Dawn of Ash (Imdalind, #6)(74)

His spine straightened a bit before I turned away from his pitiful display, unsurprised to see all eyes on me. I was going to have to play this a different way. I wasn’t certain if I should be frightened or excited by the new game plan. Then again, it didn’t matter. They had no idea what was coming.

Smiling sweetly, I took a few steps toward one of the girls closest to me. She was young, perhaps not any older than her mid-twenties. Her face was scarred and ravaged by my father’s wonderful creations. The deep cuts hadn’t even started to heal, thanks to the poison in them. It was something I knew was causing her great pain, but that was nothing compared to the pain I was about to show her.

“Hello,” I said sweetly, careful to put as much honey in my voice as I could. I was convinced I had overdone it by the look of even further confusion the woman gave me. “Sorry about all that. It seems your queen summoned Sain and me into a sight. Her magic has been a bit out of control lately. It affects all Drak’s when it does that.”

“You’re a Drak?”

“Who are you?”

“Is the queen okay?”

“What is happening?”

The questions came in a barrage, words crowding around me as I stood.

“I am one of the first,” I said, the lie comfortable against my tongue. “I hold the Drak magic within me.”

I will not permit you this. You are not a Drak. The voice ran through me, the same one from the sight, and I flinched, the smile slipping from my face as a fear I didn’t quite comprehend seeped through me. My memory tried to pull at the sight in an attempt to understand, but it was long gone.

“You saw.”

I jumped at the voice so deep that I spun in fear, my eyes wide as I came face-to-face with the same powerful man I had seen in the courtyard.

His eyes were hard, his jaw stiff, a power I had never felt before flowing off him. I felt it against my skin, warm and wanted. Sighing, I was lost for a minute in the strength of it, in the strength of him.

“You saw the sight,” he repeated, the strength in his voice growing.

“Yes.” It was the only word I could get out, but it was enough.

His eyes narrowed slightly before he smiled. The grin was wide and beautiful. “Perfect,” he gasped, his joy confusing me. “You’ll work perfectly.”

“Sain?” I asked as he stepped away from me to face the confused people who were still intently focused on us.

“Is she a Drak, Sain? I thought you were the only one of the first?”

“No, but she is special.” The once again pious man walked through the beds like a god. “Ilyan sent her to help you. She has found something that can cure you even faster, help your magic grow.”

My grin spread wider as the woman closest to us recognized our presence for the sinister warning it was.

“How?” she asked, the admonition in her voice evident.

“Sain, darling.”

His back straightened even more as the room of confused Chosen looked between us. My magic continued to move toward him, the memory of the man I was bonded to so strong I was starting to have trouble breathing.

“Yes, my Ovi.” He said, using the nickname that, for the first time in centuries, made me melt in an oddly pleasurable way.

He stepped close to me, closer than he had since the night of our bonding, and even though his hands did not move to touch me, his distance still secure, our magic had completely wrapped around one another in a fusion of power that was dancing a very dangerous tango.

“Am I of your kind?”

“You are part of me,” he whispered.

I hadn’t expected that.

“We need to leave,” he hissed, his strong voice low enough I was positive only I had heard him. “Every Drak was pulled into that sight. They know what I’ve done.”

“What have you done?” I asked, a small spark of elation twisting through me, the danger that surrounded us making it grow.

“You will know soon enough.” He smiled. “You are going to help me.”

Reaching forward, his hand gripped mine, his magic flooding me in a warm bath I couldn’t help sighing from. It was a sigh that did not go unnoticed.

“I have to leave here.”

“Leave?” The elation drained from my body as my agitation skyrocketed.

“Yes. Now.”

“I will leave when my job is done,” I corrected him, dropping his hand from mine in anger. “Your place is here.”

“Not anymore, Ovi, and if you and your father want use of my sight, we are both getting out of here now.”

He had barely finished speaking before his eyes plunged to the color of sight I had seen so many times before, sight I had always been told was only possible with Black Water, and yet, he stood before me, a mug or pitcher nowhere to be found.

Something serious was going on, and I had no idea what, which agitated me more.

Straightening my shoulders, I turned from the man, seeing the invalids’ faces still full of a barrage of emotions. So far, with the exception of the girl who lay right below me, fear and distrust were not among them.

Perfect. It would make my job easier.

A wicked smile spread over my face as I turned back to Sain, whose eyes were back to their deep green.

“Your plan will work. Wynifred is gone to us. We must move.”