Behind him, I catch the flash of Myles’s silver-toothed grin.
Eogan follows my gaze, and the next second he’s turned and wrapped a fist around Myles’s shirt. “What have you done to her?”
The lord protectorate’s arms go up in defense even as his voice raises an octave. “Only what she asked for, and it was nothing she couldn’t handle.”
“That’s not what I asked. What did you do?”
“You know exactly what I did. I reactivated her. Gave her something to actually fight with, to protect herself with.”
Eogan snorts. “Protect herself? Is that what you call it? You bleeding little—”
“Ah ah ah!” Myles tries to shove Eogan’s hand away, and when that doesn’t work, he attempts to straighten his shirt anyway. “I think you’d be thanking me.”
“For what? Giving her a death sentence?”
“Perhapsss you’re merely insulted that I was able to give her something you’re not.”
“This has nothing to do with you giving her anything,” Eogan snarls. “So you’d better undo it, or I will—”
“You know I can’t.”
Eogan bares his teeth. “Try.”
Myles wrinkles his lips. “You honestly think she’ll go for that? She’s the one who asked for them.”
Without taking his eyes off Myles, Eogan releases him and says in a softening tone, “Nym, please go back to the person who gave them to you. Ask her to undo it. Tell her it was a mistake.”
I shake my head. He can’t be serious. “I can’t.” I won’t.
“Yes, you can. Gowon will give you the money for it if you tell him I commanded it.”
What is he talking about? “It’s not the money. It’s the abilities. I can help you! I already did—it’s why you’re here now!”
He spins around and stares at me in horror and . . . something else. Fear. “Don’t you see what those abilities will do to you? Don’t you see what they’ve done to him?” He points at Myles, then at himself. “Worse, what they’ve done to Draewulf?”
I freeze. “What do you mean?”
His expression darkens from anger to outright fury, and before Myles can dodge, Eogan’s grabbed him again. “You litched bolcrane—you didn’t even tell her?”
My legs are shaking. “Tell me what?”
He flips toward me and practically chokes out the words. “Nym, what you’ve done by consuming new abilities . . . darker abilities . . . It’s how Draewulf came to be who he is. It’s how he changed from being a wizard.”
My breath dies.
Suddenly the roof, the garden, the starry night sky are falling, and my head is spinning as Eogan’s glare turns caustic at Myles. “I will kill you for this.”
“Oh, give it a rest. We both know she needs power if—”
“No, we don’t know—and certainly not the kind given by a witch! What I do know is that this had nothing to do with her and everything to do with you, and if it is the last thing I do, I will—”
He keeps threatening but I stop listening. Draewulf changed by absorbing a power like I did?
I swerve my gaze to Myles.
He is gasping and yet rolling his eyes at both of us. “Draewulf went through the procedure multiple timesss—who knows how many over the yearsss, and who knows what kind of experiments he performed to get to what he isss now. It’s not the same thing. It’s not even on the same level.”
“Then why didn’t you tell her?”
“Because it wouldn’t have made a difference,” Myles says, looking at me.
I don’t reply.
Because standing here so close to Eogan I can feel his heart, his realness, even as he’s igniting the air around us with the angered heat pouring off his skin . . . I know it wouldn’t have. I would’ve chosen the same and chanced it.
Eogan suddenly sags. Turning from Myles, he presses against my arm. His tone falls from furious to soft, urgent. “Nym, I don’t have much time. Have you spoken with Sir Gowon yet?”
I prop him up with my hands, willing him my strength, my energy whether it’s of a darker variety or not. “He didn’t believe me. And I’m not certain it would make a difference now anyway because Draewulf’s Dark Army has taken over.”
“Did you give Gowon the message?”
“I told him about the Elegy, but it didn’t matter.”
He runs a hand through his hair, and everything about that simple gesture, that familiar act, makes my shoulders ache and my heart whisper its determination that I want things how they were. I want what existed two weeks ago. “You can take care of it all right now.” He dips his gaze to my hand still holding a blade.
I glance away. We both know I can’t do that.
He sighs. “Listen, I’m sorry for all of this. But I need you to find a way to speak with Gowon again and make him understand.”