Chapter 11
I scream as black folds around me, weightless and silent. Alaris’s face is inches away, dark eyes fixed on mine, his hair flying up in a wind I can’t feel. His grip on my hand is my only anchor. There is nothing around us but endless void—no light, and no ground under my feet.
Then, as suddenly as it swallowed us, the gaping nothingness spits us out.
I stumble forward, my boots hitting solid stone. The room around me is larger than the one we just left, but it’s too dark to make out more than shapes.
“What was that?” I snap as soon as I catch my breath.
“Travel through a shadowgate. We’re in Arastos now.”
I don’t believe for a second that we could have traveled to the farthest province on the continent. No divinial, from Arastos or otherwise, has such a power.
“That’s not possible.”
“Ah, but it is.” He waggles the pointed stone. “Family heirloom. And a very well-guarded secret, actually. So you’re welcome.”
My eyes widen. This is why spelled objects are banned.
With the magic mask or the trinkets I’ve seen confiscated around court, I often thought the ban was overly harsh.
But the ability to travel anywhere in seconds…
this is my first taste of a spelled object that could have made a difference in the wars.
“A little warning would have been nice,” I stutter.
“You said you wanted to go to Arastos.”
“By carriage! My answer might have been different if I had known it was through a portal with a rock!”
“Voidstone.”
“I’m counting this as another kidnapping,” I grumble. “For the record, next time you want my hand, ask.”
“I don’t think we should classify this noble rescue, at great personal risk, as a kidnapping.”
“You’re still holding my hand.”
“You’re leaning,” he says, lifting our joined hands. His forearm flexes with the pressure I’m putting on his grip.
I yank away and stumble over my feet. I can’t tell up from down. I reel.
He catches me around the shoulders. “Easy.” He walks me back until my calves hit something soft. “Sit. Travel with the voidstone can be disorienting. Especially the first time.”
I sink onto the piece of furniture, which feels like a bed, and inhale slowly, willing myself to calm down. I am dizzy. It’s hard to isolate which of tonight’s events is hitting me hardest, but I suppose the travel through a magic portal opened by a stone might be a large part of it.
By the time I raise my eyes to Alaris, he’s by the hearth striking a flint.
The sparks catch slowly, and a fire crackles to life.
He coaxes it to a gentle blaze with an iron poker.
We don’t have hearths in palace bedrooms, the architecture and marble designed to keep things cool, with torches and braziers lit as needed.
This flame isn’t merely for illumination…it’s cold here. I wrap my arms around myself.
The flickering glow reveals a table, a wardrobe, and a door open to an adjoining bathing room. He rises, his beautiful features sharpened in the contrast between golden warmth and deep shadow.
I’ve been more intimate with him than I’ve ever been with anyone, but this man is very much a stranger. And when my mask came off, things changed. The glamorous lady seeking a night of pleasure from a lecherous lord is gone. I’m grubby, helpless, and indebted, in a strange land.
“I’m going back to Delvos,” he says, offering me the distance I want but haven’t yet asked for. “I need to be seen leaving by carriage tomorrow. You’ll be safe here. The bathing room and wardrobe are stocked for guests. Anything else you need before I go?”
This room is grander than the one I left, but I felt safer in a smaller space with no nooks or crannies for someone to hide.
Then again, my cozy little room wasn’t safe after all. A locked door didn’t keep Norville out.
I glance toward the door.
“Don’t worry. No one will come in. It locks and has a chain.” It’s like he read my thoughts. Or maybe my face is just that easy to interpret. “My only request is that you stay in this room until I return.”
The word “stay” makes my jaw tighten.
He tilts his head. “Why do I get the impression that asking you to stay put made you think of running?”
“You said I could go anywhere I wanted.”
“No one knows I’ve brought you here. My staff might be surprised to find an unknown woman wandering the halls.”
“Would they?” I cross my arms. “From what I hear, plenty of women wander these halls.”
“Not when I’m in Delvos,” he says simply. “Why are you so eager to run? You told me yourself you don’t have anywhere to go.”
A masked man might show up to kill me. The emperor is looking for me. I don’t know if you’re any different from Norville. “That doesn’t give you the right to keep me here.”
“Asked. I asked you to stay here.” He crosses his arms too. “It’s dark. You aren’t dressed for the weather. And the wilderness outside these walls is not safe.”
“Unsafe how?”
“There are things in the shadoward reaches that don’t trouble flameward lands. You don’t know this territory.”
I glower, committing to nothing.
He sighs. “I promise I will help you travel wherever you want to go tomorrow. Just promise me you won’t try to leave in the night. It will be a huge headache.”
“Fine. I won’t leave tonight.”
One side of his mouth ticks up. “Specific.” He reaches into his pocket and pulls out the voidstone.
“I’ll come back after I’m seen leaving by carriage in the morning.
” He taps a ringed finger against the side of the crystal.
“I don’t think I have to remind you not to reveal the existence of this to anyone.
Even in this castle, very few know about this particular family heirloom. ”
I nod, biting back more questions.
“Then get some sleep.”
He slashes the stone through the air, and a crack forms in the world. He gives me a long look I can’t read, then nods, and steps through.
I stare at the spot until my vision blots, as if he’s going to reappear. But staying upright takes more effort than it should. That portal must have done something to me after all, because my limbs are heavy. I sag back against the bed and close my eyes.
On the one hand, I’ve traveled so far in one night even I barely believe it. No one will think to look for me here. Not Norville, not my father’s men, not my masked pursuer. The last will catch up to me eventually, but distance should buy me time.
On the other, I’ve lost my chance at a prophecy. The dreams gave my fears shape, but a prophecy is the only way I can prove the danger is real and get my father’s help. Maybe I should ask Alaris to take me back to Delvos tomorrow to try my luck in a different house…
An image of a lock flipping back the other way flashes across my mind, and I flinch.
The memory forces me off the bed to check that this door is both locked and chained. Just in case, I grab a heavy wooden chair from the table and drag it over. I tilt it back and wedge it under the handle.
Better. That should stop the Norvilles of the world.
But Norville is not what I’m really afraid of.
I know I’m as far from the palace as I could possibly get, and no one could guess I’m here, but my fear isn’t listening to reason. I fetch my knife from my bag on the way back to my bed. I stash it under the pillow, then kick off my boots and lie down fully clothed.
I don’t want to keep running. I want to feel safe. I lift a heavy hand and cover my eyes. My head throbs, my jaw tight.
But exhaustion is stronger than my spinning thoughts, and sleep pulls me under.
For the first night in weeks, I don’t dream.