Thane didn’t know how much she heard, but if that was her biggest question, she didn’t hear anything important. He stuck his hands in his pockets and shrugged. “If there is a chance it’s so minuscule it doesn’t even need to be thought of. If he was alive, he’d have shown up by now.”
“Pearl and Reina said he died in battle.”
“And that’s all anyone will ever know.”
“But that’s not the truth?”
Thane didn’t want anyone else to know the truth of what happened to Tenebris. It was dangerous information. There were only three people who knew: Fennan, Thane and now, Vesstan, and that was more than there should be. Fennan only knew because he was there.
He leaned a shoulder against the wall and folded his arms. “It doesn’t matter how, as long as he’s gone.” Clearing his throat, Vesstan gave him a subtle nod. The old mage wanted him to tell her, as if it would help anything. “Are you ready to leave? You got your information.”
“You’re glad he’s gone.” She stated, staring at him in a way that made his insides squirm. “Why won’t you tell me how he died?”
“I don’t trust you.”
“And the truth requires you to trust me?”
“Yes.”
She tore her gaze away from him and offered a half smile to Vesstan. “Thank you for speaking with me and for the tea.”
She turned on her heel and started for the door. Thane pushed off the wall and nodded to Vesstan. “It was good seeing you. I’ll try to make it out here again soon to check on you.”
“Oh, don’t worry about me. You have enough on your plate.” He held up a hand as if he wanted to catch Layala’s attention, but she had her back to them. “Layala, for what it’s worth, I am sorry for everything that happened. Your father and mother loved you very much. I hope you know that.”
She whipped around, with a glare so cold it chilled Thane’s bones. He felt a wave of power, the same as the night she tried to stab him. Like a gentle wind at first, tickling his skin and then it was filling the room, bearing down on him as if someone clamped every inch of his body. A wild living thing. His body tensed; she refused to use her magic before, even when being chased by pale ones, and she chose now to unleash it?
“Don’t speak of my parents when you did nothing to stop them from being murdered. I wouldn’t be surprised if you helped.”
Vesstan stepped back at the venom in her voice, the power he no doubt felt weighing on him. “I didn’t hurt them. I wish I could have saved them. I think about that day sometimes and wished I would have argued harder against it. Your parents were good people.”
That pressure lifted, but only slightly. Thane didn’t know if she was doing it on purpose or not. The wrath he felt coming from her through their connection would say so, but she almost seemed afraid of her magic before. Perhaps it was an act.
She shoved a finger at them. “Maybe you should have refused to do the spell in the first place. What sort of mage would bind children when there was even a chance we could be turned into pale ones.”
“At the time, I didn’t know the consequences,” he stammered. “I—If I could take it back, I would.”
Thane took a step forward, sending a gentle push of calm toward her. He’d done it before through the magic binding them. “Vesstan was following orders from my father. He is not at fault,” Thane said gently. Vesstan was there for Thane and always treated him and others with kindness. He was a guide his entire life, the father Thane should have had. He didn’t deserve ridicule.
“Following orders is not an excuse for the atrocities committed. You had a choice.” She didn’t stay long enough for further arguments. She might never let go of the crimes his father Tenebris enacted. She wanted someone to blame, and Thane was the easy target. And he understood how she felt and why. He hoped one day she could see past the pain and anger.
The door slammed hard on her way out. The pressure sucked out of the room like a deep breath and Thane calmed his own magic he held ready to use to shield against her. Mage Vesstan trained him, but it wasn’t common knowledge that he was a mage. His friends and family knew, and some guards and servants, but they kept it quiet. He used it sometimes but usually no one noticed. He didn’t want the attention it brought. He watched what Mage Vesstan went through. People constantly begged him to help them, even when he couldn’t.
His father didn’t want anyone to know. When he was young, Thane believed it was kept secret because the pale ones might come for him too, the way they wanted Layala, but when he was a teen, he realized that wasn’t the true reason. His father was jealous and didn’t want anyone to know his son was magical when he was not. He also discovered Tenebris mated Layala and Thane to not only keep Layala around, but it was a backup plan. A possible way to get himself magic should his other plan fail. Vesstan wasn’t capable.
