Chapter 58
I turn as rigid as stone in an instant. A slow smirk curves across Ravin’s face like a blade under my skin.
Stop. Stop. Don’t. I can think only in one-word commands that I briskly give myself.
To have come from Arina’s bedside. To have just seen the remnants of the pain he inflicted. I want to annihilate him.
Amusement alights in Ravin’s eyes as they flick between Kaelis and me. If I take my vengeance now…I lose everything. Kaelis is powerful, but even he cannot conceal the death of the crown prince. If he could, Ravin would already be dead.
“Tell me, dear brother, how common is it that your professors emerge from your private apartments calling you only by your name?” Ravin’s eyes finally land on Kaelis and stick. “Or is this one…special?”
I’m hoping the flush on my cheeks from fury at the mere sight of him registers as a blush.
Kaelis leans back in his chair and tosses his head to the side, making a show of looking as if Ravin just asked him the most asinine question to ever be conceived.
“When you have been as cruelly betrayed as I have, there is only one balm.” Kaelis extends a hand toward me.
When I don’t move, he coaxes, “Come over, it’s all right. ”
Right foot. Left foot. Light shoulders. Sway to the hips. Embarrassment, not rage. I instruct myself every step of the way to him.
The moment Kaelis has my hand, he tugs me to him. I fall into his lap with a surprised oomph. His other hand is on me, massaging up the outside of my thigh.
“I’ve heard some say that the cure for one woman is another woman.” Kaelis holds me a bit tighter and leans in. “Trust me,” he breathes against my ear as he makes a show of biting it.
Ravin makes a noise of disgust, looking down his nose at me.
“See, I tried to warn you about him.” Kaelis tugs me even closer in response, and Ravin stands.
“I knew your standards were low, brother, but to be dallying with your new staff…I will spare myself the details of this. I only stopped by to update you on the search for your dear criminal.”
“Fuck her,” Kaelis says, seething with such venom that even I believe for a second that he hates me.
“Unfortunate that you did.” Ravin’s eyes dart to me as if seeking a reaction.
Kaelis’s grip tightens on me, and I tighten mine on him, keeping him in his seat.
“Don’t forget where your priorities lie.” With that, Ravin strides out the door.
We’re both left quivering and clinging to each other, each holding the other back from chasing after him and doing something far too premature.
“I am so sick of his face,” I practically snarl when he is well and truly gone.
“Welcome to my entire life.”
“Why was he here? Another raid on the academy?”
“No, thank goodness.” Kaelis’s hands ease. “He came for a few reasons, the first to let me know about the plans for the enforcers in the city for the Selection Soiree and All Coins Day.”
“Did he go into detail?” I shift, staying in Kaelis’s lap. His presence is comforting and stabilizing, and, more than either of those things, I’m afraid that if I get up, one or both of us will chase after Ravin.
“Not much. Should he have?”
“It’ll be good to know.” I hesitate for a second mostly due to old instinct. But letting him in on my plans comes easier than ever. “I’m going to be inducted into the Worldkeepers on All Coins Day. And after that, I’ll summon and cast the World, if we have Arina’s card.”
“And once we get the real Death from Ravin,” he adds.
“Of course.” I nod, guilt flooding me. Rushing this would only be more suspicious. Stay the course, Clara. “Gregor is going to free Silas’s family soon. I’m sure he’ll find it then. He seems to have solid leads.”
“Good.” Kaelis nods and glances away. “But even with the cards, first we’ll need the vessel.”
“I know.” I hold his gaze and don’t elaborate, and that says it all.
Kaelis’s jaw goes slack. “You have it.” He doesn’t phrase it as a question, but I nod anyway. His grip tightens on me, and there’s a flash of what I’d describe only as pain in his eyes.
“What is it?” I caress his cheek thoughtfully.
“I would’ve loved to see you make it.” He shakes his head. “But that’s not important. All that matters is we have it now.”
“I left it with the Worldkeepers,” I admit. He tenses. “I need them to trust me, and I can get it back from them with ease.”
He nods. I can tell he doesn’t like that it’s not in my possession, but at least he understands. “I’ll do what I can to keep the enforcers busy on All Coins Day. But they should be anyway. It’ll be a good day for the initiation.”
“What were the other reasons Ravin came?” I ask. He’d said there were multiple.
“My father is becoming impatient.”
That’s never a good sign. “Impatient for what, specifically?”
“You know what; you’re just hoping it’s not the case.”
“The World.”
Kaelis dips his chin slightly. “He wants the Star.”
