Chapter Twenty-Five #2
The last guests were vanishing back into the ballroom now, chattering about the fireworks.
‘Tell me,’ Jasper ordered. ‘Quickly.’
‘Her eyes were a beautiful shade of green, though when she looked at me, they seemed hard, vindictive—’ A memory of those eyes suddenly surged back.
Jasper’s face drew tight. ‘What is it?’
Thea gripped his wrist without thinking. ‘I’ve seen her before.’
Jasper’s expression flickered, his stare searching hers. ‘You – you have?’ A strange note was woven through his voice, one that Thea’s gown echoed gently.
‘Yes, at the start of autumn, on Prague Bridge.’ Thea frowned to herself. ‘She saw me open the secret passage to the Magic Quarter, must have seen me vanish in plain sight. Did she – did she recognise me? No, that isn’t possible . . .’
‘She recognised that you’d entered a warded place,’ Jasper said quickly. ‘Perhaps she recognised my power within you, too, and knew I was close by.’
‘But now the wards have fallen,’ Thea realised with a growing horror, dropping her hand.
‘We need to return to the Quarter at once. Heloise is notorious for her ambition and her scalding cruelty, feared even among her – our – own kind.’ He blazed with intensity.
‘If ever you have hated me, then know that she is a hundred times worse. If she has set her sights on you, then you must remain out of sight.’ His stare hardened. ‘Promise me.’
‘I will do no such thing,’ Thea sputtered.
‘Godsdamn it Thea, why won’t you understand?’ Jasper groaned. ‘I cannot lose you!’
‘That does not give you the right to order me about,’ Thea informed him, ignoring how her heart-spell had spasmed. ‘Your feelings are immaterial. Though I am sure that you would have me simper and bat my fan at you like a lady at court.’
‘I would have no such thing,’ Jasper snapped. ‘I would have you exactly as you are.’
Thea’s lips parted. She shook herself. ‘We are wasting too much time! I need to go.’
‘Go. I will try to catch Heloise before she leaves. Delay her from heading to the Magic Quarter. If I see Malek, I’ll persuade him to take his Hunters elsewhere.’
Thea’s breath hitched. She wanted to tell him to leave with her rather than endanger herself, but Jasper was the only one who could take on Heloise and survive. She had to let him go.
‘Take my carriage,’ Jasper commanded, searching her face. ‘Eclipse is pulling it.’
‘No. You’ll need that to join us in the Quarter. Come as soon as you can, we’re going to need you.’
‘Thea—’
But she was already breaking into a run. She wished she could send a raven, but they could only be summoned from within the Quarter itself.
She’d almost cleared the courtyard when it suddenly altered.
She could see it in the way the air thrummed with energy, how it took on that sheen, that glisten of thousands of threads, cobwebbed together in patterns only a fate-weaver could discern.
Somebody was weaving. She knew even before she glanced back that Heloise was responsible.
She caught a trail of Jasper’s dark hair, tied back, as he ploughed through the last guests meandering through the courtyard, rushing towards the central fountain.
Where Heloise was standing, watching his path towards her.
The castle grounds contorted as Jasper unleashed the full force of his power. For the first time, Thea glimpsed the true power beneath his mask.
The castle shuddered, its stonework groaning as it struggled to contain the force that Jasper wielded. No, that Jasper was. He leapt onto the fountain edge with arms outstretched, a fistful of threads in each hand as he lashed out at Heloise.
She stumbled back, losing her grip on the strands she’d been knotting together. Just as she reached back to reclaim them, Jasper attacked again, his power hitting her like a runaway carriage.
Thea seized her window to leave without Heloise noticing. Fleeing into the main courtyard, she ran through the maze of carriages, her heart-spell slamming into her ribcage as she hoped and hoped – there.
Malek’s carriage was still awaiting his return.
For a moment she wondered if she ought to return to the ball and attempt to find him, but she dispelled that instantly; it was far too dangerous with Heloise battling Jasper in the courtyard.
Heloise was the true enemy here, the reason Thea needed to get back and warn everyone, in case Heloise slipped through Jasper’s defences and headed straight for the Quarter.
Decided, Thea marched over to Malek’s distinctive ochre carriage. His coachman was laughing nearby with a gaggle of others, far enough away that Thea managed to sneak onto the driving seat and take up the reins without him noticing.
‘Go horses, go,’ she whispered, pulling on one side of the reins to steer them out of the line of waiting carriages.
‘Hey!’ The coachman had noticed. ‘What do you think you’re doing?’
‘Go faster!’ Thea urged, unsure how to take charge of a pair of horses. Before she could attempt to fate-weave her way out of there, the horses took charge themselves and gathered speed, cantering out of the courtyard and through the gates.