Chapter 24
The aviary door groans shut behind me. The hawks stir on their perches.
I hold the stone up to the moonlight filtering through the high windows. The black facets flash, the silver stars gleaming faintly. It’s smaller than I remember. The pointed end is sharp against my fingertip.
With this as an exit strategy, the safest place for me is back at the Sunrise Palace. I don’t want to face my father, but it’s better than spending the rest of my life running from his reach. I’ll return to the palace, take my punishment, and keep this at the ready for when the masked man arrives.
I purse my lips and copy the motion Alaris made in Delvos, swinging it through the air.
Nothing happens.
I imagine my destination, picturing the lace and marble of my bedroom, and slash it again. I throw it in a wider arc, willing the air to split open, willing a gate to appear. I try again, slower. Faster. Facing a different direction.
Come on. Come on.
Nothing.
I shake the stone as if brute force will coax the magic from it. The hawks rustle and click overhead. He made it look simple. The mask I borrowed on Somnus was simple. So why won’t this work?
The cord is still attached…when he used it, it was loose.
It’s too dark in here to figure out how to detach it.
And there might be some other trick, something with the pattern of the stars, or a special way I’m supposed to hold it.
I’ll have to experiment later. For now, I need to leave.
I might not have long until Alaris notices it’s gone.
The stone itself would have been my fastest exit, but my next best option is a horse. I put on my cloak, shoulder my bag, and dash for the stables.
Horses shift and snort as I ease the stable door open. They’re packed two to a stall, with more tethered in the central corridor. I don’t want to take a horse from any of the townspeople, but I know Alaris will ensure they’re all taken care of.
I shove thoughts of him out of my mind.
I pad toward a small mare near the door. She huffs as I approach, but she doesn’t try to kick or nip.
“Easy girl,” I murmur.
I don’t know how to saddle my own horse, but I’ve seen it done.
A saddle hangs next to her on a beam. It’s surprisingly heavy, but I manage to hoist it onto her back.
My fingers fumble the buckles in the dark, reaching under her.
I’m too full of adrenaline to be as cautious as I usually would be getting this close to her legs.
I put one foot in the stirrup and try to mount, only to have the saddle slide sideways. “Oof,” I exclaim as I land on one leg, my ankle stinging.
“Easy girl,” a voice says from behind me.
I trip sideways, foot still tangled in the stirrup, and barely catch myself on a post. Splinters bite into my palms and I wince.
“Going somewhere?” Alaris stands in the stable doorway, arms crossed. The lantern flickering above him throws half his face into shadow.
I’m caught. “I’m sorry.” It’s the only thing I can think to say.
“Sorry for what exactly?” he asks, tone flat. “Stealing from me? Lying to me? Or breaking the only promise I ever asked you to make? Because this is disappearing.”
My jaw locks. There is nothing I can say to defend myself. “I’m sorry, Alaris. I really am. But unless you stop me, I’m still leaving. Right now.”
I pull my stinging hands off the post and turn my back on him. I begin tightening the too-loose straps on the saddle.
“A horse thief too, I see.” His voice is a dangerous purr.
I don’t turn around. I thread buckles and tug leather with fingers that won’t stop shaking. I’m not going to stop until he stops me. My panic gives me no other choice but to keep moving.
“Why?”
His quiet question hangs unanswered. I would almost rather he scream at me and call for guards. A buckle catches and I wiggle it back into place, then test the tension.
“Ly.” He’s closer now. I can feel him at my back. “Why?”
“What does it matter why?” My eyes are burning. “I’m a thief. I’m a liar.”
I put my foot in the stirrup and swing my leg over the saddle.
His hands close around my waist before I can settle my weight. “Hey!” I shout, but his grip is too firm to fight. He lifts me off the horse and lowers me to the floor. As soon as my boots hit straw, I spin, shoving at his chest. “Let me go.”
He doesn’t budge an inch.
“Let me go.” My plea is high and thin. I pull against his hold. “Please.”
“Why?”
“She knows.”
“Who knows?”
“Drina,” I blurt. “She’s not just a servant. She’s a spy for the palace, and…” My words die in my throat as I realize how much I’ve already said.
Something cold flickers behind his eyes. “What would a spy from the palace want with you?”
I bite down hard on the truth. “It doesn’t matter. I just have to leave.”
His jaw sets. “And where exactly will you go?”
“Anywhere that isn’t here.”
“You can’t ride off into the dark, Ly. You don’t even know how to saddle a horse.”
“Keep your horse too, then. I’ll walk.”
“You have no provisions, no map, and your cloak isn’t warm enough.”