I bite my thumbnail in thought. Ravin was the one to put Arina in Halazar—doing so while thinking Kaelis didn’t know where she was.
Which means, with the destruction of Halazar…
I’m so removed from my body for a moment as I analyze the implications of this that I don’t even realize Kaelis is supporting me until I return to the present.
“Do they know Arina made it out of Halazar alive?” My voice is barely a whisper, terror dropping my words to a hush.
Kaelis shakes his head. “I don’t think so, since they’ve shifted the Hierophant’s focus to finding a new Star. I hear there are no solid leads.”
I let out a sigh of relief and don’t bother to stop myself from crumpling against him. Kaelis shifts again to allow me to. I have my legs draped across his lap and one arm of the chair. His arm is around my back, and my cheek rests on his shoulder.
“It…it doesn’t make sense.” I stare at nothing, my gaze becoming unfocused.
“What doesn’t?”
I squint, as if trying to see the hazy outline of the world that existed before this one. “Why did your father let the Worldkeepers live when he remade the world? Why not wish for them gone?”
“Maybe he tried, and the World’s interpretation of his wish didn’t fulfill that part. It’s a difficult thing to capture everything you want into a single request.”
“If only we knew exactly what he wished for,” I muse.
“Something I’ve wondered often. What makes a man murder the mother of his child?”
The initials etched onto the bookshelf in the library come to mind.
That wasn’t the action of a power-hungry man using a woman to get what he wants.
That was the action of a boy in love…Did something sour between them?
And why let the Revisan era be remembered at all in this new world?
Was it just a function of the wish going awry from Naethor’s intentions?
Too many oddities are stacking up to believe it’s all chance. There’s something I’m missing.
“Regardless of what happened then, I think it’s safe to assume that he’s going to try to make another wish to accomplish what he didn’t the first time around.”
I make a noise of agreement. “Was there anything else Ravin came for?”
“An odd request, actually.” His tone has me sitting up straighter. “He was searching for a particular book on the lore of the Minor Arcana and was wondering if it was perhaps in the public or private collections here.”
“Minor Arcana? Not the Major?”
“My reaction exactly. After I overcame my surprise that my brother could even read a book cover to cover, I asked him about it and why this particular book. Of course he said it’s nothing more than ‘personal fascination.’ ” The mocking tone Kaelis uses for his brother tells me that he also believes there’s much more to it than such a generic excuse. “Naturally, I probed.”
“Naturally.” I grin slightly, an expression Kaelis returns.
“But he wasn’t forthcoming about any other reasoning.”
“What was the title?”
“Cornerstones of the Minor Arcana. He said it was published at least a hundred years ago.”
My brow furrows, and I shift in his lap, leaning against the table to get a better look at him. “It seems…” I start.
“Elementary,” he finishes. “Which leads me to believe it’s anything but.”
“Have you heard of the book before?”
“No. But I am of course going to do everything in my power to locate it and keep it from him.”
“I’ll try to find out about it, too,” I offer. “Maybe the Worldkeepers know something.”
“Thank you.”
Another stretch of silence settles over us. I stare off at nothing, trying to imagine what Ravin would want with the Minor Arcana. All the power—every legend—it’s all about the Majors. Minor cards are commonplace.
Every time I think I’m beginning to get answers, I’m left with more questions.
“Clara.” My name on his lips pulls me from my spinning thoughts. His hand moves from my thigh to my cheek, skin warm against mine. “We’re going to stay one step ahead of them.”
“Absolutely.” There’s no room for doubt in my tone. If I’m close to claiming the power to remake the world, I’m certainly not going to let Ravin or Naethor distract me.
With a sigh, he pulls me closer, our foreheads pressing against each other, the tips of our noses brushing. “I know this is the last thing you want me to ask…but I must.”
“Kaelis…” His name is a warning. I don’t pull away, but I bite back a sigh by holding my breath, hoping that he doesn’t ask what I already know he will.
“We can make this all go away.” His fingers are in my hair, weaving through the strands as if they’re fate itself.
“My father, Ravin—it could all be nothing more than a bad dream. You saw what the World should be—what the Chalice took from us—and we can still make it. How close is Arina to being ready?”
“She’s still so fragile, Kaelis. But I’m working on it.”
“Is there anything I can do?”
“No. But I appreciate you offering.” I sigh and brush my nose against his.
Kaelis’s arms stay around me, patient. I shift, pressing a soft kiss on the edge of his jaw before pulling gently away. The anger from Ravin’s presence has finally cooled.