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The lightning-streaked blackhis nerves, snaked around his spine, and sought its release in the sudden fire in his loins It was a e beyond a man’s co
"Look," Tersa said, pointing to the chalice’s lip
A hairline crack ran from a chip in the chalice’s lip to the base As Daemon watched, a deeper crack appeared
The h the glass at the bottoht as ile to hold that kind of power
Then he looked closer
The cracks were starting frooing out So it was threatened by so beyond itself
He shivered as he watched more of thehe could do to change a vision But everything he was screath around it and cherish it, protect it, keep it safe
Knowing it would change nothing that happened here and now, he still reached for the chalice,
It shattered before he touched it, spraying crystal shards over the makeshift altar
Tersa held up as left of the shattered chalice A little of ed bottom of the cup Most of it was trapped inside the stem
She looked at hi the chalice The chalice can be shattered without breaking the inner web They cannot reach the inner web, but the chalice"
Dae "I know the inner web is another name for our core, the Self that can tap the poithin us But I don’t knohat the chalice stands for"
Her hand shook a little "Tersa is a shattered chalice" Daemon closed his eyes A shattered chalice A shatteredabout madness "Give me your hand," Tersa said
Too unnerved to question her, Daerabbed it, pulled it forward, and slashed his wrist with the chalice’s jagged edge
Daemon clamped his hand over his wrist and stared at her, stunned
"So that you never forget this night," Tersa said, her voice tre "That scar will never leave you"
Daemon knotted his handkerchief around his wrist "Why is a scar iet" Tersa cut the strands of the tangled ith the shattered chalice When the last thread broke, the chalice and web vanished "I don’t know if this will be or if it may be Many strands in the eren’t visible to e if you need it, when you need it"
"The courage for what?"
Tersa walked away
"Tersa!"
Tersa looked back at him, said three words, and vanished
Dae for air, shuddering from the fear that clawed at his belly
What had the one to do with the other? Nothing Nothing! He would be there, a protector, a shield He would!
But where?
Daemon forced himself to breathe evenly That was the question Where
Certainly not in Maris’s court
It was lateand dirty His wrist throbbed and his head pounded mercilessly He had just reached the terrace when Maris’s daughter, Marissa, flounced out of the garden room and planted herself in front of him, hands on her hips, her expression a er
"You were supposed to coht and you didn’t Where have you been? You’re filthy" She rolled her shoulder, looking at hihty You’ll have to come up to my room and explain"