Free Bricrui (The Forgotten: Book 2) by Laura R Cole

her.
    Layna closed her eyes to give her full
attention over to the power, watching the flowing magic swirl
around the room. It seemed to be drawn to a particular area, where
a concentration of magic was spiraling around. There was something
magical there.
    She opened her eyes and moved to the spot.
Rummaging around in the box of toys, she brought out the object.
She held it up for Amelia to see.
    “Where did this come from?” she demanded.
    Amelia scrunched up her face in thought, then
comprehension dawned on her. Her expression turned to one of guilt.
“Phoenix had it around her neck when she was rescued by Natalya and
Hunter. I just assumed that one of them had given her a trinket. I
didn’t even think…” she hung her head and Layna’s anger
evaporated.
    “It’s not your fault,” she assured the woman,
taking the offending object and examining it carefully. Between the
baby returning, her and Gryffon waking, and Telvani’s escape, she
could hardly blame anyone for not thinking to search the child.
Whoever had been spying had withdrawn, so it was impossible for
Layna to confirm that this was the object they had been using to
find the focus of their scrying, but it definitely was magical. And
it definitely hadn’t come from anyone here, the ‘taste’ of the
spell was unlike any she knew.
    She re-warded Phoenix with another layer of
shielding and handed her to Amelia. “Keep an extra close eye on her
while I sort this out, would you please?”
    Amelia nodded and clung to the baby. Layna
swept out of the room with the necklace, already strengthening the
hold she had over its magic now that she knew where it was coming
from, and blocking anyone from using it to spy on what she was up
to.
    She carried it to the room which had been
cleared out for magic use, shielded from the outside so that spells
gone awry would not damage the neighboring rooms. She entertained
the thought of sending for Gryffon, but he was in the middle of a
meeting with Aria, discussing details of a possible merger, and
interrupting them would only bring up questions as to what was so
urgent.
    Instead, she set the necklace on the table
and sat down heavily in front of it. She stared at it and willed it
to reveal its secrets to her. How it had escaped their notice for
this long was appalling, given all they had gone through and the
precautions which had been taken to prevent such things from
occurring.
    As she unwound the intricacies of the spell,
she felt a little better. It was one of the most complicated
enchantments she had ever seen and it took her hours to unravel it
all. It was unlike any scrying tool she had ever seen. It seemed to
be dampening magic, not amplifying it. No matter, however, she was
going to undo it regardless. She was covered in sweat and breathing
hard by the time she got it completely undone, but she was still no
closer to figuring out who had sent it. Not that she needed magic
to guess that it was either one of Telvani’s people, or – the more
likely choice given the unfamiliar magic that was used – the
tribe.
    So the tribe wasn’t done with them yet. They
had suspected as much, though Layna had fervently wished that they
would have given up. Their attempts to find the tribe to confront
them had all fallen short, even with her and Gryffon’s impressive
combined power. There seemed to be some sort of enchantment on
their forest grove that prevented people from finding it. Likely it
was one that recognized only those who had been there before or
those who were led in. So far, they hadn’t come up with any way to
get past such an enchantment. She had wanted Natalya to go back
with a group of Knights in hopes that her having been there before
could find it for them, but she could not ask her to do that until
her sister was found. Since things had seemed quiet, she and
Gryffon had decided to wait until Hunter returned and beg his
assistance instead. But his communications had suddenly stopped. It
was