Page 31 of Witchlight
Safi twirled a hand. “Clearly you’re itching to do so.”
“Do not underestimate the Raider King. He amassed incredible power in a short amount of time because I let my attention get distracted.”
“You meanIdistracted you.” Safi lifted an eyebrow.
“Yes.” A bounce of Henrick’s shoulder. “Whoever leaked the secret of your Truthwitchery so that it would reach my ear…” He opened his hands. “It helped the Raider King these past months.”
Indeed.Safi’s nostrils flared. She was certain the leaker had been Leopold. Why he’d done such a thing, however—that question still plagued her. Polly had worn the face of a friend for over a decade, carefully dancing around her magic…
Then he’d let his masks fall and his treachery land.
Just thinking of him made Safi’s head hurt twice as much as before. She cracked her neck. Worked her jaw. Then said with an air of nonchalance that wasn’t at all true: “Good-bye, Henrick. Do try to remember where that shipbuilding agreement is.”
“May I have another book?” he asked hastily, as if this was the greatest potential tragedy in his near future. “I will likely finish this latest stack tomorrow—”
“Don’t push your luck.” Safi glared. “And if you really need something to do, then try considering all the lives you’ve ruined. Then ponder howvery lucky you are to have survived this long when almost every person in this lodge wants to remove your head from its shoulders.”
“Ah,” he replied.
“Ah,” she agreed, and now, pleased she’d said enough, Safi walked away. The locks magically bolted shut behind her. The Hell-Bards resumed their perfect square around the door.
FIFTEEN
Caden was not at his post outside Safi’s bedroom.
On the one hand, Safi was glad for this—it would actually be easier to confront him outside the lodge. On the other hand, she was furious. Truly,furious.He dared to boss her about, but then he was the one sneaking out as soon as he had the chance?
She knew exactly where he was.
Through the veil of a snow-dusted evening, she could just make him out, riding at a brisk canter ahead.Ah, the hypocrisy,Safi thought as she nudged Dandelion faster—although never fast enough to catch up.
They were two miles west of the lodge when Caden finally left the road, as Safi knew he would. Cold bit her face, while snow gathered on her lashes. Her fingers and toes ached with numbness. But she did not slow, because Caden did not slow.
Another quarter of an hour passed before the first snarls of the Solfatarra reached Safi’s nose, strong in stench and barbed with acid. Another five minutes, and the acid was thick enough to choke. Her eyes watered. The Solfatarra’s sulfuric edge must be near…
Yes, there it was. If she squinted, she could just see a pallid fog erasing the forest and killing all it touched. And there was Caden too, no longer mounted but instead striding on foot toward it.
In seconds, the fog swallowed him.
Safi hopped off Dandelion in a wide clearing where gray sky frowned. Nearby lay Leopold’s ruined flying machine in splintered pieces. Snow covered what little had not been scavenged for wood and sailcloth. Soon enough, snow and the need for kindling would decompose it entirely.
Safi had come here since the crash, of course. The Bloodwitch had too, searching for two Hell-Bard scents he’d never found. So why Caden thought he might have better luck, why he kept insisting on walking into that acid fog…
Safi didn’t understand.
Liar,her magic frizzed.You would do the same for Iseult. You would do the same for Caden.
After roping Dandelion beside Caden’s horse—in the shelter of a towering pine—she marched to the flying machine’s corpse. It was on that Windwitched invention that Safi had realized Leopold couldn’t be trusted. She’d had inklings before, of course, but it was only upon theEridysithat she’d realized just how much he was not on her side.
Her fingers fisted. How clever Leopold must have thought himself, bringing Safi and the Hell-Bards to his workshop. Showing them an invention therealEridysi must have helped him design a thousand years ago, when he’d been the Rook King.
She hated him. Gods below, shehatedhim.
Footsteps stomped at the edge of her hearing. She whirled about right as Caden coalesced from the fog. He aimed for the pine tree with the horses. Then paused when he spotted Dandelion. Moments later, his gaze found Safi.
They stared at each other. He was covered head to toe in scarves that now bore holes, and a pair of lenses protected his eyes. She was covered simply in snow.
“Well?” she called.
