And if we were lucky, Kit and Lienna might pull off a miracle and get Söze’s orders revoked. But I wasn’t counting on it.
My throat tightened, and I crept back up the stairs. I already knew the plan—Darius and the officers had hashed it out in the office upstairs—and I didn’t want to listen to it again. I had enough anxiety and guilt to cope with already.
I’d provoked the cult, and the cult had engineered this. Had I saved Ezra’s life only to be responsible for the deaths of my other guildmates?
Sucking in a deep, steadying breath, I hastened toward the open doorway into the second-floor workroom—only to pull up short at the sound of Ezra’s voice just inside.
“Are you staying or going?”
I hesitated at his cool tone.
“Your guild is going to war with the Keys of Solomon,” Zak replied, his tone even more arctic than Ezra’s. “Shouldn’t you be begging me to stay?”
“You don’t care about our guild. You only care about Tori.”
“Your point?” When Ezra didn’t reply, Zak made a scoffing noise. “I’m trying to make things right with Tori. That’s why I’m here, not to make friends with your little guild of misfits.”
“So you’ll let her guildmates die in front of her? I’m sure she’ll appreciate that.”
“Are you suggesting I single-handedly protect this guild? For a mythic who just lost most of his power, you’ve got a lot to say about what I should be doing with mine.”
“I’m suggesting you be honest for once about what you intend to do.”
“Maybe I’m not intending to do anything.”
“Then why are you still here?”
I hastily stepped through the doorway before their argument could escalate. The two men turned toward me, Zak scowling irascibly while Ezra was … I wasn’t sure. Calm, but in a grim sort of way.
He’d been freed from Eterran for less than twenty-four hours, and I didn’t know yet how much he’d changed now that the demon wasn’t influencing his mind, eroding his concentration, or requiring him to suppress his emotions.
“No one expects you to protect the guild, Zak,” I told him. “Any way you’re willing to help is fine.”
His narrowed eyes flicked from me to Ezra and back.
“Seriously.” I waved my hand. “You’ve already done enough.”
Slipping between them, I peered across the workroom. One row of tables was covered in an assortment of weapons—from swords to spears to axes to guns. Another row held a display of artifacts—medallions, wands, tokens, and more, each marked with runes—and alchemic potions of every color and consistency in different-sized vials.
“Look at all this stuff,” I muttered, squinting at a black sphere the size of a golf ball with gold runes etched into it. “Are we going to use all this stuff to fight the Keys?”
“The original plan was to use them against the Court.” Ezra joined me at the table. “But they’ll work just as well against the Keys.”
“Is anything here unclaimed? What can I have?”
Zak appeared on my other side. “Carrying unfamiliar artifacts into battle is dangerous. It’s difficult to remember more than one or two new incantations in high-adrenaline situations.”
As I grimaced in reluctant agreement, he swung his backpack off his shoulder. It landed on the table with a thump. I watched bemusedly as he dug around inside it, then lifted out a tangle of leather ties. Hanging from the end of each one was a rough-cut crystal.
He fished out a ruby gemstone. “You know how to use the decidas spell already.”
My eyes widened as he extended it toward me. My fingers, trembling slightly, closed around the cool crystal containing the same fall spell I’d lost.
“One won’t be enough.” Shaking the tangle of cords, he dragged out two more red crystals. “Here. Same spell.”
I took those too, watching in amazement as the three gems clinked together. “These are …”
He contemplated the remaining crystals. After a moment’s hesitation, he selected one and dropped the rest in his bag. Holding it up, he let the artifact—an elongated diamond shape two inches long, its violet depths veined with cerulean streaks—swing from its leather cord.
“This will be your one new spell. The incantation is ori vis siderea.”
“Ori vis siderea,” I repeated. “What does it do?”
“It’s a rapid-fire artifact.” At my blank look, he explained, “It can be used six times without recharge, but after that, it’s done forever.”
“Six times? Without needing to wait at all?”
“Exactly.” Stepping away from the table, he grasped the crystal in his palm. “As for what it does … ori vis siderea.”
The crystal flashed and a softball-sized orb of swirling blue and violet light appeared in his hand. Mini arcs of multicolored electricity crackled off it. My eyes bugged out. He was holding what looked like pure magical energy.
He cocked his arm back. “Ready?”
Alarm shot through my gut. “Wait, wh—”
He lobbed it into me.
The orb hit my right shoulder and burst. The detonation threw me back into Ezra, and as he caught me, I sagged weakly. Glowing purple and blue stains were splashed over me, as though the energy had turned into liquid. Wherever it glowed, my body had gone numb and weak. My right arm hung limply.
“Tori!” Ezra exclaimed.
“Three seconds,” Zak said.
The magical stain over my shoulder fizzled away, and feeling returned to my skin. Muscles functioning again, I straightened and gave Zak my meanest glare.
He held the artifact out, the crystal swinging innocently.
“Now you know what it does,” he said without the slightest hint of apology. “Five activations left.”
I opened my mouth—then closed it again without berating him for attacking me and wasting one of the artifact’s uses. Maybe he was right that I needed to understand its precise effects before taking it into battle.
“Thanks,” I muttered, gripping the leather cord. As I dropped all four crystals over my head, I looked at him again. “Really. Thank you, Zak. You’ve done more than enough. If you want to go, that’s fine. I won’t hold it against you or anything.”
Those green eyes fixed on me, boring through my skin. “You want me to leave?”
“Of
