The Valley of Lies (Lightkeepers #1)

Chapter FIFTY-SIX: Liss

Liss' throat was on fire. The ballroom and unwelcome entities within her had fallen silent, but she could still hear herself screaming.

The dragon princess laid motionless, her dress pooled around her like freshly spilled blood.

And Dev...

Her oldest friend, the only true constant in her life, had just disappeared. She'd watched it happen, although she still didn't believe it. People didn't flash out of existence, becoming motes of ethereal light, especially not elves as solid as stone, who'd never known magic.

He couldn't be gone. He just couldn't.

She'd rather face his blade again than this.

"I took them to The Midst." A somber expression haunted the elven wraith's ghostly face; a face Liss had foolishly overlooked.

Her anger churned, threatening wild blazes. This was the little witch's doing. The wraith was Foswida's lackey.

"Bring him back," she growled. "Bring Dev back."

The wraith's violet eyes skewed to Ayer. "I can't. He needs to—"

"Bring him back!"

She choked on a sob. Her fingertips tingled, itching to recast the multiplication spell, though it was a wonder it had worked the first time. The casting hadn't been a conscious effort, and she certainly hadn't banished her worries, as the priestess' journal instructed. But, ultimately, she'd still failed.

The floor was warm where she'd dropped the orbs, the charred ring around her feet consecrating the Seer's vision. She'd pushed Edril below the surface before he could use her to hurt anyone else, but it hadn't saved Dev.

"She's lying. We can make her bring him back."

The warlock's ego stirred, spiraling up from whatever dark pit it had sunk to.

At least it was just him and not that other nebulous thing he'd forced inside her. The Eternal. She never wanted to experience such callous greed and lust again.

She clenched her fists. "How?"

Edril knew the wraith better than she did. Maybe he was right.

"Let me show you." His satisfaction was like a cool shackle sliding across her wrist.

"No." She gripped her cloak. Though something had weakened the warlock's presence, he was far from impotent. "Tell me, and I'll do it."

Frustration rumbled through her, not her own.

Eventually, Edril sighed, the uncanny sensation synchronizing with her shallow breaths. "There was always something different about Cath, but I never knew she could funnel people into The Midst. I've heard the wraiths talk about the realm between life and death when they think no one's listening. They can't go back, but apparently, she can. That must be where she took him."

Did that mean...?

"No." She jolted at the immediacy of his response. "I don't think he's dead."

And she hadn't realized she'd asked. Although, it was a relief just hearing those words. Edril might lie about a lot of things, but he wanted Dev alive as much as she did.

"I believe Cath was able to funnel him, body and soul, into The Midst with Ayer's assistance."

Liss might have been impressed if she wasn't horrified. "How do we get him back?"

"We force Cath's hand by threatening the soulbond. She's protecting it, probably for my sister's sake. It brings Foswida great joy to vex me."

There it was again, the mention of a soulbond, a mystical connection Ayer and Dev supposedly shared. It was outlandish. Improbable. But even if it was true—