“We have to convince him that I defeated you,” Gavin said.
She frowned. “Why?”
“Because he’s after the ring, and he has to believe I have it. If he does, then he’ll reveal himself and come for it.”
“There would be no way for him to know.”
“Maybe not, but I think I could do something.”
“What?” Jayna asked.
“He’s phrased it so he knows I believe that Tristan has come for the ring. And if that’s the case, all I need to do is figure out a way to convince him that I sent word to Tristan.”
Send a message, get to Tristan. But where would he call him to?
“We have to trap him. Somewhere,” he said, looking at the others with them. “And it has to be believable.”
“What do you propose?” Jayna asked.
Gavin smiled. At least she was willing to work with him. With enough time to prepare, he believed they would have enough of a chance to stop him.
“We can work through the details, but he wanted me in Nelar for a reason. Maybe we need to return.”
If he could draw Cyran there, they could deal with him easily.
The Toral would be able to deal with him easily.
Gavin might not even need to do anything.
But this was Cyran. He wanted to be a part of taking him down.
“Why there?” she asked.
“Because that’s where he thinks I needed to go. And if he’s to believe I have your ring, he needs to believe you’ve been immobilized.”
It was more than that, though. Nelar was where Gavin had been assigned to bring the ring when he’d taken it in the past.
“We should make preparations,” he said, glancing to Gaspar and Imogen before turning his attention back to Jayna and Eva. “We’re going to need to collect supplies.”
“What kinds of supplies?” Jayna asked.
“Enchantments, primarily, but maybe other things.”
She frowned. “I might be able to help with enchantments.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
It was early morning, and none of them had slept yet. All of them sat around inside the Dragon, trying to figure out the next steps of their plan. Gavin could feel his eyes getting heavy. He looked over to Jayna and Eva, shaking his head.
“I think it’s time for us to get some sleep,” he said.
“It’s time to finish this if you intend to use me in your plan,” Jayna said.
“It’s not a matter of using you.”
He looked up as the door opened and Imogen slipped in. She set two pouches on the table.
“What are these?” Gavin asked.
“Enchantments. The enchanters were with the constables. It seems that there were more attacks while we were gone, and your constable friend requested their assistance.”
Gavin had seen evidence of the attacks, though he’d returned to the Dragon before he’d had the chance to learn more about them. Enchantments destroyed. Buildings targeted. Exiled magic again targeting the city.
“How many were lost?” he asked softly.
“They didn’t say,” Imogen said.
He breathed out a sigh. Davel knew the dangers, but the enchanters deserved better. They’d lived in fear long enough.
That was why he thought it good that the constables and enchanters work together. When they did, the city could be protected in a way that would not require Gavin’s presence here any longer. The threat of the dark egg would remain, which would keep out the Fates, and maybe it would prevent other attacks as well.
“Where were the other attacks?” he asked.
“Scattered. So far, they have repelled them.”
That had to be Cyran as well. Gavin gritted his teeth, and irritation filled him. All of this because he’d ousted Cyran from the city.
“What did they give us?”
“More enchantments,” Imogen said. “Isn’t that what you wanted?”
“I suppose it is,” Gavin said. “And I should thank you.”
“Don’t bother.”
She took a seat, and Gavin looked inside one of the pouches. Gaspar took another, slipping the satchel over his shoulder.
“I need rest,” Gavin said. “If I don’t get it—”
The door to the Dragon exploded open.
Shadows streamed toward them, stinking of a terrible magic. Gavin clenched his fists and pulled on the power of his core reserves. All they needed was time to prepare, and they wouldn’t even have that. And now the attack had come back to Yoran, to the Dragon.
All he wanted was to ensure the city’s safety, but he continually failed. Anger filled him as he jumped to his feet, rage at what Cyran had done boiling up within him.
This was his doing; Gavin was certain of it.
“What is this?” Jayna asked, spinning and holding her hands out in front of her. She crossed her wrists and then began to form a tight spiral that blasted outward.
“This would be Cyran deciding he was impatient in waiting for us to come after him. Apparently, he must have known you were here.”
Which meant that Cyran had some way of detecting the Toral ring, just like Jayna did. Gavin should’ve figured that.
He started forward, but Jayna grabbed him and threw him back. “Not yet,” she said.
“I know how to fight in the shadows,” he said to her.
“And I’m telling you no. You don’t need to do this yet.”
“Just wait?”
She nodded, and Eva strode forward, her hands clenched at her side. It looked as if blood dripped from her palms. As soon as the blood struck the floorboards, it started to smoke and swirl outward. The smoke drifted toward the shadows and looped within them, and then the shadows shattered.
A dozen figures emerged out of the darkness.
“Now you can do what you do,” Jayna said.
Gavin growled as he lunged forward. Imogen was there as quickly as he was, her sword unsheathed, whipping it in such fast patterns that he could scarcely keep up.
Damn, he would love to spar with her again.
Gavin jumped in among the others. In close quarters, it was easy for him to choose which fighting style he would use. He darted with sharp wrist movements, chopping one man in the throat, bringing his knee up into the midsection of two, then twisting someone’s arm behind him until it shattered. Gavin swept through the attackers, striking one after another,
