Page 8 of The Stygian Crown

“I don’t think I’ve thanked you properly for saving my life, by the way.”

“You wouldn’t have made it to me if Logan hadn’t cast a blood spell on you. A very dangerous and forbidden spell, by the way.”

“Forbidden? Why?” She could recall the sweet copper taste of his blood in her mouth, the surge of warmth after he’d drawn the rune on her chest, but everything after was darkness.

“The sanguinata. Blood binding. He gave you his blood then bound it with yours, letting the power in his blood invigorate you.”

Kara swallowed. “Is it…permanent?”

“I don’t know.”

“What makes it so dangerous? I’ve noticed no ill effects.”

“Your blood could’ve been incompatible, causing your body to reject it. Or if you had died while his blood was still in your system, it could have weakened and killed him.”

“Oh.” Logan had risked that for her? Had he known it was a possibility?

Serena paused, gazing out at the sunset blanketing the distant hills. Her horse lowered his head to grab a chomp of grass. “Do you want to see him?”

“Of course, but I've no idea where he is. He didn’t deign to share that information.”

“There might be a way. Come to my workshop tonight.”

Kara followedSerena to her workshop after they put the horses away. The grooms offered to take care of them, but Kara enjoyed the routine of unsaddling and brushing down a horse. It helped her center and calm herself.

Serena’s workshop was in one of the palace’s seven spires, atop an endless spiral staircase that reminded Kara of her old room at Raven’s Rest. The last step opened into the workshop, opposite an arched window that gazed out over the city. The spires, lit by the moon and stars, were breathtaking to behold from this height. Why couldn’t she have been born in a place as beautiful as this? Where the curse was so omnipresent that it seemed less a burden. Kara leaned out the window and looked down at the drop below—at the sheer height she was at—and imagined what it’d feel like to ride a rope pulley all the way to the ground. She could almost feel the wind rushing through her hair.

Kara turned back to Serena, who was reaching on her tip-toes to retrieve a plain-looking black bowl from a tall shelf. The room was lined with potions and crystals and weapons etched with runes, but despite all the things in it, it didn’t feel cluttered. Everything had its place.

Serena brought the bowl over to the sink beside Kara. The inside of the bowl was carved with complicated, interlocking runes. Most runes Kara had seen were simple, like the ones etched to the bottom of her bathtub or stitched into Logan’s cloak, but this looked like someone had knotted twenty runes together and arranged them in a symmetrical pattern.

Serena filled the bowl with warm water and placed it on the table in the center of the room. “A word to the wise regarding this bowl. Don’t jump to conclusions. Now, look into it and think of the person you want to see. Focus on a strong, positive memory of them.”

Serena stepped away to her work desk, and Kara stared into the water. She pictured Logan on the last night they’d been together, when he’d been content to lie beside her and trace the lines of her body with his fingertips, eyes dark with emotion.

The water grew cloudy, then an image wavered on its surface.

It was Logan, his skin sun-kissed and jaw thick with stubble. Kara resisted the urge to caress his image in the water. Wherever he was, the sun hadn’t set yet. It wavered low on the horizon. The steady bob of his frame was consistent with someone riding a horse. The image in the water shifted, drawing back, and Kara frowned. A beautiful woman in blue silks rode beside him, laughing at something he said. She curled a possessive hand around Logan’s bicep and pointed to something in the distance.

Kara tasted blood. She’d bitten her tongue, hard. There was something about the image that was nagging at her. The black horse the woman was riding looked familiar. Logan and the woman turned, and the horse’s profile came into view. It was Drum. She was ridingherhorse!

Kara raked her fingers through the pool of water, distorting the image. It faded with a tingle.

“Shouldn't stick your hand in things you don't understand,” Serena tsked.

“Does this bowl show the present?”

Serena nodded.

“I’ve seen enough.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

Kara regretted coming here, regretted asking the question she’d feared to have answered. She was risking her neck at the palace to get back in the clan’s good graces, entirely out of her element, and he was gallivanting around goddess knows where with some woman. A woman ridingherhorse. Kara had never felt jealousy like this—this ragged clawing at the edges of her stomach. She should have made Logan clarify exactly what they were to each other before he left, but when he’d asked her to wait for him, she’d assumed that meant he’d wait for her, too.

Kara took a few deep breaths, trying to calm herself. It was only a hand, only a horse. She was overreacting. It could be entirely innocent, and he deserved an opportunity to explain himself.

---