Frozen Tides (Falling Kingdoms #4)(48)

“And if I do? What would you care? Magnus, please stop resisting my magic and tell me the truth, and this will all be over in an instant. Where is it?”

He couldn’t hold back any longer; the pressure—the pain—was far too strong. The words rushed forward. “The far . . . side . . . of the labyrinth. Near the cliff’s edge.”

She nodded, her eyes bereft of pleasure. “Well done.” She turned to Kyan. “That’s only a hundred paces from here.”

“Lead the way, little sorceress.”

Resisting the overwhelming compulsion to speak had been torture unlike anything Magnus ever before experienced. He dropped to his knees and braced himself against the ground, his chest heaving, as drops of his blood stained the white snow.

“We’ll be back shortly,” Lucia promised him, before she and Kyan began moving toward the wheel.

Cleo took hold of Magnus’s arm. “Get up.”

“I can’t,” Magnus heaved through heavy breaths.

“You must. We need to follow them. If this has something to do with the Kindred, we need to know.”

“Leave him,” Nic said. “We can go by ourselves.”

“What did you know about the wheel before today?” Magnus snarled at Cleo, wincing at how strained and weak his voice sounded.

“Next to nothing,” Cleo said. “But if a sorceress and her strange new friend want to find it badly enough that they’d resort to magical torment to wrench the truth out of you, then it has to be important.” She knelt down and roughly wiped the blood off his chin with the discarded bandages from his arm. “We’re not allies and we never will be, but now Lucia has shown herself to be an enemy to both of us. My ring—the ring that now sits upon your sister’s finger—had a strange reaction to that wheel the last time we were here. I’m afraid of what it might do today. Now get up. If Nic and I approach her without you, I’m sure she’ll kill us.”

“Cleo . . .” Nic protested.

She shot him a sharp look, and he clamped his mouth shut.

The last thing Magnus wanted to admit was that Cleo was right, but it was true: The sister he’d once known would never have wanted to inflict such pain upon him, no matter what kind of truth she was seeking. What new magic was this? She’d grown so much more powerful since the last time he saw her.

The Kindred were meant to be his; they were the only way to ensure his future, and three of the crystals were still unaccounted for. He knew, now more than ever, that Lucia was the key to finding them.

He didn’t doubt that her new friend Kyan knew this as well.

Magnus pushed himself up to standing and mustered all the strength and willpower he could to trudge around the side of the labyrinth with Cleo and Nic trailing closely behind him. He could see the pair; they’d reached the ancient stone wheel, half-buried in snow and taller than any man he’d ever met. He watched them inspect it together, and the anger in his heart gave him fuel to straighten up and walk faster.

Kyan’s amber gaze narrowed at Magnus as he approached. “Who has visited this wheel here before us?” the angry young man demanded.

“I have no idea what you mean.” Magnus came to a halt, as did Cleo, only an arm’s reach away from him.

“The magic . . .” Kyan placed his palms against the rough surface and pushed. “I feel nothing, even this close.”

“How strange. I, on the other hand, do feel something. I feel the very strong need to throw you in my dungeon for kidnapping and corrupting my sister.”

Kyan snorted softly. “The sister you remember showed only a glimmer of what she was destined to become. Does her magnificence blind you?”

“Kyan,” Lucia interrupted, coming to stand between the two. “Ignore Magnus, there’s nothing he can do to us. We’ve found a wheel, right here in Limeros, just like that old witch promised. What’s the problem?”

“Can you feel its magic? Can you summon it back?”

Lucia frowned, then pressed one hand against the frosty surface. Magnus couldn’t help but notice the amethyst ring on her right index finger that Cleo once wore. “I don’t feel anything.”

“Any magic that previously existed within this stone has been removed.” His expression darkened. “This is Timotheus’s doing. He’s trying to keep me away from the Sanctuary, away from his little safe haven.” He shook his head. “He honestly thinks he can win this game.”

“A game? This is a game to you?” Magnus said through gritted teeth. “Let me guess. You think Lucia is the secret weapon you’ll use to help you win?”

“Magnus, be careful.” Cleo took a step closer to whisper to him.

He glared at her. “Stay out of this, princess.”

Cleo stared back at him, resolute. “I think it’s far too late for that.”

Kyan smiled at Magnus, a grin more sinister than even those he’d received from his father. “You think I’m using Lucia,” Kyan mused. “Yet you and your entire greedy family have been using her for what she is for over sixteen years. It’s only now that she’s finally free from you and able to make her own choices.”

“I’ve never used her, for anything.” The thought was an insult. “Not once.”

“Oh, Magnus.” Lucia shook her head. “I think you actually believe that. I think you believe that lie so completely that if I magically extracted the truth you’d say the very same thing.”