Chapter 2
Chapter
Two
EVIE
I wasn’t back.
I was fuming.
Literally. Smoke still clung to my skin and ashy flakes coated my hair.
Whoever–or whatever–had just crawled back from the abyss of sadness wasn’t me. It was some deformed, vengeful creature.
And she was out for blood.
“Leesa,” I said. There was an acidic edge to my voice that I didn’t recognize. “From now on, everyone is forbidden from telling him anything about me. Even if I’m dying in a ditch, he will be the last person to know. Is that clear?”
“Yes, Your Highness,” Leesa said, voice shaking.
“Good. Tell Goose.”
Leesa was already halfway out the door when she turned. “What about Adara?”
A fresh wave of fury rolled through me. “I’ll deal with her myself.”
Now that the wrath had been uncaged, I was a wild beast, ready to rip and slash. I grabbed the closest robe and threw it on my thin frame like it had personally offended ten generations of my complicated family.
My family . Who hadn’t bothered to check if I was still breathing.
The rage accompanied me as I thundered down the stairs, a cloud of silk billowing behind me. Goose intercepted me in the hallway, his long, spindly legs carrying him faster than should have been physically possible.
“It’s true! You even came out of your room.” Goose breathed deeply, as if he’d been running all morning. Perhaps he had. His dark hair was a bit disheveled and even his perfectly pressed white uniform looked a bit askew; the exam session at the Academy must have been particularly hard. “I’m going to make a special meal to celebrate.”
I didn’t reply as I stomped toward the library. I didn’t trust my words right now and whatever anger I was about to spew shouldn’t have been directed at Goose. Not until I knew for sure he’d been in on the heinous plan.
But I needed a release. I felt unhinged and hot–hot enough that my power could scorch.
I banged the library doors closed behind me and darted to the shelf where I’d stacked the four large books that were palaver portals in disguise, linked to each of my cousins, who were scattered all over Malhaven and dealing with their own Blood Brotherhood fiances. Probably doing it better than me, like everything else they did.
I yanked Allie’s portal and slammed it open on the library table. A tendril of gray mist rose from the pages, forming an oval that gave me a perfect view into the darkened, lavish room Allie had to stay in while the Protectorate crumbled under uncle Silas’ inept rule.
“Allie,” I said, one second away from gnashing my teeth hard enough to hurt.
Nothing.
No shift, no sound, not even a shadow from the other end. I stared at yards of crimson carpets and gaudy golden tableaus on the walls.
Jolts of unease raced up my spine.
It was like back in that wretched mountain cabin, clutching the only magic book my parents allowed and praying the blank pages would fill up with words.
“Allie!”
Nothing.
I gripped the edges of the table until my fingers turned ghostly white.
“Allegra Vegheara, I swear on all that is sacred, gods both old and new, if you don’t–”
The portal shivered as Allie stumbled in front of it, blinking the sleep away. I didn’t know what was bigger–her mane of dark hair, her wide green eyes–or the gash on her clavicle.
“Are you okay?” we both yelled at the same time.
All the screams and the accusations stinging the tip of my tongue died as soon as I saw the healing wound. At least I hadn’t lost a part of my kindness in the darkness.
“Why are you hurt?” I asked at the same time she said, “We’ve been talking about killing your new husband, but we wanted to run the plan by you first.”
Despite everything, a surprised bubble of laughter passed my lips. It almost sounded like a sob, forced out by the shock of it all.
“You first.” I jutted my chin toward the small portal. “What happened?”
“A measly attack.” Allie waved off my concerns. “The only part that annoyed me was the fact that Ryker managed to slice through the assassins before I had a chance to, the competitive prick.”
“Good.” I sighed in relief. If Allie, the great Huntress, was talking about not getting enough kills, she wasn’t truly hurt. “So you do know what happened at my wedding.”
I couldn’t stop the reproach from poisoning my voice. Two weeks. Two weeks since I’d been made a fool of at the altar and none of my cousins had checked in to see how I’d survived the ordeal.
“Of course.” Allie sighed into the chair in front of the portal. Her eyes were red; with sleep or worry, I couldn’t tell. “Who do you think sent the raven to watch your house?”
“That was yours?”
“Ryker’s, but he keeps saying what’s his is mine.” She rolled her eyes. “So the whole killing-the-prince…yay or nay?”
“No murder.” What good would it do to have him dead so quickly? Death was a release, not suffering. And, despite my best efforts, some small part of me still roared at the mere idea of him dying.
“Then I need to stop Dax from leaving in the morning. He planned on infiltrating the Blood Brotherhood’s precious Phoenix Peak.”
I seethed. “Had a good chat about me, did you?”
“Obviously. We were concerned. No word from you and all I knew was that you were alive and holed up in your house–”
“Concerned?” I echoed with a hiss. “You didn’t even bother to reach out! None of you.”
Instead of looking shamed and contrite, Allie seemed confused. “Yes? We couldn’t, could we?”
“Excuse me?”
“We couldn’t risk letters getting intercepted. I tried to access the portal more times than I can count, but you had your book closed, so I couldn’t. None of us could. Hence Dax’s plan to infiltrate the Capital and why I left my book open, hoping you would give us a sign.”
Closed.
I’d kept the book closed, so she couldn’t–
“But now you’re here.” Allie smiled, oblivious to my sudden shock. “I’m so sorry you had to go through that. The loathsome bastard. And that bitch pretending to be your friend. Does the no-murder rule apply to her too or…?”
I shook my head, the fire in me fading–only to be replaced by a horrifying realization.
It came so fast and hard, my knees wobbled like someone had cut through flesh, bone, and ligament. I crumbled into the nearest chair, breathing heavily as a fresh horror descended upon me.
“Evie,” Allie went on, a hint of panic in her commanding voice. “I know it looks horrible and you’re suffering and nothing would bring me more joy now than skinning your precious Zandyr alive, but Ryker says marrying that Kaya woman is just an unavoidable political move and that there’s nothing going on between him and her–”
“Allie.” I licked my suddenly parched lips. I needed to choose my next words carefully. They might change the fate of the Protectorate Clan. Our Clan. Forever. “Do you remember that book from the mountains I told you about? The one where the pages changed, so I had access to a different book? You told me it was also a kind of palaver portal.”
That book had been my only connection, however unreliable, to the outside world. I’d entertain myself with tales of princes and princesses, studied the maps of faraway lands, and delved into forgotten histories. Anything to forget how stuck and lonely I was.
I’d discovered that book had been tied to the vast library in my parents’ former home, like my portal was now connected to Allie’s.
She frowned. “Yes?”
I struggled to keep my breathing in check. “Some days…some days the pages remained blank.”
“Okay…” Allie said slowly. She must have thought I was losing my mind.
“And other times…the same pages would show up, again and again for weeks.”
“So? What does that have to–” Allie’s faze froze as the dreadful epiphany that had hit me finally seeped into her as well. “Xamor, it can’t be.”
But it was.
“When we disappeared, my parents abandoned their home and the library within it. If these palaver portals only work when both ends of the connection are open…who was opening and closing the books back in the library for sixteen years ?”