Chapter 25
Reva
Idrag Torin and Aster a little further from the reception room and then into a little alcove right outside. That last dizzy episode really knocked me off-kilter, and I need to feel the solid wall behind me before I risk walking further.
Thankfully, I was done with talking to Samuel Northcliff, or I might have given him the wrong idea when I clung to him to stay vertical. The nausea and dizziness hit first, and then the floor turned to sponge, and I found my legs shaking, barely able to hold me up.
But then Torin was there, pulling me upright and supporting me. His touch helped to resettle both the room and my stomach, and I felt like I could breathe again.
“Where’s Jack?” My throat’s dry and tight, and it’s a struggle to get the words out. Then Aster squeezes my hand, and Torin puts his arm around me, tucking me into his side, and I let out a shuddery breath.
“I think he’s still in there. Poor fucker,” Torin replies with a chuckle.
“We should rescue him. We need to get a move on now that we have a direction to head in.”
Not one, but two leads. Before the dizziness hit, I was so damn pleased with myself too.
We’d come here and done exactly what we said we would with very little effort considering that getting information out of Northcliff was surprisingly easy.
All he needed was a couple of words and a smile and he was filling my ear with his complaints about his ex-partner.
Talking to him felt like I was back to my usual life, or at least a version of it. Not exactly hiding smuggled goods or trying to find them a buyer, but it was like I was doing something more useful than sitting around and hoping for the answers to fall in our laps.
I give myself another half minute to recover and then start back toward the dinner that isn’t a dinner, hoping we can grab Jack and then get out. But before we reach the doorway, a familiar hissed voice pulls all three of us to a halt.
“—whoring myself out, Mother.” That’s Jack’s voice, just as relaxed as ever, although there seems to be a hard edge to it.”
“If you cannot be useful in the usual way, you need to show what value you have in that pathetic body of yours. That old fool likes you. Goodness knows what she sees in you, but who am I to judge?” I’m fairly certain that’s his mother’s voice, filled with vitriol that she’s not even trying to disguise.
I suppose it makes sense. She was terrible in a room of other people, so it shouldn’t surprise me she’s even worse one-on-one.
“You’ve gallivanted for long enough, sowing your wild oats with those wild creatures. Now, it’s time to settle down.”
“What are you doing? Do. Not. Touch. Me.”
“Change back, now. I won’t have people thinking I associate with beasts.”
Aster grips my hand tight, his eyes wide, and then unfolds my fingers. “Tanair an dor.” He spells the letters out on my palm. I don’t recognise the words, so I’m frowning as I murmur them outloud.
A rush of heat travels from where our hands are connected, and the chandelier overhead shatters right when Jack’s mother starts yowling like a cat at midnight. When I dare to look closer, her foot has somehow got stuck in the tile beneath her feet, like the stone is eating her.
Holy shit.
“Did you just do that?” Torin mutters.
“I think so,” I whisper back.
Torin darts into the room, grabbing Jack’s bag and hustling for the door, right as Jack’s mother lets out another wail. Aster grips my hand, tugging me toward the front door of the hotel. The three of us exit as hastily as we can without drawing attention to ourselves.
Once we’re out on the street again and a safe distance from the hotel, we stumble to a stop beside an alleyway. A raven flies overhead, darting into the alley and reappearing as Jack.
Naked.
“What was that?” Torin pants, throwing Jack’s bag at his chest before turning to me and Aster.
“Distraction.”
I stare at Aster. “Did you just use the last of your magic to make that happen?”
Jack’s eyes bulge out of his head as he stares between us. “That was you?”
Aster just shrugs. “She deserved it.”
“Yeah, she really did.” Jack snorts, slapping Aster on the shoulder. He’s still not fully covered, and I avert my eyes as certain parts of him wiggle with the movement.
“Clothes,” Torin growls at him.
Jack salutes before shoving his clothes on and then shakes his head back with a grin. “I guess we’d better make a move then, eh? Did you get everything we came for?”
