Unsure whether to try talking to him or giving him some space, she went with the latter. He knew where to find her if he felt like talking about it.
“He’s strung tighter than one of Pavlov’s dogs waiting for the dinner bell to ring.” Elena’s comment lacked her earlier teasing as she watched Vaughn walk away until he disappeared from view. “Can’t you just pace like most people?” she snapped at the wraith. “All that creepy gliding is making me twitchy.” She plopped down on one of the chairs.
If the sorceress noticed the wraith circled her more closely, she didn’t waste a breath pointing it out. Nessa grinned though.
On her way across the courtyard, Briana noticed the Fae walking in her direction. The wraith was almost on top of her by the time she stopped in front of Bran. She hadn’t been able to get him alone since the catacombs. Although some of the details remained foggy after the cave-in, she did remember one thing she’d been meaning to ask him about.
“How did you do it? How did you control the vines?” Controlled them to a point anyway. She wasn’t sure they hadn’t turned on him right before Elena had brought the roof down on their heads.
“When a magician reveals their tricks it ruins the magic.” He walked around her, or more specifically, around the wraith. “I’d be careful with that one during the next competition.”
She watched the Fae leave, felt the wraith’s gaze linger a beat longer than her own. “You don’t trust him.”
“I trust no one.”
“And me?”
The wraith said nothing.
“You can’t protect him forever,” she said when the darkness in control of Lucan turned from her.
Inky shadows solidified into Lucan’s form. Three clipped strides brought him within an inch of her, and she tipped her head back to meet the soulless eyes that weren’t as unfeeling as the wraith would have everyone believe.
“How long are we going to do this?”
No response.
“I want to talk to Lucan. Please.” She didn’t want to beg, wasn’t even convinced it would sway the bloodthirsty mercenary in front of her, but she couldn’t keep waiting for the wraith to relinquish control whenever he felt like it.
“Why did he lie to me? I know it wasn’t the enchantress’s magic. His feelings for me are real. They’ve always been real.” Saying it out loud, embracing the possibility as truth, finally loosened the chokehold on her heart.
The wraith turned away from her.
“You can’t play dominant personality forever. He’s stronger than you.”
“His humanity makes him weak.”
“No, it’s gives him the strength to make harder choices. Ones even you can’t make.” Like trying to end his existence to prevent others from dying, or worse, staying in control so there was no needless suffering.
Baring sharp teeth, the wraith snarled at her. Then vanished from sight.
For the first time in two days she was alone, but as much as she’d provoked him, she knew the wraith wouldn’t stay away for long.
Neither the wraith nor Lucan had reappeared a few hours later when the gong sounded, signaling the start of the next competition. She found a map in her room, next to a full length mirror. The glass shimmered, awaiting her to cross the veil. At the bottom of the crude map, she noted the combination of random letters that made up four words she couldn’t decrypt.
A cipher? She flipped the paper over, hunting for a clue as to which letter was the key to decoding the words. Finding nothing, she studied the map again. She didn’t recognize any of the landmarks.
Setting it aside for now, she strapped a dagger to her calf and grabbed the sword she’d taken from the weapon’s room. There was a good chance neither weapon would crossover with her, snatched away on a god’s whim, but she’d rather take her chances.
Readying herself, she grabbed the map, her gaze falling on the fuzzy reflection of it in the mirror. She frowned, tracking the landmarks on the reverse image.
“Caerleon Canyon?” The mountainous region east of the barren lands was sparsely populated, the terrain too troublesome for most to reside in that part of Avalon. Before Camlann, a few dragon clans had favored the area, but even they’d moved on as far as Briana knew.
She checked the map three more times before feeling confident she was headed to a destination in that region. Having tracked a missing gargoyle through the area centuries ago, she easily held an image in her mind as she stepped into the mirror and through the veil.
Like walking through cobwebs, the Fae magic washed over her as she emerged on the other side.
A brisk wind snapped across her cheeks, tugging at the hair she’d pulled back in a ponytail. Towering trees lined the trail leading down the gorge that served as the first landmark on the map. Beyond that, a steel-gray sky, thick with clouds, promised snow.
The cat’s tail snapped playfully at the thought of pouncing through piles of white fluff. Another time maybe. She planned on reaching the valley at the base of the gorge long before the first flakes fell. A forest then stood between her and whatever waited at the oval marked in the middle of the map.
Three steps. Maybe. That was as far as she got before she felt the wraith behind her.
He paused beside her, his black gaze tracking something on the horizon. “Do you know the way?”
It would be pointless to argue about him following her. Until her earlier comment about him protecting Lucan, she hadn’t succeeded in convincing him to leave her alone. Under other circumstances she might have felt better about someone watching her back, but if someone or something had gained control of Lucan and the wraith once before then it could happen again.
It couldn’t be a coincidence that only days before the Gauntlet there had been other reports of immortals losing control of their bodies. There was a good chance that Maeve and Aren had been responsible, another form of testing to rule out possible competitors.
Or, the guilty party had been selected to participate in the games.
Without answering the wraith, she began the downhill trek. Though they moved closer to the valley and the trees grew denser, the chill in the air deepened. She shivered under the cold breeze but didn’t let it slow her down. There was no way of knowing who else had figured out the map and might be ahead of them.
“I don’t protect him.”
Briana nearly tripped at the unexpected sound of the wraith’s voice, his words rough, unpracticed. Afraid that if she stopped to talk, he’d change his mind, she kept walking. “Isn’t that what you’re doing now?”
“No.”
She picked her way down a particularly steep section of the trail, waiting for him to continue.
“I’m protecting you.”
“He wouldn’t hurt me.” Although she’d been shaken by what happened, she knew the wraith was telling the truth about someone else pulling the strings when Lucan had attacked her.
“He doesn’t believe that.”
That didn’t make him right, and she said as much, adding, “And what are you protecting me from exactly?” She didn’t point out the irony of a creature known for death and destruction playing bodyguard.
The question fell on deaf ears, fraying the already taut threads holding her together. More confused than ever, she pulled the map out of her pocket to distract herself, matching up her current surroundings.
The code at the bottom continued to stump her. No matter how long she studied the scrambled letters, she couldn’t spot a pattern.
The ground shifted under her feet, and she stumbled sideways.
Her hand shot out to grab the nearest tree, the thin branches snapping like dead twigs in her grip. Nothing but air slipped through her fingers, and the world emptied around her.