Chapter 52. Eloise
Eloise
I want to follow Grayson outside, but I also don’t want to intrude on his private moment.
“It makes sense now why no one has been able to call the Key in such a long time,” I say. “Two people are required and one of them has to have a moral compass. Which as far as I can tell is in very short supply among Mages.”
Sage grunts her agreement. “Not to mention the Chancellor’s so convinced of his superiority that there’s no way he’d think the answer was in our camp all these years.”
“This poem explains why the Key never stayed for us,” I say. “We never got all the elements right at once.”
“It took me and Liam a long time,” Sage admits.
“Not that I minded all the practice.” She smiles a sad smile.
“And even when we called it correctly, sometimes it’d disappear five minutes later.
I used to get so frustrated, but Liam never did.
He called it a gift—the best problem to have.
Now I’d give anything just to hear him say it again.
” She sighs. “Anyway, after we used it to widen that ward tear, Liam thought we shouldn’t call it again.
He was headed to University and he wanted to wait and find the Archive Door. ”
“So, it wasn’t you who made the tear?” I ask.
She shakes her head. “The Key allowed us to manipulate it, but it was already there. Maybe Brachan and Moore made it. I have no idea.”
“Did Liam ever figure out where the Archive Door was? Because the poem mentions an arched doorway, but that could be literally any door in the University,” I say just as Grayson enters the tent.
“Liam never made it that far,” she says.
“Brachan wasn’t a University student,” Grayson says, and we both turn. “He was a cobbler’s son and wouldn’t have had access to the entire University.”
Sage adjusts her fingerless gloves. “So, you’re saying the Archive Room is in a common space instead of tucked into a private tower?”
I consider it. “The dining hall, the library, and the training room are all common rooms that have arched doorways.”
“Right,” Grayson says. “But for me, there’s one room that isn’t like the others.”
When he doesn’t immediately tell us which one, Sage says, “Are you going to spit it out or do you want a round of applause first?”
My lip quirks up.
After a drawn-out second Grayson says, “Akari told us flat-out that the training room is protected by vicious spells. She implied that being there after hours is a sucky way to die. Seems a little overkill, doesn’t it?
Wouldn’t it make more sense to protect the irreplaceable library rather than a room filled with simulations and workout equipment? ”
I never thought about it that way. “Even if we call the Key and find the Archive Room,” I say, my stomach doing a nervous flip. “How does that stop your uncle from getting the Key? How does that save my family or the Lawless?”
Grayson and Sage share a look.
“Sage, I need a minute with Eloise,” he says.
“That’s a hard no,” she replies. “I didn’t show you the poem so you can cut me out of a plan that you and I have been working on for years.”
“You two have been trying to call the Key for years?” I ask, shocked.
They both go to answer, but Sage is faster. “I’m referring to our plan to take out his shithead uncle. The Key is a new development.”
I exhale. I absolutely understand why they’d have that plan. My gran probably has one, too, in her ornerier moments. But I can’t imagine a world where that could work. The Chancellor’s magic is both legendary and terrifying. Not to mention he has a fleet of Guardians at his back.
“Which is exactly why I need to talk to Eloise,” Grayson says again. “She deserves the opportunity to decide if she even wants to be a part of this.”
Sage narrows her eyes. “I’ll be in my tent when you’re finished.”
The moment the door closes, Grayson turns to me. “I know this is a lot—the Lawless, my uncle, the Key. And so, I’m going to ask you one more time if you want to bow out of this fight. Not for good. Just for tonight.”
“And what happens tonight?” I ask him.
“We remove my uncle from power,” he says.
“Kill him?” I ask, wanting the truth.
“It’s not my aim, but I’m also not ruling it out,” he says. “I’m not him. I don’t kill people to get what I want. But every week he rules, more Lawless die. More Laborers die. And no one is doing a damn thing. Very few even know the truth.”
I push back the strands of hair that have escaped my braid. “What plan do you have with Sage?”
“We want to expose him. But it’ll involve putting him in a position where he doesn’t have a choice. We’ve never been able to craft a spell strong enough to compromise him. The magic in that Archive Room could change that.”
“Can we delay, buy ourselves a day to think about it and work out the details?” I ask.
“We’ll never know what’s in that room until we see it for ourselves. But if you and I can call the Key, I can handle the rest. You can stay here—”
“I can’t stay here. What about my family?” I ask.
“Sage can get in touch with the Lawless in America. She’ll get your family out before my uncle can seize them.”
“My family would never trust them. Someone would get hurt or—” I don’t finish that sentence because Grayson’s right, there’s no time to wait. “I’m in. Whatever your plan is, I’m doing it with you. Tonight.”
He exhales. “Your magic is drained.”
I stare at him. “I understand the risks of going up against your uncle, Grayson. But he’s killing people. He killed my grandad.”
“I know you do, I’m just saying—”
“What are you saying?” I reply, my tone a warning. “Because I’m a damn good fighter.”
“Eloise, you don’t get it,” he says. “I don’t think you’re incapable.
You’re smarter than I am. Craftier. And a harder worker.
