Page 65 of The Turncoat King

The meeting broke up, and he went outside to the campfire to find something to eat before saddling his horse.

“Were you with Ava last night?” Dak stood beside him as he scooped up hot, spicy meat with warm flatbread. “We were worried when we couldn’t find you.”

“I was.” Luc glanced at him. “I’ll let you know next time.” He hadn’t said anything before he’d gone looking for her because he hadn’t been sure of his welcome, and when she’d let him inside her tent, he’d been so relieved he hadn’t wanted to give her even a moment to change her mind.

“Did you check on Revek?” he asked.

Dak nodded. “He woke up when he heard us arrive to visit him, and we stayed until Dorea shooed us out. He seems a lot better.”

“We’ll have to question him later.” Luc felt the ball of cold suspicion and anger ignite again in his gut. What had Revek known about Haslia? He was one of the most suspicious people Luc knew. His time in the camps had made him close to paranoid, and yet, a Kassian spy had been sharing pillows with him.

It seemed unbelievable.

Dak grunted in response. “Maybe Massi shouldn’t be there.”

“Where shouldn’t I be?”

They both turned, found Massi standing behind them, eyes narrowed.

“To interrogate Revek.” Dak spoke bluntly.

Massi closed her eyes. “You’re wondering about Haslia? About how much he knew?”

“Have you ever known anyone as cautious as Rev? And he misses a Kassian spy right under his nose?”

Massi sighed. “She cast a spell on him, didn’t she? Something to make him sick?”

Luc tilted his head. “She rubbed an oil on his cheek. Ava noticed how sick he was suddenly getting, noticed the oil and got Dorea to wipe it off, and that’s when he started to improve.”

Massi hunched her shoulders. “She saved his life.”

Luc said nothing. He didn’t need to.

“If Haslia enspelled him to try to kill him, maybe she befuddled him with spells to stop him realizing what she was.” Massi’s mouth formed a stubborn line.

Luc gave a reluctant nod of agreement. It was possible.

“I heard Haslia was the one spreading the stories about you being enspelled by a woman.” Dak rubbed the back of his neck. “Rafe started getting suspicious of her yesterday when she overstepped a bit. I’m assuming that’s why she decide to cut her losses.”

“Yes.” Luc swallowed the last of his breakfast. “And then either she or one of her allies tried to burn Revek alive when her first spell didn’t work. And Ava saved him again.”

He went cold at the memory of Ava standing frozen, cloak alight, tent burning around her, and suppressed a shudder.

As he went to saddle his horse, he thought about what Ava had said last night.

Anyone could have a cloak like hers, if they had the money or the connections to get hold of one.

But he knew now he could sense someone hiding behind such a spell casting, and that gave him some comfort.

Also, he’d only sensed it in the camps, and when Ava had been hiding.

Something like that working in a cloak was rare. Someone with Ava’s ability was rare.

No wonder the Queen’s Herald had kept her locked away.

And now her cloak was gone, he recalled. Destroyed.

As he and the others galloped across the plain toward the traders’ caravan, he wondered if they had a cloak for sale there, and if he could buy one for her as a gift.

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