Shield of Sparrows

“What have you done?” Ransom’s throat bobbed.

It was the third time he’d asked her that question.

It was the only time it sounded like an accusation.

“I will find a way to cure it.” Her chin quivered. “I swear to you. I will undo this magic.”

He shook his head, eyes dazed. “All the people who have died. The lives we could not save.”

Sariah. Witt.

Ransom kept a list of his own, didn’t he? And now he would bear the weight of every soul lost because of this infection. He would carry this blame.

I’d seen so many versions of Ransom since we met. The warrior. The prince. The lover.

But this version? He was lost. Unrecognizable. I hated the ruin on his face. The pain he couldn’t hide.

“It’s not your fault.” Tears spilled down Luella’s cheeks. “I’m sorry, Ransom. I’m so sorry. I didn’t know.”

He dropped to a crouch, hands diving into his hair as our world seemed to tip on its axis, up swapping with down.

“What is Father’s involvement?” he asked.

Luella closed her eyes, but not before guilt flitted across her features. Another secret.

Was this woman’s body fueled by lies?

“One of my alchemists betrayed my trust. He went to your father.”noveldrama

Ransom’s eyes lifted. Narrowed. He stood. “When?”

Luella’s hand drifted to her throat. “The day he tried to kill me.”

Ransom went so still that even the dust motes stopped floating, afraid of what was coming next. “Did he try to kill you because of your affair? Or because he found out you gave me this elixir?”

“I don’t know,” she whispered. “He came to my bedroom in a rage. It escalated when he saw Mikhail.”

My hands came to my face, pressing against my cheeks to keep my jaw from dropping. Again.

Had Ramsey found out that Luella had injected her creation into Ransom? Was that why he’d been furious? Because she could have killed his son?

Well, something must have changed. Because now he was trying to replicate it with his militia.

“He can’t reproduce it,” I said. “Can he? The Lyssa or elixir, whatever you want to call it?”

“No,” Luella said. “But he’s trying. And in the process, killing them.”

Those soldiers were burning alive from whatever he was putting in their veins.

“They don’t have the missing piece.” Luella sank into her chair. “Ramsey hasn’t made the connection that Ransom was given the elixir and then bitten. That the combination is what I believe created the infection. But Ramsey’s team has been experimenting. If I had to wager a guess, they’re taking blood from an infected monster and injecting it into his men.”

“Except it doesn’t work that way, does it?” I guessed. “The bite was the missing piece. The magic.”

“Yes,” Luella whispered.

The irony was stifling.

Ramsey had set out to create an army strong enough to fight the crux. Instead, he’d stolen able-bodied men from their villages and towns. Men who could have fought the monsters already in Calandra. And by the time the migration came, they’d likely all be dead.

“There must be something to undo the magic. I just need time.” Luella’s eyes were pleading. “I can fix this.”

Ransom scoffed. “Let’s pretend for a moment you manage that feat. What if Father isn’t interested in a cure? What if he realizes that all he needs to do is inject your elixir in his men and have them bitten? Then what? He won’t care that those men will die, not if it saves the kingdom from the crux.”

Ramsey would be unstoppable with an army of men who could move and fight and heal like Ransom.

Maybe he did want to defend against the crux.

Or maybe, like my father, he was tired of the ancient treaties. The borders. The kingdoms.

Maybe he wanted to take Calandra for his own.

Well, he’d have to stop his soldiers from dying first.

“He must not find out. No one can know,” Luella said. “We cannot sacrifice our sons.”

The pain etched in that last statement, the way Luella’s eyes pleaded with Ransom for forgiveness, made my chest squeeze tight. And I still had more questions. “Why is he burning books?”

Cathlin’s lip curled. “Because he’s a menace.”

Luella pulled her books closer. “When we were formulating the elixir, we spent a lot of time in the library. Some chose to leave their notes in books and journals there. It’s where I kept mine.”

Notes and knowledge that other kings might want for their own. To give to their own alchemists and healers in an attempt to create their own versions of a Guardian.

Was that what my father wanted in Allesaria? Was that how he thought he’d stop the crux? By creating Lyssa for himself and making an army of Guardians?

Father could have just gone after the other alchemists rather than send me to find the city. Though if the alchemists feared Ramsey might consign them into his service—injecting healthy men with a potion of death—those people would likely be in hiding, like Luella.

No, Father was running short on time before the next migration. His most viable option was to pluck Ramsey’s secret from the capital. To steal Lyssa for himself.

All he needed was a key to unlock the Turans’ castle door.

Mae. She’d been trained to be that key.

And now it was me.

Ransom thought the other kingdoms didn’t realize he had the infection, but my father must have suspected as much. The Guardian and Lyssa. It was all connected.

Father’s desire to get into Allesaria had to be tied to his need to understand the Guardian’s powers.

Before I could voice my suspicions, Ransom strode to the table and ripped the book away from his mother. “Maybe we should burn this.”

Luella shot to her feet, trying to snatch it back, but he kept it out of her reach. “Don’t. That book, like all the others I’ve collected, is part of my research to find a cure.”

“There is no cure,” he seethed. “You’ve had years. It’s too late. If the Voster cannot stop it, no one can.”

“Ransom—”

“Damn you, Mother.” He threw the book on the table, sending it sliding across the surface. “Damn you.”

Without another word, he marched from the house. The door flung open too hard and slammed shut with enough force to rattle the walls.

Luella slumped in her seat, burying her face in her hands as she cried. Cathlin put an arm around her shoulders, murmuring reassurances in her ear.

I needed to go after Ransom. To chase him down and make sure he was all right.

Except I was frozen in place, eyes glued to that book on the table.

It had flipped over when Ransom had tossed it, showing the other side.

There was an intricate etching on the cover. A winged emblem.

The same emblem on the pendant I wore around my neck.