Chapter 20
Afull day passed without Julian issuing another invitation. My entire plan hinged on being noticed by him, and it seemed that I’d become invisible.
“He’s forgotten about me,” I fretted to Zafir as I organized his bottles, memorizing the location of each in case I needed to steal one at a moment’s notice. “I tried to make a good impression but I don’t think it was enough.”
“I’m not surprised. He never remembers any one woman for very long,” Zafir said, dipping his quill into an inkpot and continuing to scribble away without looking up. “He’s little more than a cad.”
“Did you want me to seduce Julian so we could drain his coffers because you dislike him particularly?”
Zafir’s eye twitched. “Yes.”
I flopped into the seat next to Zafir. “This was your plan, you know. You aren’t doing much to help right now.”
“You aren’t helping either,” he said, picking up the parchment to read it through. “Why don’t you do something useful rather than just sit around and mope?”
I shot him an irritated expression that slowly morphed into a mischievous smile. “You know what? I think I will. In fact, I’ll go right now.” I stood and headed purposefully toward the door. Eventually, the chain tugged on Zafir.
"Hey!" he protested, pulling back.
I grabbed the chain’s other end and leaned my weight away, trying to drag him out of his chair. It sort of worked. He stood to dig his heels into the rug and pull me back hand over hand until the chain coiled up on the floor and he had reeled me most of the way in.
I wasn’t strong enough to present much of a challenge, but as Zafir gave another mighty tug, I released the chain so Zafir went sprawling back into his chair.
I waited for him to leap up, enraged, but was dismayed as he slowly got to his feet, calm as ever, brushed off his robes, and said mildly, “That was rather uncalled for. Why are you trying to goad me?”
“I thought it would be amusing. I may die of boredom while my ex-husband might be trying to find and kill another girl—maybe even my sister. I’m sitting here organizing bottles and I’m no nearer my goal. I’d rather walk there than sit here and do nothing.”
He sat back down and picked up his quill again. “We’re separated by another continent and two oceans. You should’ve said you’d rather swim there than walk.”
“It’s a figure of speech,” I said, throwing myself onto the sofa and sighing. “I just want to be doing something, and this whole waiting for Julian to notice me while I’m holed up here with you is going to kill me, and I still can’t talk to my sister.”
“Why not? You have your two-way mirror. Use it.”
I swallowed hard, then pulled it out and gently ran my finger around the rim. “I think it’s broken,” I confessed sadly. “It was stepped on right after I appeared here and it hasn’t worked since.”
“Let me see.” Zafir reached out his hand.
I hesitated.
“I’ll be careful,” he said, much more gently than normal. “I don’t intend to break the only connection you have to your family.”
I carefully placed it in his hand and watched as he moved it closer to the candle flickering on his desk.
“A small crack like this wouldn’t break the enchantment,” he said, holding it up close to examine. “More likely it was a feeble enchantment. The spell is complex, and when it isn’t done well, it can become weaker with a greater distance between the mirrors.”
I caught my breath. “Do you know how to fix it?”
“I could try.”
“Will you? Please—I’ll do anything you want.”
He shot me an odd expression. “You ought not to promise such things so readily. Another man might take advantage of such an offer.”
“It would mean a great deal to me. Zafir, please.”
Without another word, he crossed to one of his many bookshelves, and I stepped closer as he ran his fingers down a row of spines, searching until he found what he was looking for. He lifted a heavy book down and thumbed through the pages.
“You don’t need to be so close,” he griped at me. “I can feel your breath on my neck.”
I retreated two paces. I hadn’t realized I was following him so closely, but I couldn’t stop myself from watching him as he trailed a finger down a long list of spells then murmured a few words in a foreign tongue to my mirror.
It took several tense minutes of Zafir working before the mirror glowed silver and shone brightly, illuminating the entirety of his dark study before dimming again.
“There.” He held the mirror out to me. “Try it now.”
I snatched it and eagerly turned it over three times. The mirror turned foggy and warm, but this time, Nadia’s face swam into view, perfectly in focus and clear as day.
“Alia!” she shrieked. “Where are you? I’ve been worried sick!”
I heaved an immense sigh of relief at seeing her. “It’s a long story. What about you? Are you safe?”
