The ground turned completely white, as if Mytica had fallen into a swift winter that had frozen to death all the fresh colors of nature. Valoria approached from this stark backdrop, her dress fully crimson, her ebony hair flowing over her shoulders.
“Your Radiance,” Sienna greeted her. “Welcome.”
Valoria’s cold, unpleasant gaze fell over all of them, one by one, before it finally landed on Sienna.
“Well done,” the goddess said. “You’ve pleased me today. All this has come together so swiftly, thanks to your hard work and loyalty.”
Sienna nodded. “As I told you before, my sister has been conspiring with rebels. It was by chance alone that I discovered that the book of the immortals had fallen into her hands. I sent the message by raven as soon as I discovered it last night. I’m thrilled you were able to get here so quickly.”
“And your sister?”
“I killed her.” Sienna nodded toward the cottage. “She won’t cause you any further problems.”
“Excellent.”
Maddox regarded this pair of beautiful women with hatred. Sienna had murdered the kind and benevolent Camilla, and Valoria had murdered Maddox’s father.
He could barely keep from trembling. He craved vengeance on behalf of a man he’d never known, a man whom this evil creature had stolen from him.
Valoria moved toward Barnabas, looking down her nose at him.
“Greetings,” he said. “We meet again.”
“You killed my cobra.”
“Oh, wait. Was that your cobra?” Barnabas frowned. “I had no idea. Apologies, many sincere apologies.”
She nodded at a guard, who then smashed his fist into Barnabas’s jaw.
“Did you really think I wouldn’t figure out your little disguise? Now that I see your skin encrusted with less grime, and smell that you’ve managed to wash away some of the stink that emanated from you before, the memory returns. It’s been some time, Barnabas.”
“Your memory may have returned, but I’m afraid mine hasn’t. I meet a lot of attractive women in my line of work. Did we have a tryst once? I regret that it wasn’t more memorable for me.”
Another nod. Another punch. Blood now trickled from the corner of his mouth.
“It’s been years,” Valoria continued as if she hadn’t been interrupted. “You’ve grown older. The beard is new, but the face behind it is the same.” A smile now played on her lips. “I know how much you must loathe me.”
All pretenses of levity gone, Barnabas’s eyes narrowed. “You could never in a million years know the depth of my hatred for you.”
“But you helped to create a legend to last through the centuries, Barnabas—you and my sister. The immortal sorceress who fell in love with a mortal hunter. How did you think it would end for you both? That you’d persuade her to live the life of a mortal in a little cottage where you would raise your unnatural spawn?” She laughed. “A love like yours burned bright like the sun but was always destined to end in darkness. You seemed to be the only one surprised by that.”
“I swear I’ll have my vengeance for what you did to Eva.”
“I was not the one to take her life.”
“You helped.”
“You weren’t there. You could never know the whole truth.”
“I know what I see before me. I see a thieving immortal who, instead of guarding this world like she was created to do, steals lives and magic.”
“I never agreed to be a guardian of anything.”
“I will destroy you.”
“Given where you currently sit and where I currently stand, I sincerely doubt that. No. You’ve managed to hide from me for all these years. I promise, you won’t escape from me again.”
“Do you understand a single word of this?” Becca asked. She hadn’t left Maddox’s side since he woke.
He’d been listening to them talk in hushed silence, fearful that Valoria would have a guard put a sword through Barnabas at any moment. But then that fear fell away and was replaced by confusion.
Barnabas and the sorceress.
Eva had been the girl Barnabas confessed to loving last night. The one he’d lost.
It was Eva’s sixteen-year-old daughter for whom Valoria searched.
Eva and Barnabas’s daughter.
A mystery girl who Barnabas had not referenced at all. She wasn’t the hidden heiress to the throne. He’d broken into the dungeon to find Maddox. Because he needed Maddox’s magic . . .
