Page 198 of The Edge of Darkness

Aremis dropped to Remic’s side, assessing his arm.

Niall fell to his knees next to me, taking my face into his hands. “What happened? You were here, and then you vanished. I couldn’t get to you. It was like your mind was . . . blocked.” He looked down, noticing the dirt on my bare legs and the blood coating my feet, then his eyes lifted to Remic and Silas, bouncing between all of us. “Where were you?”

“Salterra,” Silas answered.

Niall blanched.

“How the fuck did you end up in The Wastelands?” Roirdan asked. “Auren’s never even seen it!”

I met Niall’s bewildered stare. “Do you remember the dream I told you about after Firefall?”

He nodded.

“Well, I recently had another. Then this one.” I worked on a swallow, biting back the throbbing pain behind my eyes. “It was Lyceius. His presence is what I’ve been feeling in those dreams. And this time, he showed me a scene in a tapestry. It was an exact replica of the place I’d been in my dreams before. Only this time . . . I—I actually ported to it. And he was there . . . in the flesh.”

“Gods, Auren,” Niall hissed under his breath. “He had you in his grasp. He could have killed you!”

The rest of the room remained silent, letting his words and the reality of what had just happened sink in.

Aremis stood from where he had been kneeling next to Remic. “How did the two of you know where to find her?”

“I sensed she was in immediate danger,” Silas said.

“And your first thought wasn’t to alert me?” Niall snapped.

“There was no time. I felt the threat on her life and tried to locate her, but I didn’t sense her here in The Keep—she was too far away. That’s when I knew she was somewhere beyond the mountains. So I ported to the patio, thinking if I was outside I’d have a better chance at detecting her. I found Remic there and told him what I sensed. It took me a moment to lock onto the connection with Auren in my mind, but when I did, I took him with me.”

“You and that patio,” Aremis muttered under his breath at Remic, who tossed him a pained grin in return.

Niall was quiet for a long moment, then he reached over and placed a hand on Silas’s shoulder. “Thank you for going to get her.”

Silas nodded. “Of course.”

It was then that I noticed the tops and sides of Silas’s wings were damaged. Some of Lyceius’s power had managed to singe the outer edges. The feathers were blackened and curled inward on themselves. If he was in pain, he didn’t show it. I thought about asking him through our bond, but he seemed too distracted by Niall’s acknowledgement.

The tension in Niall’s expression remained as he turned to Remic. “Your arm . . . how is it?”

Remic flexed his wrist, making a shaky fist. “Never better.”

His arm may have been strained, but that wasn’t what was bothering him. It was something Lyceius had said. I knew, because the same thing was bothering me.

“I think I know why he’s using the dreams,” I said. “He’s trying to get to me by breaking into my mind when I’m the most vulnerable. He said that he and I are connected, so I’m guessing, since I’m a descendant of his, that’s the reason he’s even able to attempt such a thing.”

“It must be,” Niall replied. “Even those who are highly skilled at mind-walking cannot insert themselves into someone’s dreams.”

Aremis nodded his agreement. “And it may also be due to the simple fact that he’s a god. In all reality, we do not know what they are truly capable of.”

We fell into silent contemplation, and it was as if something shifted between all of us. Like a sense of impending change. Rigid postures, stern faces . . . Everyone was on edge.

Perhaps I’d been a fool to port to The Wastelands.

Or maybe it was exactly what was meant to happen. I had met Lyceius face to face . . . and had drawn a clear line in the sand.

Remic lifted his eyes to Niall. The lines between his brows were deep, his frown more menacing than I’d ever seen. The graveness of his expression was haunting. Almost as haunting as the words that he spoke next . . .

“War is coming.”

PART TWO