“For now. Tell me what’s been going on. There are reward posters up all over town with your face on them. Rahil’s offering a huge reward for anyone who can bring you to him, and everyone in town is looking—”
Zafir’s head lifted, and after mouthing a heartfelt thank you to him, I retreated to the bedroom so I wouldn’t bother him with my conversation.
I caught Nadia up on everything, from when Rahil left to release her from prison to his attack and then me impersonating a duchess and trying to seduce Julian.
“So now I’m stuck on the other side of the world until I can convince Julian to spend a small fortune to take me on a romantic vacation to Brisden,” I finished. “But what about you? Did you get my message to stay away from old Bluebeard?”
“I did, and just in time too.” There was a loud clattering from behind Nadia, and she ducked down.
When she resurfaced, she whispered, “I got your message right as I was setting out for the manor, so I hid in our old spot behind the butcher’s shop.
Within the hour, Rahil had men putting up reward posters for you.
There have been search parties, and guards are sweeping houses and interrogating everyone. Rahil’s determined to find you.”
“He’ll have a hard time; I’m all the way in Pyren. It would take two days on dragon back to get there or about a month by boat.”
Nadia heaved a sigh of relief. “I’ve been so worried, but as long as they kept looking, I knew they hadn’t found you. I worried you had died. There was so much blood when I talked to you before.”
“I’m fine now. You just keep your head down,” I told her. “I wouldn’t put it past him to try to get information out of you.”
I went to brush my hair out of my eyes, and as I did so, Nadia caught sight of the chain around my wrist. “Alia, what’s that? Are you chained up?”
“Oh, that.” In my haste, I hadn’t told her about the vow bond with Zafir. I explained, and her eyebrows contracted into one long line.
“He’s keeping you chained up? It seems like I got released from prison just as you were put in one.”
“More like I’m the one keeping him chained,” I said with a mischievous grin. “And he isn’t all bad. He’s the one who fixed the mirror for me, so I can’t hate him too much.”
Zafir poked his head into the room. “There’s a message for you,” he informed me. “Along with some flowers.”
“I need to go,” I told Nadia in a hurry. “I’ll talk to you later. Stay out of trouble, okay?” I turned the mirror over and went back into the study.
The messenger had already left, but there was a large bouquet of flowers and an envelope with my name written in beautiful calligraphy. After slitting open the envelope, a piece of parchment fell out.
“What does it say?” Zafir asked.
“He wants to take me to the Emberlight Revelry in two days.”
“I’ve heard that’s a good show,” Zafir said, sitting stiff-backed at his work station loaded with beakers and potions.
“You’ll get to see it too, remember?” I jingled the chain connecting our wrists. “You’re coming along.”
“Right.” Zafir cast an annoyed look at the flowers on the table, then his expression cleared. “How was the talk with your sister?”
“Good. She’s safe for now.”
“She said there are reward posters for you?”
My heart stuttered and my mouth went dry. What if Zafir was planning to turn me in and collect the reward money and the magic lamp as well? My fingers itched to pull out some of the potions hidden away.
“You needn’t look at me that way. I’m merely concerned,” Zafir said mildly. “We don’t need to discuss it if it makes you uncomfortable.”
“I’d rather not discuss it,” I told him. I cast around for something to say and finally sat in front of him. “Will you do my makeup again? Or you could teach me.”
“Your date isn’t for two more days.”
“I don’t have to have a date to want to look nice. Please?”
He gave a nod, eyes still fixed on the curling glass tubes with bubbling liquids spiraling through. He jotted down a few more notes, then blew out the burner. Almost immediately the bottle’s contents stopped bubbling and the liquid drained down the tubes, back into the bottle.
“What are you working on?”
He eyed the bottle. “I’m experimenting with a way to become impervious to any physical attack. It’s meant to be an alternative to eating a dragon heart since those are very difficult to come by.”
“Less disgusting, too, I would assume.”
“I agree—eating a dragon heart is rather unappealing,” he said, reaching for the first makeup container.
“Ironblood tonic has similar properties but still leaves the drinker vulnerable to poisons, drowning, and being smothered. I seem to have misplaced one of my vials of it in addition to some truth serum.”
He gave me a penetrating look, and I arranged my features into an expression of innocence. “How unfortunate.”