His head hurt from hurriedly thinking through all this, but he knew he was close to something incredibly important. The answer he needed more than any other.
What if it wasn’t a girl at all whom Valoria searched for?
What if it was . . . a sixteen-year-old boy with unusual magic?
His gaze shot to Barnabas.
The thief had told him that Valoria had torn the heart right from Maddox’s father’s chest. But now that he thought about it, Barnabas had never, not once, said his father was dead.
“This can’t be true,” Maddox whispered hoarsely. “Barnabas, it can’t. Can it?”
Barnabas drew in a sharp breath, his eyes widening with surprise, as Maddox’s unspoken question hung in the air.
The goddess, who’d watched both of them closely, focused then on Maddox, looking infuriatingly smug.
“The witch boy,” she purred. “How vastly I underestimated you. Barnabas must have thought he was so clever to fool me so well and for so long.”
“What’s she talking about?” Becca asked, frowning.
Maddox didn’t look away from the goddess. He held her gaze defiantly.
“Yes, there it is,” she said with a cool smile. “I can see the resemblance much better when you’re not shivering like a frightened child. Your father wasn’t much older than you when he fell in love with my sister.”
“Eighteen, actually,” Barnabas said, his voice tight. “There was a bit of an age difference between us, I admit, but we didn’t mind.”
“Even now, he plays the fool in an attempt to distract me.” Valoria clasped Maddox’s chin. “All this time I’ve been searching for a girl. If only I’d known your true parents’ little secret.”
“I’m afraid I’m not sure what you’re talking about,” Maddox replied, fighting to keep his tone steady. “My mother is Damaris Corso. My father was all but a stranger to her.”
She patted his cheek. “A nice attempt, but you can’t fool me. Not anymore.”
“Okay, Maddox,” Becca whispered. “I think I understand what’s going on here. I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but promise you’ll listen to me. I know this realization might come as a bit of a, um, shock? To say the least? But look at it this way. . . . You’ve always considered your magic to be a curse, right? You didn’t know where it came from or why you had it. Now you do. Your mother was a sorceress and, by the sound of it, one of the good ones.”
“Bring me the book,” Valoria instructed Sienna. “I’m ready to finally reclaim my dagger and punish the thief who stole it from me.”
“After you stole it from Eva, you mean,” Barnabas growled.
“If you think I can help you, you’re wrong,” Maddox said to Valoria. “I’ve examined the book, and it means nothing to me. I can’t use it to open up a gateway. My magic doesn’t do that, and that raggedy old thing certainly won’t make any difference.”
“No, I don’t suppose it would. Not the way you’re used to channeling your magic now, at least.” She eyed him from top to tail. “The magic I’m familiar with is elemental—the magic of life. You possess the flip side to this—death magic. Life and death do go hand in hand, after all. How curious it is that Eva, an immortal, would give life to a creature who is exactly the opposite. Usually when those of my kind create life with mortals, they end up with witches for offspring, like my loyal Sienna and
her dead sister: women with small holds on elemental magic. You are a rare creature indeed.”
“Perhaps I am, but I still can’t help you.” Maddox tried to summon some of Barnabas’s irreverence but knew he came up short.
“Even if you could,” she replied, “you’d likely fail. From what I’ve seen of you, you’re too young, too timid. You doubt every move you make and seek guidance and permission before every action you take. What a waste.”
Darkness churned deep in his belly, and he balled his hands into fists at his sides.
“She’s wrong.” Becca shook her head. “You have to know that, don’t you?”
“Here it is, Your Radiance.” Sienna had brought the book out from the cottage and handed it to Valoria.
The goddess took it, drawing in a long, satisfied breath. “Very good.”
“What’s so special about this dagger you’re after, anyway?” Maddox asked. He’d tried to catch Barnabas’s eye, but it seemed the man was trying to avoid his gaze.
“When wielded by an immortal, one can carve loyalty, obedience, and trust into another’s very skin. Three qualities that are rarely found in your kind.”
