Vesa felt a familiar trace beneath the power tearing through Thepes's body.
It appeared when he pulled against the light woman, then vanished beneath the next rush of blood from the ruined street.
Her four wings carried her along the wall, above the wounded gathered in its shelter.
"King, I need a clearer view of his chest."
Alex struck a red-eyed attacker away from the road. "What did you find?"
"The artifact."
Alex had told her what they had used to make this thing. Hearing it had been bad enough. Now she could distinguish the familiar pattern beneath the other powers grinding through his chest.
They had buried her master's work inside an abomination and turned it against the people he had meant to restore.
Until now, those powers had been moving together inside a body that kept repairing itself. The struggle with Lolth was pulling them apart, exposing the familiar trace for more than an instant. Vesa lifted one small hand and reached toward it.
