Page 154 of First Light
“What?” Carys looked at Aisling again and saw the truth written all over her manic face.
Of course. Of course she’d have to blind Cadell or block him in some way.
Aisling looked at Carys, her eyes glittering. “I had to. He would have felt Seren dying, and I couldn’t have that.”
Regan yelled at Aisling. “How did you do it? He’s breaking though my wards.”
Aisling had sense enough to look frightened. “Regan, if he’s breaking through the wards, we should run. That spell isn’t strong enough to?—”
“Absolutely not.” Regan snorted. “Not until I find that bitch’s maps. If the kings see them, it’s all over.”
“I told you.” Aisling’s voice was brusque. “I looked through her things after she died. None of the maps in Seren’s papers had anything about the western islands. They were property boundaries for local lords and one map of the Northern Sea. None of the western islands were on there.”
Regan glanced over her shoulder at Carys. “Well, now you definitely have to kill her. She can’t know any of that.”
Aisling’s eyes narrowed on Carys, but she said nothing.
“How about you?” Regan walked over and bent down, getting in Carys’s face. “Do you know where your sister’s maps are?”
Carys closed her eyes. “I think I’m going to throw up.”
Regan heaved a sigh. “Seren was so superior to you. Despite the dragon, you’re… nothing. Very boring.”
“I don’t have any maps,” Carys said. “I’m going to puke.”
“I think you’re lying.” Regan ran a finger down her cheek, scraping Carys’s skin with a clawed nail. “Hand them over and maybe I’ll feed you to the kelpie instead of taking you back to the forest. The kelpie will give you a quick death.”
Carys kept her eyes wide and woozy. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Regan’s eyes lit up and she stood up straight. “You’re lying! How intriguing.”
Caryswaslying. She knew exactly what Regan was talking about. She was looking for the maps Seren had drawn into her journals, the ones that had been sitting in the old crates for years, not neatly drawn out on large scrolls like Aisling had been looking for but scrawled in a journal among crop reports and banquet menus. “I don’t think Seren had any maps with her stuff. Not that I saw.”
“You’re a bad liar. If I wasn’t going to kill you, I’d say you should work on that.” Regan leaned down again, inches from Carys’s face. “Your nosy sister was always taking off to snoop with that beast. She knew what was happening. I’m so glad Aisling killed her. It’s the one smart thing my niece has ever done.”
“Regan!” Aisling sputtered.
“Calm down.” Regan’s green eyes never left Carys’s stoic gaze. “This one knows what I’m speaking of, don’t you?”
“No idea,” Carys whispered. “I do feel Cadell getting closer though. Might be a good idea to run. Dragons can be… burny.”
Regan narrowed her eyes. “Some fae magic is breaking through mine, and I don’t like it. I was given assurances that they wouldn’t interfere.”
“You got me there.” Carys kept her eyes wide and innocent. “I don’t really know any fae the way that you do.”
When she’d first woken and realized where she was, she had been resigned to dying. But the more Regan talked, the angrier Carys became.
Fuck this sorceress. She wasn’t going to die at her hand. Or at least if she was going to go, she’d make sure Cadell could take Regan with her. She felt his magic coming closer, like heat from a distant fire.
She reached out. She didn’t know how, but she concentrated on that hot thread of anger, wrapping it around the tie she felt to Cadell… then sheyankedon it in her mind.
Carys heard a distant roar of dragon fire. “He’s coming.”
Seren’s journal lay heavy in the pocket on her right, but Carys tried not to think about it.
“Fine. If you don’t know anything, you’re no use to me.” Regan drew a long bone knife from a scabbard at her waist. “Goodbye, lesser Seren.”
“Wait.” Carys needed to buy time. “I think there were maps in my sister’s journals, nothing nicely drawn but sketches mixed in with a bunch of other stuff. I didn’t really understand why she drew them, but they were there.”