Page 70 of Awry
I don’t say that part out loud.I have no proof, and I’m a little shocked that my aunt would have tied her mage to her so tightly.Even chosen mates shouldn’t die when their crux passes into the After.Except … maybe a stronger binding would have been to the benefit of the mage?Lending her a longer-than-normal life span and maybe even a power boost?
“They were … lovers, then,” I murmur.“Essence bound.”
Something oddly charged fills the space between Rath and me — as if I’m again picking up his emotions, though I’m definitely not empathetic.He rumbles doubtfully, “You didn’t know?”
“Why would I be surprised if I knew?”
Rath narrows his eyes at me, his gaze burning with distrust.And something else I still can’t figure out.
Doc Z steps around Rath in the doorway and hustles into the room, some kind of diagnostic device already in hand.I shuffle to the side, but don’t straighten from my crouch.I trace my gaze over the room again, willing the threads to weave together.Only in my mind, though.I don’t have the power to manipulate the past in such a fashion.
The scrying, the brew, the … timing?
“She’s been gone for a while,” Doc says quietly, her head bowed as she deciphers the readings she’s captured with her device.“Longer than it looks.”
“Three weeks,” I say.
She looks at me sharply.“Yes.”
“How do you know?”Rath asks.
I ignore him, continuing to question Doc.“Heart attack?”
She nods.“Followed by a system-wide shutdown.I would have thought a stroke …” She deliberately runs her gaze across the body, calling attention to the way the witch is sprawled on the floor.
I understand.A stroke would have dropped her in place, but she should have … might have … struggled more … while suffering a heart attack.
I just nod, absorbing the confirmation and keeping my mouth shut.
“If it looks like a fucking stroke,” Rath growls, “then why did you think it was a heart attack, Zaya?”
I don’t answer, but I do straighten and cross back toward the door.And him.“Is your mage on the way?Leaving essence brew to puddle and mix while the mage’s wards degrade after her death is —”
“I know,” he snaps, clearly paying my intransigence back with sulky sullenness.
I level my gaze at him.And impressively, he doesn’t wilt under it.Though he doesn’t push me any further either, so he is capable of reading and correctly interpreting warning signs.
“Harlee is on her way,” he says begrudgingly.
“Cayley’s mage?”
He snorts.“Not anymore.”
I just hum.
That gets me a raised eyebrow and a quirk of a lip from Rath.
And suddenly he’s … he feels like … mine.As if we really do know each other …
“You know differently?”he asks quietly, his voice a playful purr like we’re sharing a secret.A secret we’ve shared before.Or a type of secret we’ve shared before.About the things I sometimes justknow?
I swear to the universe that I actually sway into him for a moment.Enough so that concern crinkles the edges of his amber-flecked eyes, and he catches my hip, barely touching me.
“Zaya?”he asks, not even a hint of the playful purr or his former supreme pissiness in the question.
“Tired,” I murmur.
“Doc?”Rath prompts.“You got another one of those energy brews?”
