Page 107 of Omen of ice
Liani sighs. “Honestly, Valen. I have no idea why you told her the truth. But I suppose this solves the druid problem. Now we don’t have to feed and clothe her and put up with her holier-than-thou attitude.”
“Unchain me, and I’ll show you attitude.”
It’s nothing more than frustration and posturing. Tania is angry, but more than that, I feel a twinge of fear and the bitter sting of betrayal lingering in the link. Had I confessed weeks ago, this whole situation could have been avoided.
I could have told her sooner.
Ishouldhave told her sooner.
Whatever would have happened, it couldn’t have been worse than this.
I shake my head and move to the front of the small crowd, where Liani leads the way. “I’m asking you—for me—let her go. She’s the wronged party here, not you. Not me…”
Liani glares at me. “You can have any female you want, yet you’re begging for this one? A human? Pull yourself together, Valen. She’s beneath you.”
I’m so shocked by her tone, by her words, that I can’t even formulate a reply. I’ve never seen Liani act this way. It’s unsettling.
She’s never tried to keep the lengths to which she’ll go to keep me safe a secret, but this? This is something more. There’s a venom in her voice I’ve never heard before. A flame in her eyes that I’ve never seen. When I’ve asked her for something—not that I did it often—she went out of her way to oblige. Asking her to release Tania should have been more than enough.
Maybe it’s jealousy. Liani had always been a bit jealous of Mika. She’d been the only one in my life for so long… But, with Tania, things are different. I might not have seen it right away, but it’s impossible to miss now.
It isn’t long before we’ve navigated the rocky landscape and end up in a massive clearing. In the center is a thick stone with several metal hooks.
The guards push Tania forward, then attach her chains to the end of one of the hooks. To her left is an older human woman I assume is Levina. She watches Tania with sorrow in her eyes, looking away as the guards all but force her to the ground.
“They have our magic, Levina!” Tania struggles with a seemingly renewed sense of fury against their grip, and to her credit, they have a hard time keeping her down. She looks to me for confirmation, but I stay quiet. We can deal with the magic later. Right now, we have to break the link. We don’t have much time left.
“Shh. One problem at a time, Keltania.” The priestess gestures to me. “Might I ask you to remove your shirt so I can inspect the ink my student placed upon your skin?”
“Oh. Yes. Of course.” I do as she asks. “But there’s nothing to see.”
“I will be able to see.” Levina leans in and ever so gently brushes her fingers over the spot where Tania’s invisible mark is. The woman smiles, then nods to Liani. “It is exactly as I said it would be. There are several things we can do.”
“Thank the Gods.” Liani turns to her guards. “Leave us. Wait in the square.”
The Winter Guards exchange confused expressions, but after a moment of hesitation, they obey, marching toward the town.
Levina produces another set of chains. “Do not be alarmed,” she tells me. “It is a safety precaution and nothing more. The process can be a bit jarring, and from what I understand, you’re a powerful young Fae not quite in control of your magic.”
I look to Liani for confirmation, and she bows her head. She’s acting strange, but I’m not worried. The druid priestess will find herself gutted if she tries to harm me in any way.
The chains are oddly cold against my skin, and when she snaps them into place, something in my gut stirs. I look to Tania, but she isn’t looking at me. She’s watching Levina with an odd expression. “What’s going on?”
Levina cocks her head to the side, brows furrowing. “What do you mean?”
Tania yanks hard on the chains. They rattle and snap but don’t give way. “These chains are soaked in jalva oil.”
Levina can’t hide her surprise. “How do you know that?”
“I can smell it.”
“Jalva has no scent.”
There’s a pained gleam in Tania’s eyes. She pulls at the chains again, rattling them against the stone. She turns to me. “This is what my bracelet was soaked with. It suppresses magic.”
Levina’s frown slowly gives way to a wicked grin. “Well, of course I smell it. I’m the high priestess. And if you can smell it, then Liani was right to put the chains on you.” She digs into her robes and pulls out a small blade. “Kill him, and we’ll have our birthright returned to us.”
A rush of anguish barrels down the link, and Tania’s shoulders slump. “You already knew about the tear…”
