Page 29 of Empire of Flame and Thorns

Yanking the door open, I stride out into the corridor outside.

And slam right into someone’s chest.

A huff sounds as the guy stumbles back a step.

I suck in a sharp breath, expecting to find Draven’s furious eyes glaring down at me.

But when I raise my gaze, I’m not met by the dragon commander’s odd one-colored eyes. Instead, a pair of eyes that are a mix of blue and gold blink at me in surprise. I take a step back, trying to reorient myself.

A fae man with long red hair stares back at me. He has one hand raised, as if he was just about to knock on my door. After another few seconds, he seems to realize that his hand is stillraised, because he gives his head a quick shake as if to clear it and then lowers his hand.

“Sorry,” he says. A sheepish smile blows across his face. “I was just about to knock on your door but then you flew out of it so fast that I didn’t have time to back away.”

I clear my throat a bit self-consciously. “Yeah, I’m sorry. I, uhm…” Trailing off, I study his face while running through all the names and magical abilities from the test earlier. At last, a memory clicks into place. “It’s Fenriel, right? The guy with the hawk?”

The smile on his face gets even bigger and brighter. “Yes, that’s right.”

His eyes begin to glow, and a second later, a large white hawk appears on his shoulder. It ruffles its wings and then bumps its beak against the side of Fenriel’s head. He strokes the hawk’s feathers affectionately and then nudges its chin.

“This is Talon,” he explains, and I can hear the pride in his voice as he talks about his hawk. “He has been with me ever since I manifested my magic back when I was a kid.” After flashing his hawk another smile, he turns back to me and nods. “And you’re Selena, right? The one who had to deal with Draven Ryat instead of Imar.”

“Yeah, that’s me.”

“That was insane. I never thought I’d see him do something like that.” He furrows his brows slightly. “Though I still can’t figure out how you did it. What kind of magic do you have?”

Dread fills my stomach. I thought that he already knew, and that he was being nice to me anyway. But apparently, he missed what happened at breakfast. I swallow. I really don’t want to answer. But hiding it will only make it worse.

So I keep my voice neutral as I reply, “Emotion magic.”

Squeezing my hand into a fist, I brace myself for his reaction. For that moment when he understands what that means, andsubconsciously takes a step back so that he’s not standing too close. For that moment when distrust flickers in his eyes. For that moment when this goes from being a pleasant conversation to a quick goodbye.

Fenriel raises his eyebrows.

I steel myself.

“That’s so cool!” he says, a wide smile on his face.

For a few seconds, I just stare at him. Completely dumbfounded. Cool? No one has ever said that my magic iscoolbefore.

Since I can’t seem to unscramble my brain fast enough, the only thing that makes it out of my mouth is, “Uhm… thanks.”

“Anyway, as I was saying, I was just on my way over here to knock on your door,” he simply continues, as if my head isn’t still spinning. “So here’s the thing. When I got back, I found this really strange package on my bed. There was a note inviting me to a ball tonight and also some really fancy clothes that I’m supposed to wear. And I got kind of suspicious that it was a trap or something, so I just wanted to see if someone else had gotten it too.”

My mind finally snaps back into the present. Giving my head a quick shake, I clear out the final remnants of shock and then nod vigorously. “Yes, I did too. That’s why I was hurrying out of my room. I wanted to see if someone else had gotten it too.”

“Oh, okay, good. That’s good. Then it’s not a trap at least.” He cocks his head, a contemplative expression on his face, and absentmindedly pets his hawk again. “I wonder what that’s about though. A ball. It seems kind of… odd.”

“It’s their way of showing us that they own us,” a new voice suddenly says.

Both Fenriel and I jump in surprise and then whip around to face the source of the voice. Lavendera, the woman with tree magic, has appeared from the bathing chamber at the end of thehall. I stare at her. I didn’t even hear her open the door, let alone walk towards us. Apparently, Fenriel didn’t either.

Lavendera just continues moving towards us, seemingly oblivious to our shock.

“They’re hosting a ball and giving us beautiful clothes to wear and delicious food to eat in order to show us that they have the ability to make our lives better,” she says. She meets our eyes as she comes to a halt in front of us. “They do it so that we will know that theycando all that if they want to. That they can abolish the one meal system and can remove the restrictions on clothing and goods. And that they simplychoosenot to.”

“How do you know that?” Fenriel asks, his eyebrows raised in surprise.

Her eyes take on a faraway look, and she falls silent. Fenriel and I exchange a quick glance as Lavendera just continues to stare unseeing at the white stone wall behind us for another few seconds. Then she blinks. Repeatedly. And her brain apparently starts working again.

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