Page 125 of A Dagger of Ice and Intrigue
Which was fine.
Great, even.
Gave me some space to breathe and think after I’d felt his lips against mine.
So why did I feel a sudden drop in my stomach?
Maybe it was better this way. No awkward glances in the hallways, no trying to ignore him rustling in his bed through the door separating our rooms, no risking ending up in the same room alone. Again.
Just silence and emptiness.
Cold and safe.
“He’s been called there a bunch of times lately,” she said, finally turning her head toward me now that the arrow’s tip wasn’t threatening her jugular. “Something’s brewing.”
What other wretched thing could happen now?
Mrs. Thornbrew rushed to the top of the hill, holding the sides of her skirts up like a shield. Her face was reddened, she’d obviously been running, but her voice was clear and calm as she called out, “You need to come this instant! A package just arrived. From your cousin.”
Chapter
Twenty-Four
ALLIE
Acrate stood in the center of my room, as unremarkable as a wooden box could be. But magic vibrated from it.
It wasn’t just true Protectorate magic, thrumming around and through me.
It was home. Better days. Laughter, sunlight, and loud family dinners.
I closed my eyes, inhaled deeply, and placed my hands on my stomach as my own well of powers stirred. The familiar pulse pulled at me, drawing me closer.
I splayed my hands on top of the crate. No trickery brushed against my skin, no dark magic scratched at my senses.
The doubt was still there–Orion’s bruises on my neck hadn’t fully faded–but I knew Protectorate subterfuge when I saw it.
With a smirk, I ran my finger over the Family Heirlooms label, written in a weird text with too many swirls.
Dara had always been the best among us when it came to runes and glyphs.
The letters shimmered blue, recognizing my touch. The crate shuddered, once, twice, then split at the edges revealing three books hidden within.
Palaverbooks.
With an eager smile, I quickly laid them on my table, next to Evie’s mauve palaver, through which I’d been teaching her to control her powers and learning too much of the Clans’ heinousness. I set them all in a circle around me and opened each carefully, as if I was grasping their hands gently like we’d done as children when we’d stare up at the stars, then sat down, excitement coursing through me.
Underneath the giddiness, a grim sea of worry swirled within me.
I had to tell them about Orion.
How stupid I’d been to trust him and how close to death I’d gotten because of it.
But, first, I wanted to make sure they were alright.
Slowly, ovals of mist rose from the blank pages. Within them, my cousins’ smiling faces shimmered. First Evie’s, with that same open smile she hadn’t lost, thank the gods, then Dax and his mischievous smirk, followed by Dara, with her unshakable gaze, and Clara, whose beautiful face was marred by the deepest frown I’d ever seen on her.
My eyes turned glassy instantly. I’d seen Evie and knew they were all alive and as well as any of us could be with the future of our Clan hanging in the balance, but seeing them breathing, blinking, shifting in their seats, cracked the wall of ice.
