It’s not enough support. His body slips to the floor as I draw energy from him.
I drop my hand at the same moment Myles drops our fa?ade. The mirage ripples and fades, and Rasha cries out and brushes past me to the soldier’s side, but suddenly she’s coughing and so is Myles.
I follow and push the door open wider and stride into the dining room. And now I’m coughing and gasping too.
What in—? Everyone’s laid out on the floor, faces contorted. The atmosphere feels thin as Rasha and Myles rush over to guards and wraiths to touch their faces, their necks, feeling for their heartpulses.
“This one’s still alive.”
“So is this one,” Rasha says. “It’s as if they all fainted.”
I look at my hand. At their limp bodies. Still breathing. Just knocked out. As if I stole the wind from their lungs. I disabled a mass of them at one time without touching them or killing them, and it makes me smile because I can do this. I can use this. And as nervous as that makes me, it also feels safe. And I haven’t felt safe in a very long while.
Rasha turns to me from her place hunched over one of the men. Her face looks more frightened than I can ever recall seeing it. “You could’ve killed them.”
“I could have but I didn’t.” My smirk grows and I glance at Myles. “Which means the vortex has grown stable.”
“Then we are near ready,” he says with a blank expression. “Come.” He opens the door to our quarters.
Myles stops as an acrid scent pours out of the hall. I peer past him and my stomach lurches. Even with their faces turned away, it’s easy to recognize the Cashlin guards with their throats slit open and chests torn apart.
A pool of blood has leached out over the red carpet, staining it darker crimson. I stride over and bend down to feel the first man’s pulse although it’s clear he’s beyond help. Beyond any of our abilities. Beyond dead.
Rasha emits a low moan. “No, no, no, no! Who did this? Why?!”
Myles reaches up to a lamp attached to the wall and twists its knob to brighten the entire area. The glow sends eerie rays onto the carpet where the blood is slashed in as I continue a search of the body. Until I realize that what at first looks like gray creases around the neck and cuts are actually strands of gray rags.
I pull back. And what seems like the slice of knife across the poor man’s chest is too rough, too harsh. They’re the claw markings from a bolcrane.
CHAPTER 35
TAKE ME TO HIM.” I STAND AND THEY BOTH GLANCE at me.
“Who are we speaking of?”
“Draewulf. Get me up to see him.”
“Nym, this isn’t the time. We need to stick with our plan—”
I spin on Rasha. “When is the time? When we’re all dead? When the bleeding world’s been blown up?” I look at Myles. “Take me to him or I will get up there myself.”
The grim set of his mouth says he knows exactly what I’m implying. He peeks at Rasha but his words are for me. “While it pains me to agree with Her Cashlin Majesty, that idea’s not any wiser than destroying Lady Isobel right now. Our plan is set, and your powers—”
“Were strong enough to knock out Isobel and half the guards. They’re ready.” I step back into the dining room and move from guard to guard grabbing their knives. I sheathe one in my boot and toss the rest to Myles and Rasha.
“And what happens if, say, you accidentally take this entire ship down?” Myles says. “Not that I’d mind, dear, except for the fact that, you know, I’m on it.” He sniffs. “We need to stay with our agreement, and once we’re over land—”
I begin walking. “You helped me with Lady Isobel; you can help with Eogan. And once Isobel wakes up or her Mortisfaire discover us, I doubt we’ll get another chance. Eogan doesn’t have time for us to make any more blasted plans.”
“Nym, just wai—”
I ignore Rasha and stride to the dining room door. Without looking back I jerk my head at the wraiths still laid out cold. “If you’re smart, you’ll kill them and Lady Isobel before they wake.”
I’m just pushing open the door to the airship’s deck when Myles curls the atmosphere around us, turning himself into a wraith and me into Lady Isobel. I smile like I’ve seen her do and something about it feels oddly natural. Relieving.
I’m going to finish this.
The guards on deck hardly glance our way as we slip to the right and around the corner to the door leading up to Eogan’s quarters. “Move,” I say to the two undead beasts standing there.
I don’t even wait for them to obey before pressing my way through. Their hissing grows louder, but they make no attempt to stop us. “M’ladyyyy,” they say, and it almost sounds worshipful. Something about it makes me shiver as I yank open the door.