“It was her soul,” I say, the words forming slowly as if partway through the sentence, I might find a flaw in my logic and have to take the idea back. But I don’t. “The Saber part of her soul was always in the Spring.”
“Why would a Spring separate part of her soul?” Pax asks. “And is it back for good?”
I run my hands through my hair, fixing it into a tight knot with the band on my wrist.
“I don’t know. Why does any Spring do anything? Maybe the parameters were right. The writing on the glass said, Return the soul to the place of its origin. Also, now that I think about it, the writing warned us that the domain would come down: A shard from the barrier that protects us all. Or maybe that was talking about the border. I’m really beginning to loathe prophecies.”
“Doesn’t explain how we missed being ambushed,” Killian growls.
Pax runs his hand over his face, pulling at tension that instantly returns. His stallion tries to nuzzle him, then gives up. “It does if one of our allies was in fact our enemy.”
And he’s right, that was always a threat.
“That complicates things,” I say.
Killian makes a noise that translates to murder.
“Be careful when you return to the White Castle. Some of our plans may already be undone.”
“I know our plan. What’s yours, Commander?”
“She might not be conscious by the time I arrive in Hirana, but that doesn’t matter. Keeping her safe does. I’ll book a room, let her recover, make some arrangements to let her stay there, purchase a safe house, then send for you.”
“Let her stay and send for us – I thought you’d let her recover, then ride with her back to the White Castle,” I interrupt.
“Not if I can help it. She’s still supposed to fight the grimm, and she can’t fight at all. We stick to our plan: remove the Sealers working for Lithael. Take the White Castle into our discreet possession. Get the masters to the Springs to hold the border in place and keep the mortal mages at bay for –”
“How far’s Hirana?” Killian interrupts, which is possibly the least important question right now.
One minute, one hour, one day – it’s all too far away.
“Drayden’s a day from here. Hirana’s closer to two days unless we ride hard,” Pax says, “I never can remember one mortal city from another.”
“You will be dead,” Killian grumbles.
He’s clearly not planning to finish his sentence – so I do it for him. “You’ll be dead before you can ride from Hirana back to the White Castle. You can’t put yourself that far away with the Return Seal already pulling. You don’t come back to life.”
“I’m strong enough.”
“Stay in Drayden. Let her heal. Bring her to the castle. She wielded Silvari glass without even touching it – let me train her,” I plead, which turns into something close to babbling.
Or begging.
Whatever it takes.
“No,” Pax growls, Thane rearing his head. “Don’t disobey me on this, brother. Jada will get you a new assignment, then come find me. She can bring the new seal – I will survive long enough for that.”
I dig through my pack and pull out the vial of Eydis’ experimental potion. With his arms wrapped around Kitten, Seth moves into our conversation. She has her back to him, her eyes searching over us. Watching as I hold the vial out to Pax, even though I’m torn on whether it will be an advantage or disadvantage.
“Eydis was calling it a Null Elixir. It could give us the edge we need, but she hadn’t perfected it. It could null the Return Seal’s pull for three hours, or three days, or do nothing. But it will definitely leave you unable to access a skill. It’s a trade off – but if it’s life or death, then use it.”
“What are we talking about?” she asks.
“You,” Killian says with a sharp point.
“We,” I jump in quickly, trying to cover his rough edges, “need to make sure you’re safe.”
“By using a potion that could make you lose the ability to breathe?”
Her logic makes me smile. “No, I’m pretty sure it would be more of a learned skill than an innate one. Like writing or horse riding. It’s worth it as a last resort, and in the meantime I can work on perfecting the recipe at the White Castle.”
Seth rolls back and forth from his heel to his toes, looking a little concerned. “In the meantime, we need to deal with the Origin Spring. The Origin Spring.”
“Door’s locked,” Killian says.
I chew the inside of my lip. Running over my options a few more times.
“Roarke?” Pax pushes.
“I was going to propose we send Tanilya; they were disbanded when they lost their third.”
“They won’t have the power to put the barrier back up,” Pax points out.
“I know, but they’re not sealed to any castle, and we can be sure of their allegiance.”
“When were you thinking this?” Seth asks, completely off topic.
“While you were snoring.”
“Oh,” he says, drawing the sound out.
“What about Leon?” Kitten interrupts.
I ignore Thane’s warning growl, which is possibly a dangerous move. It’s not that I don’t agree with him – I’d rather be at the forefront of one of Seth’s jokes than leave anything of importance in a mortal’s grip – but… “She’s right. Hear me out, if the mortals are gathering somewhere, and they are planning something, and they do have the power between them to be of some significance, then we should put them where we can watch them.”
“Not what I meant,” Kitten mutters.
“Enough – the Spring is too important to lose,” Pax says, clearly to Thane. “And Tanilya can handle them. The man is a FurySeed.”
“Pretty sure that’s why his triune was targeted,” Seth says.
“Let me guess – another last of?”
We nod, and I try to focus the conversation back on the immediate problem. “We trust Leon, we have to, to put the barrier back up and keep the domain locked