“You wish to create an army of slaves,” Barnabas hissed. “Don’t you?”
“Perhaps you will be my first recruit,” she told him. “Yes, I think that would be a fitting punishment for you. Three marks would ensure that you will bow to me, that you will worship me. That you will love me, perhaps as much as you loved my sister, even as the magic eats away at your very soul to sustain itself. Very few can resist the magic of the dagger marks.”
“I will resist.”
“You say that now. I’ll ask you again when you’re kneeling before my throne.”
She leafed through the book until she came to the page that showed the illustration of the stone wheel.
“It’s a spell book,” Becca said. “This . . . this gateway magic, it’s only a part of it.”
“How do you know?” Maddox whispered.
“It’s pretty thick for one measly spell, don’t you think?”
“This will be the most difficult spell I’ve ever attempted,” Valoria said aloud. “Eva could wield this kind of magic easily, but for the rest of us, we need to be wary. Worlds and time can shift. One mistake and I could open a gateway years before the thief entered this world, or years after he finally faded from existence. I wish to pull him back as close as possible to the moment he was originally exiled.”
Valoria’s guards stood as silently as statues, watching and waiting for orders. Two more stood on either side of Barnabas, who was still on his knees on the frost-covered ground.
“You are Eva’s son,” Valoria said to Maddox. “A mutation of her magic runs through your veins and infuses your spirit. That magic is what I need to accomplish this monumental task.”
He shook his head. “But I don’t know how.”
Valoria reached out with one hand and clutched his throat.
“You don’t have to know anything, my sweet nephew,” she said. “I will do it for you.”
Coldness washed over him, and then a painful tearing sensation shuddered through his very flesh. He gasped and tried to pull away from her grip, but he couldn’t move.
“Shh, be still,” Valoria hissed. “This won’t take long.”
He began to shiver, as if the goddess were draining all of his mortal warmth. When she finally let go of him, Maddox dropped to his knees. A layer of shadows coated Valoria’s hand, as if she’d dipped it in black honey.
“I may not be able to absorb your magic, but I can wield it.”
All Maddox could do was stare at her, his power of speech currently useless to him. There was now something missing from inside him, leaving nothing but an empty, bottomless hole.
Valoria went to the stone wheel, her right hand still dripping with Maddox’s shadowy magic, her left hand holding the book. She pressed her palm against the wheel, glanced down at the page, and began to read aloud. The language felt like a golden melody, an enchanted whisper, which released sparks of energy and power into the air with every enigmatic syllable spoken.
Maddox’s stolen magic began to flow from Valoria and spread across the wheel, swirling and entwining the nooks and crannies of the stone surface. The shadows kept heaving and expanding until the entire wheel was cloaked by them, and was transformed to what looked like a swirling black hole.
Valoria laughed. “It won’t be long now. Maddox, my sweet, perhaps I shall reward you for this. I may need you again in the future, after all.”
Suddenly, all the guards gasped in unison and then crumpled to the ground.
Valoria’s insidious grin fell at the sight. “Was that you, child?”
“No,” Maddox replied, stunned, as he searched the area for the answer.
Becca’s surprised gaze swept over the fallen guards. “Then how on earth—?” she whispered.
Sienna stood nearby, her arms out to her sides. “Apologies, Your Radiance, but this crusade ends now.”
Valoria cocked her head. “Sienna. You did this? I’m impressed. You must be more powerful than I thought.”
“Don’t flatter me. I didn’t do it alone.”
“That’s right,” said a familiar voice. Maddox turned around to see Camilla, walking toward them from the cottage. “I helped.”
Valoria raised a brow. “I thought this vile woman was dead.”
Barnabas laughed, then struggled to crawl over and cut his ropes on a fallen guard’s sword. “Imagine that. Mere witches, fooling a goddess as powerful as you.”