“Look, just…” Every moment I spend arguing gives my father’s soldiers more time to close the distance. I dig into the pouch at my belt, fingers closing around the crystal I spent all these weeks searching for. I hold the voidstone between us. “Here. Have it back. Just let me go.”
He doesn’t reach for it.
“Take it.” I shove it against his chest, pressing it to the spot I pulled it from under his shirt earlier.
His hands don’t lift off my ribs, not even twitching to accept it.
“You’ll never see me again,” I beg. “Letting me walk away will be easier than keeping me prisoner.”
“You’re right.” His words are slow. “It would be easier.”
My heart pangs once at his cold reply. What we shared earlier is gone. I ruined it, and I don’t know what to expect from the Alaris who now sees me as a thief.
“Then let me go,” I say.
After another excruciating pause, he nods. “You can leave.” His hold doesn’t loosen. “After I correct some misconceptions. Starting with the voidstone. Although your efforts to get it were…memorable…I’m afraid they were wasted.”
The air behind him splits open, bright at the edges, black at its center. Before I can make a sound, he pulls me against him and steps backward into the gate. Void swallows us.
I grip the front of his shirt because there’s nothing else to hold.
My feet hit solid ground. The gate crackles shut. We’re in his candlelit bedroom.
I wrench free and stumble away until I hit the doorframe. I clutch the stone tight in my fist despite the splinters digging farther into my palm.
He isn’t trying to take it from me. He doesn’t seem at all worried about me holding it.
And he just opened a gate.
My suspicion grows. I dangle the voidstone out to one side, but his eyes stay on mine. I let it drop to the ground. It rolls.
He doesn’t even glance at it.
Realization sinks into my chest. “That doesn’t do anything, does it?”
He shakes his head slowly. “If I was ever forced to use my power in front of others, a spelled object is easier to explain.”
My breath shudders out. The stone is just a cover. A ruse to help a lord hide his true power. An astounding power. I have never heard of arastorians wielding such a gift. The whole line must have committed to keeping it a secret.
No wonder he’s not angrier that I stole from him. It’s a betrayal, but I didn’t take something that mattered to him.
He steps closer. My hand fumbles for the door handle. My pulse is hammering in my throat.
I can’t outrun him.
It won’t stop me from trying.
“I’m not going to hurt you, Ly.” His voice is low and steady. “As I said, you can leave, after I clear up a few more misconceptions.”
“Misconceptions or lies?”
“I don’t think you are the one to lecture me about lies.” He enunciates every word as he closes the distance slowly. His fingers find my forearm, light, deliberate, and slide down to my wrist. My skin prickles in the wake of his touch. He eases my hand off the door handle and examines it.
“You can leave after you listen,” he says, his eyes on my palm. “Will you listen?”
I nod. Even though my heart is pounding, I don’t think he’ll hurt me. Plus, I don’t really have another choice.
“Then wait here.”
A black, crackling line appears, and in a single breath, he disappears into it. I stumble forward, not realizing I was leaning into him. I press back against the wood, exhaling hard. He’s even faster at opening gates when he’s not pretending to use the stone.
I look at the crystal on the ground. Black facets, silver stars, the pointed tip that was going to cut a portal in the air and carry me to safety. It’s just a rock now. I grimace.
I barely have time to compose myself before he reappears.
He lifts my hand again and produces a pair of silver tweezers. I tug away when I realize what he’s doing.
“Don’t fight me on this, Ly. I’m not in the mood.” His tone is controlled. I almost wish he would yell at me. His quiet attention and care are far more painful than the hot splinters in my palm.
But my survival instincts kick in for once around him, and I stay completely still.
He angles the tweezers carefully and pulls the first splinter free. I hiss through my teeth. It comes out with a drop of blood, and its length makes me queasy. His eyes search mine briefly before he goes for the next one, his fingers sure, his grip firm enough that I can’t pull away.
It’s easier if I don’t watch, so I study his face. His eyes are heavy lidded, and intent on my palm. His earring sways as he angles his head.
“Second misconception,” he says without even looking up at me. “Drina is not here for you.”
“What?” I startle at the sudden shift in conversation.
“You were right. She is a spy from the palace,” he says simply. “But she’s not here for you.”
“But you don’t…how could you possibly know that?”
“Because she’s here for me. So if she’s the reason you’re leaving”—his eyes meet mine, then drop to my lips, then return to my hand—“you might reconsider.”
I blink at him. I don’t even feel the next few splinters he pulls.
Could Alaris be right? Was Drina in the woods reporting on…him? But why?