“We did,” I reply softly. I don’t want to admit even to myself that this whole exercise was unnecessary. If I’d discovered Kit’s spectacles sooner, we could have been following our bond the entire time. Right now, I’m sick to my stomach about the whole thing.
“All right then.” Jack lets out a little whoop, spinning around with something clutched in his hand. “That means we can travel back to the ship in style before anyone notices anything is missing.”
“Jack—”
“Don’t stress, big guy, we’ll be too far for them to touch us in no time.”
“That’s not making me feel any better—”
“Right then.” Jack claps his hands together. “Care to share what you found out?”
“Northcliff told me the sorceress’s name is Araminta Stone,” I tell him as he leads us down the street, away from the hotel.
“He said that she’s been amassing stolen magic for years, creaming a little off the top with every ritual they carried out.
Apparently, here’s a way of distilling people’s magic so that you can transport it and she has hundreds of jars of the stuff that she always planned on selling.
He also told me she had a place where she goes to store it up, one he’d never been allowed to go to. ”
“That doesn’t sound like much of a lead,” Jack replies doubtfully.
“Not by itself, it doesn’t,” I say. “But he also told me the location of her little stash. He said that she had some trouble with it a few months back. Apparently, there was a nasty curse stopping her from reaching her stash.”
“A curse,” Torin repeats.
I nod, glancing between their faces as that little titbit slots into place. “Yeah, I thought that was interesting too. I’d assumed it was a coincidence that she took Kit with her, but what if she selected him because she needs him to break a curse?”
“Then it makes me wonder what she’ll do once Kit’s served his purpose,” Torin says. His words leave cold dread pooling in my stomach and I shiver.
“So where is it?” Jack asks. “Where is she headed?”
“Deadwood Cove.”
Jack blinks, shooting Torin a pointed look. “The same Deadwood Cove that’s on an island that is constantly changing location, you mean? A cove that is practically impossible to locate without a ritual that costs an arm and a leg and takes over a month to complete?”
“I suppose,” I reply with a frown. “Can’t say I know too much about them.”
“You’re lucky,” Torin mutters under his breath. “But it turns out we have a way of tracking Kit through his mate bond with Reva.” He pulls Kit’s charmed spectacles from his pocket and waves them around, where they’re quickly snatched up by Jack.
He manages to keep them on for an entire minute, his eyes bugging out as he peers around before tugging them off again.
“Well, that’s nightmare fuel, isn’t it?”
“Almost made me throw up,” Torin replies.
Jack doesn’t seem too badly affected, though. He slips them back on and takes a longer look around. “Can I keep these on for a while?”
“As long as you don’t break them. Right now, they’re the only chance we have of finding Kit,” Torin grumbles.
“Sure, sure,” Jack replies. “Ha! I knew the Carter’s pet fox they insist on carrying around with them couldn’t be real.
Look at the thickness of that glamour. And that dragon tooth Morgan Ingleby’s wearing, they wouldn’t shut up about how they’d sent off to Ashwick for the genuine article and clearly that was an absolute load of bollocks. ”
At least he seems to have recovered from his encounter with his mother. Then he turns to me and lets out a strangled grunt.
“That does not look healthy.”
My stomach sinks as I’m sure he’s about to point out the gaping hole inside me, but he’s focusing on Torin.
“You’d better start working on that bond, bud, or it’ll turn to dust by the look of things.”
My cheeks heat as guilt pinches my stomach. I really should have spoken to Torin about our bond before now. By this point, it feels like it’s this great, heavy thing sitting between us that’s more and more awkward to broach with every day that passes.
“We’ll talk about it later,” Torin rasps, squeezing my shoulder.
I’m almost annoyed by how I feel my body relax at his touch, but I’m more grateful than anything. There are enough uncomfortable sensations going on inside me these days that I’ll take any reprieve I can get.