Valoria stiffened, and the book fell from her hands, tumbling to the ground in a flutter of delicate pages. Bands of translucent, airy swirls wrapped themselves around her shoulders, waist, and knees, trapping her arms at her sides. “Yes, with your puny powers combined, your air magic is quite impressive.”
Barnabas approached her. “Just to enlighten you, Your Radiance, this has been our plan for a long time. Sienna gave up two years of her life to work her way into your good graces and earn your trust. But, like you said, without that magic dagger of yours, you can’t be sure of anyone’s loyalty, can you?”
The goddess’s lips thinned. “And what do you mean to do with me now?”
“That’s the beauty of it, Valoria. Without your determination to open this gateway with Maddox’s magic, we couldn’t have done any of this. You yourself have given us the means to rid ourselves and Mytica of you, once and for all. From this point forward, you are exiled. You’ll never find a way back here. You are now free to spend eternity searching for your thief friend and that dagger you’re so desperate for.”
She shook her head. “Barnabas, you can’t do this. You can’t simply shove me through a gateway and have me disappear!”
He laughed again. “Oh, I believe I can.”
He clutched her shoulders and fixed a wild-eyed, victorious stare on her. Then, pushing back on his haunches to harness more strength, he shoved her backward.
She didn’t budge an inch.
A slow smile snaked across her face. “Didn’t you hear me? I said you can’t do it.”
And with her words, the earth beneath Barnabas’s feet swiftly turned to mud, and he immediately sank down into it to his waist. He fought to free himself, but he was in too deep.
He continued to sink farther, now just a little at a time. The more he struggled, the faster the enchanted mud drew him downward.
Valoria examined the air magic binding her. “These wispy chains are impressive, but let’s not be silly.”
With a violent flick of her wrists, she brushed off the spell, the translucent binds sputtering out into specks of dust, and strode toward the witches. “I hate to repeat a trick twice in the same day, but you both deserve a nice, slow death.”
Again, the earth gave way to muck beneath them, and they swiftly
sank into mud pits identical to Barnabas’s.
It appeared as though Barnabas’s brilliant plan—which was a complete secret to Maddox until now, of course—had failed. Rather spectacularly.
“Whatever you’re thinking of doing,” Becca said, her voice strained, “think faster.”
She believed he had a plan at the ready to save them all. She couldn’t be more wrong.
But I have to do something, he thought frantically. Something. But what?
The goddess might be many things—vain, greedy, impulsive—but she wasn’t stupid.
Was it possible that he could reason with her?
As Valoria approached the shadowy gateway, Maddox stepped in front of her. “Wait. We could make a bargain,” he said, attempting to keep his tone as calm as possible, given the current life-and-death situation. “If you spare the lives of Barnabas and the witches, I will gladly work for you.”
“Oh, you poor boy. Yes, you will work for me,” she agreed. “That was never in question. But they’ve already chosen death by crossing me.”
She shoved him out of her way. He lost his footing, and when he dropped to the icy ground, the silver ring holding the dark forest spirit, which he’d nearly forgotten about, tumbled out of his pocket. Steadily and as if in slow motion, the ring rolled toward the gateway until it made contact with the swirling shadows.
With a blood-chilling shriek, the trapped spirit streamed out of the ring as a sickening plume of darkness and took the form of a shadow creature much larger and denser than the one Maddox had originally summoned. The magic surrounding the gateway had affected it, changed it. Strengthened it.
The spirit turned toward Becca, who staggered backward.
“Becca, run!” Maddox yelled.
“Becca? Who is Becca?” Valoria asked. Barnabas, Sienna, and Camilla were now up to their shoulders in the mud.
“Oh, that’s just another name he likes to call me, now and then,” Barnabas called out. “Adorable, yes? Sorry, my young friend, but I can’t run at the moment. I’m busy sinking to my death.”
Just as Maddox was about to give in to despair, the sound of Valoria’s amused laughter drew his attention.