All of Us Villains (All of Us Villains, #1)

by Amanda Foody

“I watched you bury the ring in the Castle last night,” Gavin said. “I buried it to release its magic,” Alistair snapped. “How could that reverse—” “I don’t think that’s what you did,” Briony said, trying to think all of this through. “If the high magick of the curse is falling apart, then maybe … maybe when the magick in the ring dispersed inside the Castle Landmark, it got sucked into the magick of the tournament. And when that magick unraveled a little more, it produced Hendry. Like a side effect.” Alistair rubbed one of his bloodshot eyes, then peered at the Champions Pillar. He looked utterly wretched. “When I buried the ring, there were two cracks. Both on its front, with the names. And now there’s four—three on its front, one on its back.” The Pillar had cracked when Briony had slid the ring off Innes’s finger. She hadn’t realized it had happened three times more. “The last one just happened now,” Alistair continued. “On the back. The side with the stars. That one’s from what you did, isn’t it?” “So it was already breaking?” Finley asked, furrowing his brow. “That … that can’t be right. We united the Sword with the Cave. What else could be breaking it?”