Hunted Sorcery (Jon Oklar Book 2), B.T. Narro [digital book reader txt] 📗

A ring. A callring, certainly. Valinox must’ve left it. Whose window was it?

She went through the rooms in her mind until she figured it out.

Eden! How could you?

Remi didn’t want to believe it—she felt closer to Eden than to anyone else—but she had to admit that it made the most sense.

Now it was time to tell the guards, and not in a way that would alert Eden that Remi knew her secret. Perhaps they could use this to catch not only Eden but Valinox as well.

But Remi couldn’t get to a guard through her room because it was locked from the outside at night.

She started to climb back onto the roof, all the while wondering how she was going to notify the guards without admitting what she was doing on the roof. Before she could figure it out, something wrapped up her whole body. Panicked, she tried to scream, but the energy was strong and thick across her mouth.

She squirmed against it as her voice was muffled. She couldn’t seem to break free.

It picked her up and floated her across the roof. Then it pressed her against the one side of the chimney on the corner of the roof that no one could see.

Valinox appeared in front of her. It didn’t look as if it took any effort for him to hold dteria around her, anger in his silvery eyes.

He flicked the ring on his finger several times. He was signaling to the callring he’d put on Eden’s windowsill. Did that mean Eden had fetched it already? If so, she might’ve already seen Remi climbing back up.

There wasn’t much time. Remi continued to fight the dteria as Valinox stared at her callously. She tried to set fire to him, but it just burned her hand as the dteria blocked her mana from getting out. She tried to scream louder, but she couldn’t get through the muffling energy.

He can’t kill me, she told herself as she relaxed a little. He’s going to have to let go at some point for Eden to do it.

Then she would scream her lungs out.

Eden hovered up onto the roof like one of those powerful dark mages. Remi didn’t know if it was Valinox causing her to float over or if she was doing it herself.

Nonetheless, Remi cursed Eden, though no words got through as she thrashed in fury.

“This one saw me,” Valinox whispered to Eden.

Eden dropped onto the roof and walked the rest of the way until all three of them stood behind the chimney.

“Are we safe here?” Eden asked. She looked somewhat upset, or perhaps just annoyed.

“Seems so. Who is she?”

“Remi Ryler. What was she doing here?”

“I don’t know. She was behind me when I dropped off the callring, and there’s a rope here.” He gestured at it near his feet. “Seems like she just came back from somewhere.”

“Strange. Well, everything is going to change now,” Eden said as she calmly held out her hand for something.

Valinox took the knife from the holder on his belt and passed it to her.

Remi tried her hardest to shout. She squirmed and screamed against the dteria until she exhausted herself.

“I wish I could ask what the hell you were doing on the roof,” Eden said. “But we can’t have you screaming.”

Remi suddenly realized that no matter what, her life was over. Defeated, she stopped fighting. Even if she did manage to scream, they would kill her the moment she opened her mouth. She just wanted to know why Eden would do this. Why? Why?

She shouted the question over and over, the energy muffling her, though a partial sound of the word did come through.

Eden let down the knife as she seemed to understand.

“Kill her,” Valinox said. “Someone could find us for all I know, and your work isn’t finished.”

“She deserves to know,” Eden said. “This war is going to be won by Rohaer, Remi, because they support Valinox. Everyone who stands against dteria will die. The only hope for people who care to live is not to stand against Valinox. Many lives could’ve been saved if Grufaeragar had been slain and Nykal had relinquished power to Cason once hope was lost. No war would’ve been needed. Now many are going to perish. Shame, but the result will be the same. Valinox wins this.”

Remi could feel the energy shifting, a gap opening around her neck as the dteria was split between her face and her body. She could swing her head around now, but it didn’t do any good.

Eden gripped the knife tightly, but Remi could see hesitation in her eyes.

“You sure you can’t kill one person?” Eden asked Valinox. “I won’t be able to explain blood on my clothes if any comes into contact with me.”

Was that really the only thing stopping her? She was just worried about blood on her clothes?

Remi looked for something in Eden’s eyes, a speck of human decency.

Remi had spoken with Cason at length when she’d gone into the dungeons with Aliana and Jon, and he had cared about no one, this was abundantly clear. But Eden seemed to be different. Remi still saw the old Eden as she looked at her closely, the Eden who’d made her laugh, the Eden who she’d thought of as her friend.

So it hurt that much more when Remi realized that it was because of her friend that she was going to die.

“Even this use of power might be sensed by my sister, who has been following me, and a murder might bring about my brother and ruin everything. It’s not worth the risk. Blood on your clothes is a small risk if you use a dteria grip as you’ve been taught.”

A tear fell down Remi’s cheek as Eden floated the dagger into the air with dteria. This was how Remi was going to die, with her friend using dteria to jam a dagger into the side of her neck. There was no honor in that.

More than fear, she felt overwhelming