Page 151 of A Storm in Every Heart
The girl says nothing, then before my eyes, she changes.
Her limbs grow longer and she shoots up several inches, her body shifting to fill out the too-large dress. Her dishwater blonde hair darkens and lengthens, and her small eyes grow larger in her skull.
I step back against the wall, alarmed. “What the?—”
“Shh!” Lyra Von Bargen says, shaking out her arms. “Don’t scream or anything, then they’ll know I’m in here.”
I gape at her, and it takes me a long moment to find words.
“You’re a doppler,” I finally blurt out the first thing that comes to mind.
She raises her eyebrows. “Obviously. I wouldn’t have been able to come up here as myself. My father has a dozen guards on the stairs making sure you don’t escape.”
I shake my head in complete and utter disbelief, then blink at her a few more times, trying to pull myself together.
The last time I saw Lyra was from beneath Magnus’s desk in his former office, and before that it was when she was threatening me in the hall outside my guest room. That feels like an entire lifetime ago—no, itwasan entire lifetime ago.
“What are you doing here?” I demand.
“I came to help,” she says. “This is your wedding dress—” she holds out the bundle of white fabric. “—put it on, and I’ll walk you out of here pretending to be a guard.”
“Why would you help me? We were never friends.”
“I know,” she says flatly. “Maybe I feel guilty about that.”
I scoff. “Doubtful.”
“Believe whatever you want,” she says dismissively. “But you’re not going to find anyone else willing to help you so you’d better decide now if you can live with trusting me.”
I shake my head as if to clear it. I need a second to think.
Perhaps I’m feeling a bit numb at the moment, because the shock of seeing Lyra after all this time is quickly dissipating.Even watching her change her appearance right in front of me isn’t as surprising as it feels like it should be. What does shock me, though, is that Lyra would ever want to help me. “I’m not going anywhere with you until you explain yourself.”
“Oh sure, it’s not like we’re in a hurry or anything. Shall I let you braid my hair while we pour our hearts out to each other?”
I scowl. Even as she’s offering to help she sounds a bit aggressive—spiteful, even. “You’re Magnus’s daughter. Why would I believe this isn’t a trap?”
Her face twists in disgust and her eyes flick away from me. She lets out a long sigh. “Fine. You’re the one on the short timeline, not me. What do you want to know?”
My mouth gapes open like a fish. What do I want to know?Everything.
“Where’s Kastian?” I ask.
She winces. “Please don’t ask me that first. I promise I’ll tell you, I just think you should get out of this tower first.”
My heartbeat speeds up, thumping relentlessly against my ribs. “Why?”
“Because where he is won’t change where you are, and in less than an hour a real guard is going to come in here and take you downstairs to marry my father, and then I won’t be able to help you anymore.”
My heart starts pounding faster. Less than an hour? I hadn’t realized this was all happening so soon. I hadn’t realized that it was already too late.
I glance at the window, where the water is still just visible on the horizon, then turn back to Lyra. “I don’t trust you.”
“I wouldn’t expect you to, but I’m not here to hurt you. If I were, I would have done it already, and I would have done it using someone else’s face.”
That’s not a bad point.
“Why would you want to help me?”