The problem is—” He meets my eyes. “The problem is I don’t want to lose you.
Because somewhere along the way I realized that the one thing I can’t live with has irrevocably changed—it’s no longer my uncle taking the Key, it’s him taking you. ”
“You don’t mean that,” I say, and I don’t even know why. Maybe because he’s always so secretive, so closed off. Also, I’m flustered, because no one has ever said anything that romantic to me.
“And if I do mean it?”
“You can’t. You accused me of drooling over you a week ago,” I say like it’s hard evidence.
He laughs and it’s a rich sound, low and rumbly. “And that proves what exactly? That I’m an ass?”
“That you push people away,” I say.
“You’re right,” he replies. “But I’m not pushing you away.”
“Why?”
“It’s a damn good question,” he says like he barely understands it himself.
“Maybe it’s those eyes of yours, Claws, or the way you incessantly challenge me.
Maybe it’s that you’re good in a way I can never be.
Or that you keep believing in me even when I don’t believe in myself.
No one has showed up for me like that since I was a kid.
God, when I found out you fell through that window today, I nearly lost my mind.
I didn’t even think of the consequences of leaving the wards. Didn’t care.”
I stand there staring at him, my heart beating too quickly and my chest rising with the motion. He’s mere inches from my face, his rugged magic smell drifting toward me and his impossibly blue eyes trained on my face.
“So, what you’re saying is that you were wrong? That it’s you who’s drooling over me?” I say, and the laugh that erupts from him steals my breath because it’s real.
He leans forward, brushing my hair back with a light touch that tingles down my neck, and he whispers in my ear, “Don’t get ahead of yourself, Claws. I didn’t say I was wrong about the drooling comment, only that I was being an ass.”
I push him lightly and he raises his hands in surrender, the grin on his face so confident that I nearly groan. I maintain my stance that it’s deeply unfair that he looks like that.
“You might not want to lose me,” I say. “But you do have to trust me.”
“I do trust you.”
“No, I don’t mean just to tell the truth, but to handle myself,” I say.
He rubs the back of his neck. “You’re right.”
I can’t help but smile. “Can you repeat that? I’m not sure I heard you.”
He flashes me that confident smile again, moving closer. “I was wrong, Claws, and you were right,” he says, his eyes sweeping down my face to my lips.
“Must feel good to get that off your chest,” I say.
“The best.”
“You ready?” he asks.
I lift my chin. “I shouldn’t be, but I really am.”
Grayson extends his hand, palm up. And my betrayer of a stomach bottoms out. Touching Grayson after what he just said feels intimate. My pulse pounds, my breath catches, and every inch of me becomes aware of every inch of him.
A ghost of a smile flits across his lips, and as I slip my fingers into his, I feel that contact everywhere. On my neck and down my back, on my lips where his gaze keeps flitting.
His smile widens, probably because he’s scenting me, and I don’t break eye contact.
In reply, he calls his magic—he creates a thin vine with a single rose over one finger and a water droplet over his next. I feel a zing from where our hands meet each time he casts, almost like I was casting with him.
He creates a miniature of the wooden box I called for my entrance exam over his ring finger and I smile. And last, he casts an illusion of a lion paw with sharp claws.
I swear I experience the way he feels about me as he does. It’s as if I stepped into his heart for a brief moment and felt the tenderness there.
“Your turn,” he says in a whisper that skates across my skin.
I take a deep breath and call my magic, pulling from the nearby wood.
I can feel his heartbeat through his palm.
And by the way his eyes sparkle with mischief, I know he can feel it, too—our connection, something beyond our touch or magic, something that pulls at the very depths of us and winds us together.
Above my hand I form a tiny wooden dragon, no bigger than a quarter.
While it’s the symbol of the Alchemy Guild, it’s also the animal Grayson formed for his entrance exam, a symbol of the many things that bind us.
I pour how I feel about him into it, his humor and his confidence, his attractive mischief and the way I can’t stop watching him.
“Claws,” he says, breathless, and I can feel his surprise, but I also feel his attraction. And it’s so heady that I look at his lips.
Which is when the impossible happens—the Key appears in the air next to us.
Its iridescent wood gleams in the moonlight and the flowering vines on its handle flutter with an energy akin to excitement. Only this time, when I reach for it, it doesn’t disappear. The Key falls right onto my palm.
Before I can voice my astonishment, Sage bursts through the door.
She immediately spots the Key and her relief is visible. “Damien and a troop of Guardians were spotted in the woods about an hour’s trek from here. The Chancellor isn’t waiting until morning like we assumed. Mom’s headed back and I’ve been given orders for an emergency evacuation.”
The excitement I just felt is instantly replaced with dread. “Where will you go? What will you do?”
“We’ll figure it out. I only hope we can move everyone fast enough,” she says, and my fear for her and the others swells. All those children, all those families.
“I was planning on coming with you, but given the situation—” Sage says.
“Understood,” Grayson replies.
They share a long look, something I imagine means they’re both wishing each other luck and hoping the other doesn’t die. But neither of them says it. Grayson just nods and Sage lifts her chin before she turns and runs.