Page 50 of Court of Lies and Deceit

“Show me.”

He drags a hand through his hair and then jerks his chin towards the short wall where the door is located. “You’re gonna wanna stand over there.”

When only Jocasta starts towards the wall, he flicks a glance at the rest of us. “You too.”

We all lurch into motion and hurry towards the indicated wall. Alistair follows at a more leisurely pace. Once we have reached it, we all stand so that we are looking at the short wall on the other side of the rectangular room.

Alistair draws in a breath, and his eyes begin to glow. Then he shoves outwards with his hands.

Yellow and orange flames roar across the sand, reaching two thirds of the room.

Jocasta’s jaw drops.

Heat washes over us as Alistair keeps the fire going for another few seconds. Then he releases the grip on his magic and his eyes stop glowing again.

“Malachi’s balls,” Jocasta blurts out as she turns to gape at him. “That’s your full power?”

He blinks in surprise and then frowns at her. “Full? That wasn’t even half.”

She just stares at him, her mouth still open. Then she spins towards Isera, her eyes wild. “And you?”

Isera gives her a cool look for a moment. Then she calls up her magic and flicks her wrist.

A rushing, clinking, crackling sound echoes between the pale stone walls as she fills the entire room before us with ice. Then with another flick of her wrist, she makes it disappear. Crossing her arms, she leans back against the wall and just holds Jocasta’s gaze with impassive eyes.

Jocasta drags in a shuddering breath. Raising her hands, she rakes them through her long white hair while she turns to stare at the now once more empty room before us. The rest of us exchange a glance.

Then a wide smile spreads across her face, and she lets out a laugh so genuine that I can feel it all the way into my soul. Turning to look at us, she grins.

“I’m going to be so fucking rich.”

CHAPTER TWENTY

The heavenly scent of baking bread and grilled meat drifts through the air and fills my lungs as I draw in a deep breath. Above us, the fresh green leaves rustle in the lone tree as a gentle breeze sweeps across the market square. The other patrons at this outdoor tavern cast suspicious glances in our direction, but we are already sitting as far away from them as possible.

“Took three tries to get them to accept our order,” Lyra says as she plops down on the wooden chair next to Alistair. “Even though we paid up front.”

Galen, who claims the final remaining seat, rolls his eyes at her. “Can you blame them, though? We were literally sent to kill them every time one of them set so much as one foot outside the wards.”

“Still,” she huffs as she tosses her wavy brown hair, pulled up in a ponytail, back behind her shoulder. “It’s rude to let people starve.”

“You’re not starving.”

“Well, if I don’t…”

I tune out their good-natured squabbling as I instead study the market square before us. It’s the same one that we saw fromthe windows of the training room earlier. We had planned to return to our house once training was done, but Jocasta gave us some money and told us to go out and eat dinner and enjoy the city tonight.

Since I have never been allowed to own, let alone handle, money before, I had no idea how to use it without looking like a fool. And neither did Alistair and Isera, of course. So we sent Lyra and Galen to order for our entire table. Though they apparently had trouble doing so for a different reason.

The massive walls of the grand arena loom above us, and I glance up at the windows of our training hall again, even though Jocasta is no longer there.

Once she learned of our powers, her entire demeanor changed. Gone was the amused and slightly mocking tone and the smug superiority. Instead, she began taking us seriously in a way that she never had before. And also rewarding us. Hence this dinner.

I still haven’t been able to truly grasp that we are apparently much more powerful magic users than the average Unseelie fae. On the one hand, it makes sense because the Icehearts have been breeding us for millennia to create people with strong magic for them to drain. Of course that would make our magical bloodlines stronger than the Unseelie fae, who have just been living normally and having as many children as they like.

But at the same time, if I’m supposed to be stronger than Jocasta, then why can she create emotions from nothing while I cannot? Is there something wrong with me? Despite having more raw power, am I somehow defective?

“Are you okay?”

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