“I didn’t. I followed the plan. Our plan—”
“You’re a good liar,” Carbry said, with that false bravado she now knew was just a front for fear. “But you can stop now. We know who you really are.”
Briony had a sudden flash of the betrayal on Innes’s face; the warmth of her pinky finger as Briony slid off the champion’s ring.
“Carbry,” she said. “Come on—I’m—We’re allies.”
Carbry glared at her, his blue eyes glistening with tears. “I really thought I could trust you.”
She put the missing pieces of the night together, a deadly puzzle. How Elionor hadn’t believed her, but had let her leave first anyway to reach the Relic. How her absence must have allowed Elionor to craft whatever narrative suited her to make the boys believe Briony had betrayed them.
Briony couldn’t let this be the way their alliance ended. She had given up too much to forge it.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” Briony told him. “I swear.”
“So you’re not allied anymore?” Gavin asked. Briony had almost forgotten he was there. Instead of running or casting a spell of his own, he watched them as though this were a spectator sport. She noticed that he wore very few spellrings—three to her and Carbry’s ten. “Interesting.”
Carbry scowled at him. “I’ll kill you both. I—I know I can.”
Before Carbry could good make on his threat, Gavin rolled his eyes and summoned a curse of his own. Carbry froze a moment later, his face contorted in a rictus of rage. Through the light of the Blood Veil, he looked unrecognizably grotesque, his teeth stained an unnatural pink.
A sudden pain swept across Gavin’s face, and he stumbled. Carbry shook off the effects of Gavin’s curse a moment later, then, seizing the opportunity, he charged toward him and cast another spell.
This one landed. Dark green vines sprang from the underbrush and wound around Gavin’s ankles.
Gavin fell to his knees, choking and gasping as as more vines sprung from the underbrush and coiled around his throat. Briony realized that this was her chance. The boys were distracted. She could run back into the forest and search for the Mirror in some vain hope that the other champions hadn’t already found it.
But if she did that, Gavin Grieve would die.
Briony didn’t care for Gavin at all, didn’t even know him, but she still believed she could save him. Save them all.
She cast the Mirror Shards. The vines dissipated as soon as her magick touched them. Gavin clawed at his throat where the vines had been, only to find himself grasping at air. He stared at her, shocked, then bolted into the woods as Carbry turned accusatorially toward her. Of course Gavin was running away—she should’ve done so, too, while she’d had the chance.
She still didn’t want to hurt Carbry. She didn’t want to hurt anyone. Briony sucked in a breath.
“Please don’t make me do this.” The Deathly Slumber on her finger glowed white, ready for her to cast it. “I know we can figure this out. If you just listen to me—”
“No! I’ve listened to you enough. Elionor’s right, this alliance was never going to last forever. And I can’t just hide in the Monastery until everyone else is dead.”
The fear in his eyes, the stubbornness in his expression—it reminded her so much of Innes when she’d attacked her.
Briony had cast the Deathly Slumber then, too. But this time … this time, she hesitated.
Carbry didn’t.
The oval ring Briony had noticed back at the Monastery began to glow. Giant arrows formed in the air around Carbry, glinting threateningly as they pointed at her.
Briony gasped, panicked, and threw up the Mirror Image spell. A wall of shimmering white magick appeared in front of her as the arrows surged forward. They battered against her shield, but it held, absorbing his magick. Relief stirred in her chest.
And then the spell did what it was designed to do. The part of the enchantment Innes hadn’t had time to finish when she was trying to defend herself against Briony.
It flung the curse back at him.
Arrows formed again, but this time they were pointed at Carbry. Briony could feel the force of power behind them, much more than she’d anticipated. This curse was easily class eight—and she was a far stronger spellcaster than Carbry.
Panic built in her chest as she tried to pull back the enchantment. But it was too late. The arrows were already flying across the clearing. Carbry barely had time to suck in his breath before they found their target. His arms, his legs—his throat. He fell to his knees, letting out the most horrible sound Briony had ever heard.