Page 205 of A Liar's Twisted Tongue

Tripping in the snow and unable to hold up my dress, I pull my hand from Lucian’s and pull the dress over my head, holding it under my arm as we run. I focus on the heat from the adrenaline and not the chilling cold of the snow as it falls on my bare shoulders.

I trip again, this time falling to my knees, and Lucian drops to me, urging me to get up, but my eyes are dead set on the soldiers. My mind dead set on the fire in my lungs as it travels out of me, onto the snow, and straight for them.

A rush like no other. It may be sinister to laugh, but I can’t stop it when I see the faces of the soldiers as they realize they won’t be taking my life. Not today.

Not tomorrow.

The fire spreads in front of them like a wall, and their shadows wrap around my flame, trying to subdue it. But it’s useless.

My power is inescapable.

I get to my feet; white-hot fire flows in place of my blood, and I run again, the remnants of my power keeping me going. The chilling snow is no longer cold at all.

We make it to where we portaled in from and I step into my dress. Without a word, Lucian steps behind me, tying the corset. Then I feel the tugging of my hair.

“Are you braiding my hair?” I ask, but I’d know this feeling anywhere, from the number of times my mom has done the same.

“Why?” he whispers. “Does that surprise you?”

I’m silent for a moment. “Yeah.”

“Well,” he says, pulling the braid over my shoulder. “It’s not very good, but seeing as I ruined your last one, I felt I owed it to you.”

When he’s in front of me again, I say, “Is that why you tied my corset too?”

He shrugs with a smile like we have all the time in the worlds. “I did untie it.”

Heat rushes my cheeks, and I can’t imagine he can see the redness in the dim light, but even after having his lips on my body, I still don’t want to risk it.

“To Lorucille?” I ask.

His face falls. “No. I have to go back to Visnatus. Lilac’s still there.”

So, this is where we part.

“Then I have to tell you something.” I didn’t want to tell anyone. Didn’t want them to be able to chalk it up to me murdering four people. But someone other than me needs to know. “Arcanes attacked me the night that Leiholan lost his leg.”

He steps back, his eyes going wide while he stares at me, and I fight the urge to cover my face.

“What?” I whisper.

“That’s why the corenths were attacking,” he says in a hushed tone. “They were breaking the wards for the Arcanes.”

The pieces put themselves in place.

“You think they’re going to attack the school?” I ask.

“Entirely,” he says.

“But why would they?” I just want to go home. And they want me, if the thing that Eleanora became was right. If my eyes are any consolation. “Like, what good would it do them anyway?”

“Good?” Lucian looks appalled. “These things aren’t good. Their actions don’t have to benefit them if they destroy us. That’s all they want. They’re harbingers of chaos.”

Funny, that’s exactly how I described myself to Leiholan after I killed Breck.

I step back, and the action doesn’t go unnoticed by him. “Whatever you choose,” he taps his temple, “I’m with you here.”

Looking at the ground, I say, “You know.”

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