Taliesin Ascendant (The Children and the Blood) by Skye Malone, Megan Joel Peterson Page A

is the extent of your power, your highness, should the spell be reclaimed. And that is why you must remain safely here. So… do we have an agreement?”
    With everything in her, she wanted to say no. A breath away from emerging, the word hovered on her lips. But her gaze tracked around the table, watching the unwilling expressions strengthen, and she could already hear the arguments that would follow if she disagreed. Everything would shatter. Carter’s plan and everything he’d asked her to do would just fall to pieces, because the only thing stopping them from dismissing every word she’d just said was the fact Darius was on her side.
    But to stay here… to hide as others fought the ones who’d killed her family…
    She swallowed, protests pushing so hard against her chest it hurt to breathe. But she’d come this far. She couldn’t back down now. Not when, with this one sacrifice, everything Carter wanted would be realized.
    It killed her. But she couldn’t let that destroy Carter’s dream.
    “Yes.”
    Darius nodded gratefully. “Then we will gather wizards to assist us and, with your blessing, we will send them out to find the cripples. Given how they have hidden from us and the distrust they have for our kind, it may take time. But,” he added, “it is also a royal order. And we have the good faith you built with their so-called Hunters to aid us. No matter what it takes, we will see it done.”
    Air escaped her. “Thank you.”
    He bowed his head in return.
    She glanced around the table. Cornelius didn’t look up, and Sebastian seemed ready to explode. But the others were expressionless and no one said a word.
    “Well, if there is nothing else,” Darius continued after a moment. “Then I suggest we adjourn.”
    At his words, the others rose, disappearing from the room in near silence. Sebastian was the first out the door. Ashe watched him go, and when Cornelius circled the table to her side, it took a moment for her to turn around.
    “If you would come with me, your majesty,” he said with rigid decorum.
    She stood, her gaze slipping over the room again and catching on Darius.
    Incrementally, he nodded, giving her a tiny smile.
    Drawing a breath, she echoed the motion and then turned, following Cornelius from the conference room. On the factory floor, she could see Sebastian snapping at a few wizards as he marched past, and swiftly, they hurried after him. She grimaced darkly and kept walking.
    Winding deeper into the building, Cornelius led her through corridors she’d had yet to see, and along walkways that stretched past areas easily as large as the one they’d left behind. Doors opened along the walls below her, admitting wizards toting boxes of produce and bread through abyssal portals that made her cringe. Rows of crates were arrayed in front of the doors, the stenciled names of various foods on their sides, while tangled piles of metal and plastic lay in a jumble at the far end of the room. Her brow furrowed at the mess, till she realized the scrap heap contained the remnants of whatever machinery had once filled the factory.
    Ignoring the organized chaos, Cornelius continued onward, never looking back to see if she was still with him.
    “Where are we going?” she called, speeding up to keep pace with his long legs.
    “Library.”
    Her brow drew down at his sharp tone. Reaching the far side of the walkway, he yanked open a door and then headed inside without pause. Grimacing, she broke into a jog, trying to catch the door before it slammed shut and she lost sight of him completely.
    A panicked cry brought her up short.
    With a bleeding wizard supported on his shoulder, a man rushed from a portal below her. Dropping their boxes of produce to the ground, the other wizards ran to help as more people came through the opening, some under their own power and others leaning heavily on their companions. From deeper in the building, she could hear shouts, along with the drum of footsteps running in