beams and shattered furniture. A half–burnt table leaned against the wall. Its legs were splintered.
The smell of old smoke still clung to the stones.
I glanced around. There were no guards here…just the echo of our steps and the faint creak
of the fortress in the wind.
We climbed higher.
The second floor had doors hanging crooked on rusted hinges. We passed a room where the walls had been painted with strange symbols. Some were smeared as if someone had tried to scrub them away. The air inside that room felt wrong. It was heavy and cold.
Valric’s voice was low in my head. This place remembers blood.
I didn’t argue.
We kept moving. By the third floor, the air had grown thicker. It was warmer somehow, even though the stone was damp beneath my hands.
Morana stopped at a door near the end of the hall. It was heavy and iron–banded, with a massive lock that glinted faintly in the torchlight.
་་ ་་་ ་ ་ ་
Morana pressed her palm to the lock. Her lips moved in a slow and precise rhythm. Her voice was a whisper of old words I didn’t understand. The metal shuddered under her hand.
Then, with a sharp crack, it split open.
The door swung inward with a groan.
And there they were.
Lisa was tied to a chair in the center of the room. Her wrists were bound tightly and her ankles were strapped down. Her head hung forward. There was dark hair falling over her face.
Against the far wall, Rylan lay on the cold stone floor. Metal chains bound him to iron rings sunk deep into the wall. His skin was pale and his eyes were closed. He didn’t move.
For one endless heartbeat, I couldn’t breathe.
Valric’s voice was a low growl. We found them.
“Yes,” I whispered. My hands curled into fists.
The torchlight flickered over Lisa’s still form.
This was it. I had finally found her.
