Page 31 of Mistake of Magic
“Actually, I asked whether any quints were severed recently,” Autumn said, dropping her cloak, bag, gloves, and a half-eaten sweet roll on various previously empty surfaces—bringing chaos to a tidy room with preternatural efficiency. “And once I was satisfied that you lot somehow scraped together enough wit to not let that girl from your sight, then I asked after you. Granted, I hadn’t expected to find you back in trainee garb. Good stars. What the bloody hell happened?”
“Excuse me,” Kora said with a polite bow, letting herself out.
“Well?” Autumn invited herself onto the couch, pulling her legs under her as she fixed her sharp eyes on Tye. “If you don’t tell me exactly what’s going on, kitty cat,” she said sweetly, “I’m going to tell Lera that the marks still on your shoulder are a symptom of fae pox.”
Tye grabbed his shirt, pulling it on quickly. “I sent you a message yesterday,” he said through the fabric. He sat down opposite her on the low table. “Which I imagine will be arriving at the Slait palace imminently. But the short answer to your question is that everything that could possibly go wrong either already has or is simply waiting its turn.”
“You’ve been at the Citadel for two and a half days,” Autumn said. “How much trouble could you possibly have gotten yourselves into in two and a half bloody days?”
Tye held up a hand, ticking things off on his fingers as he spoke. “Klarissa made us into rune-bearing trainees on the ridiculous grounds that Lera’s mortality makes us a brand-new quint. Shade mated with Lera and can think with nothing but his cock unless the female is out of the room. Lilac Girl developed magic with an earth-based affinity, which she can only access when it’s convenient, to piss off River—”
“Lera hasn’t developed magic,” Autumn said calmly. “She is human. That’s what I was catching up to tell you. That while Lera has no magic, it doesn’t mean she can’t use or at least bear magic. You may be able to connect the full quint.”
Tye glanced at Shade. “You are right on the connection. We, wellshe... When we faced a school of piranhas... It’s a long story. Why are you staring at my neck?”
Autumn wasn’t just staring. She had risen up on her knees for such a careful examination that Tye was starting to feel like a potential dinner option. Extending her hand, Autumn traced one of the runes tattooed over his jugular. “I’ve seen that mark before,” she said, pulling out one of the leather-bound volumes Kora had carried in. The same book she’d been studying when they were last at the Slait palace, if Tye recalled correctly. At her shooing motion, Tye obediently surrendered his space on the low table, stepping away while Autumn flipped through the earmarked pages. “Yes. Here. Except this is only a theoretical symbol. A story illustration.” She slipped off the couch, heading right out for the door. “Tell the others I’m here and that I’ll see them shortly. I need the library.”
“Of course you do,” Tye muttered at Autumn’s receding back. “Who wouldn’t want a library?”
The female threw a vulgar gesture over her shoulder before stepping out the door.
“Thank the stars she is here,” Tye told Shade, sinking into the couch once the door closed behind Autumn’s lithe form. There were few things in Lunos Tye could count on absolutely, but the fact that River’s sister would take care of the heavy thinking topped the short list. More to the point, after witnessing the small female teaching Coal to read, Tye felt confident in saying there was nothing Autumn couldn’t do.
Except decently cheat at cards. But no one was that perfect.
20
Lera
“What happens next?” I demand, following the silent males back toward our suite. My pulse pounds, the sound of my own rushing blood filling my ears. “What happens at the next bell?”
“Procedural matters,” Coal says. “Nothing of consequence.”
I step in front of Coal, blocking the male’s path. Coal’s eyes, now a flat, hard blue, slide around me to rest somewhere down the hall. I cross my arms. “Horseshit. It’s something of enough consequence that Malikai expected it to provide him immunity.”
“No, he didn’t.” River’s voice is low, his jaw a hard line as he steers me around Coal. “He was simply willing to take a blow in order to trigger one of the penalties. Coal humiliated him when we arrived. Now Malikai will get to watch him be shackled to a whipping post. It was a planned provocation.”
My mouth dries, a gut-churning dread filling my lungs. Phantom shackles clamp over my raw wrists, pain from another place, another world, washing over me.I gasp, shaking myself back to now.
“Whatever silliness you are imagining is incorrect,” Coal says, lengthening his strides. “I’m an immortal—we heal faster than humans. I won’t remember the lashes by tomorrow morning.”
I grip River’s thick wrist, holding him back. Shadows of screams only I can hear echo in my ears. “Coal is lying,” I say as quickly and quietly as I can. “You need to stop this. Have the council do something else. Anything else. Please.”
River sighs, gently tucking a strand of hair behind my ear. “I can’t stop it, Leralynn. I can refuse to administer the penalty, but the council will simply find someone else to do it. But Coal is right—a couple dozen cuts, with Shade’s magic helping, will heal quickly. This is more about the ceremony of it, the reminder of who is in charge. And who is not. A very sharp reminder.”
I release his wrist, my gaze on Coal’s back as the dread in my chest grows to a cold, gaping hole. River is wrong about what it will do to Coal. I know it. Except I can’t explain why. Can’t understand it myself.
“You shouldn’t come to watch,” River says gently. “I don’t imagine Coal would appreciate more of an audience than will gather already. That’s the true damage Malikai was going for—though if I know Coal, the show will be quite anticlimactic.”
Right. Of course. Making a noncommittal noise, I start walking back to the suite.
Shade and Tye meet us at the door, Tye’s attempt to tell us something drowned out by the wolf shifter’s lunge for me.
“Cub,” Shade rasps, his chest heaving as he cups my face with his wide palms. His yellow eyes gaze deep into mine, his thumbs tracing my cheeks with a desperation that makes my chest tighten. For a heartbeat, the world fades but for Shade’s body heat, his scent of earth and rain. Shade braces his forehead against mine, the need inside him echoing through my blood. Shade draws a slow, desperate breath, like a man seeing water after days of drought. “Cub,” he repeats as a gentle pulse of magic ripples through my flesh, making the scrapes along my skin tingle and pull until my ache dissolves and a relieved breath finally escapes Shade’s lungs.
“I thought you were leaving that to me,” River says dryly.
Shade pulls away, his shoulders tense. “I...”