Vesstan shuddered. “I said it the day of her testing and I’ll say it again. I’ve never felt power like that. There is something dark about it. Something unruly. Yours is certainly comparable in strength, but the sign on her day was concerning.”
“Do you think they’re right?” Thane’s throat was dry, his voice coming out strained.
“Mathekis and the pale ones?” Vesstan slowly shook his head. “If they can use her to bring back the Black Mage, he must have left some sort of safeguard, a way to return. Why it’s her they can use, and not you or I, is a mystery to me.”
Thane encountered Mathekis several times on the battlefield. They’d never faced off one on one, but the leader, the second to the Black Mage, was cunning and intelligent. Unlike many of the others, who seemed like mindless beasts only searching to hunt and kill, Mathekis was strategic. He gave orders like a general and was obeyed as such and even after hundreds of years he held onto a fraction of his magical power. Thane met with him once when both sides were at a standstill, and the killing and bloodshed too much.
Mathekis told him during that meeting that if Thane could only give him Layala, they would leave Palenor alone. They wouldn’t attack again. Thane didn’t believe it and wouldn’t have given her over even if he did. “Why do you want her?” he asked.
“My master wants her.”
“Your master is dead.”
“His body may be gone but his essence lives.”
That sent a chill through Thane. “You will never have Layala.”
“We will. It is only a matter of time.”
He shook his head, clearing the memory. “She said they are drawn to her when she uses her magic.”
Lifting a shaky hand, he reached toward his staff in the corner, and it flew to his hand. He leaned against it. “That is troubling. All the more reason you must never let them have her. You’ve done well, sacrificed much to make sure she wasn’t found. But with her bitterness like that, I truly think you might consider going to find that sorceress. I don’t know if you’ll be able to fulfill the obligations of the mate spell ever, let alone by the twenty-fifth year coming up so soon. She hates you.”
He knew that all too well. Thane finally tore his eyes from the door. “I’ll have to weigh the risks. It would take us weeks to get there.”
“Not if you convince the portal to deliver you.”
Tapping a boot on the floor, Thane narrowed his eyes at Vesstan. “You’ve kept secrets from me.”
“You never asked. And you’ve never needed to go to the Sederac Mountains.”
“Will the portal take me anywhere I need to go?”
He lifted his shoulders briefly. “If a returning portal has been set up at the location. There is a possibility it could spit you out anywhere and then you’d have to return home the long way. I’ve never tried it, however.”
“And how would I even find this dragon sorceress? The Sederac Mountains are vast.”
“That you’ll have to figure out on your own.” His staff tapped on the floor as he hobbled to his rocking chair. Once seated, he placed the smooth, wood cane across his lap and rocked. “I’m sorry you’ve had this burden, Thane. Layala is right. I should have never done the spell, even if your father would have killed me for denying him.”
When Thane stepped outside, he was relieved to find Layala standing in between the two horses, feeding them out of her palms. That power she pressed upon them was gone. The anger she felt before disappeared with it. He sensed she was still a little upset but either his calming settled her, or she let it pass on her own. “Shall I be expecting any pale ones?” he asked as he approached.
She brushed her hands together. “Why would you be?”
“After what you did inside.”
She rolled her eyes and attempted to grab hold of the saddle horn. Thane smiled at her struggle. Some small part of him enjoyed that she needed his help to mount the horse.
“If I’d used my magic, believe me, you’d know. I didn’t.”
He moved closer, holding out his hands for her to use as a step. “It felt like you wanted to crush me.”
She stilled and slowly turned her head, her eyes meeting his. “I didn’t use my magic.” She put her foot in his waiting hand and he lifted her.
“But you didn’t have it hidden. You weren’t actively forcing it down, willing it to the deepest part of you.”
She adjusted herself in the saddle and blinked several times before saying, “How could you know that?”
If he was going to get her to trust him, get her to care, he had to allow her to know things about himself for her to do the same. She was guarded and with good reason. He didn’t want to give up on her, on what they could be. If there was any part of her that could care for him, he must try, even if it was about as impossible as breaking their bond. “Because I keep my power tucked away, too.”
