Page 6 of Silver & Smoke
‘Can you come with me?’
‘I need to speak with Wren.’ He was already pushing his way towards her. In that moment, he didn’t care what she’d agreed to with Lucian. He wasn’t going to let this happen. He’d burn the Devereux name to the ground before he did.
‘Now’s not the time,’ Wilder cut in, giving him a shove towards the door. ‘Thea’s got her.’
Sure enough, Thea, the Shadow of Death, was standing shoulder to shoulder with the future Queen of Delmira. Neither sister so much as glanced in his direction, and to Torj’s frustration,Dessa was pulling him away from them. He didn’t want to let Wren out of his sight. The last time he’d done that, she’d wound up engaged to the fucking Lord of Larkwood Valley.
Trust me, she had begged.
At last, Torj gave in. It would do no good to make a scene – well, more of one than he’d already made. He didn’t speak as Dessa took him to one of the workshops on the level below, with Wilder following quietly on their heels.
Night had well and truly fallen outside, but there was no end in sight to this awful day. Torj felt wrung out. As though he had experienced every emotion on the spectrum in a short space of time and was now in some sort of daze. So much so that he paid no attention to his surroundings, until Dessa pricked his finger with a sharp pin.
Snatching his hand back, he shot her a glare. ‘What was that for?’
Dessa didn’t seem fazed by his tone. Instead, she grabbed his hand again, squeezing the tip of his finger until a bead of blood formed. ‘I told you, we need to determine what poison was used so we can counter it. We need samples to work with—’
‘I feel fine,’ Torj ground out.
‘Well, you will,’ Dessa told him, pressing his finger into a shallow dish, smearing his blood on the fine glass and repeating the motion in another. ‘For a while, anyway. From what I know and from what Wren told me, it’s something slow-releasing, something you won’t feel until it’s too late.’
Just like Silas’s strategy, Torj thought.Infiltrating slowly, corrupting from within, until the shadow magic has spread too far to stop. He exchanged a grim look with Wilder. ‘Great.’
‘Look on the bright side: you’re in the best possible place to be poisoned,’ his fellow Warsword offered unhelpfully.
‘He’s right,’ Dessa added. ‘Wren believes the roses might be the key to your cure too. I just need to get a few samples for us to study. Then you can be on your way out of Drevenor—’
‘What are you talking about?’ he interrupted.
Wilder replied this time. ‘Our orders from Audra are to investigate the villages outside of the city. To gather information on the numbers of the People’s Vanguard, to determine what sort of foothold they have with the common people.’
‘You mean I won’t get to see Wren tonight?’ Torj blinked, not even feeling the pin prick his finger this time.
‘’Fraid not,’ Wilder said with a note of apology.
Torj was ready to throw the workbench through a window. ‘She said she would explain, or that Kipp would.’
‘And she will,’ Dessa reassured him. ‘Just—’
Torj shook his head, turning for the door. ‘I can’t just leave without talking to her. I can’t—’
‘Youhave to,’ Wilder told him. ‘You being near her like this puts the whole plan in jeopardy. Lives hang in the balance. But you’ll get her back, brother, I swear it.’
Torj stared at his brother-in-arms for a moment, the only other man who knew what it was like to love and lose an Embervale sister. ‘You swear it?’
Wilder bowed his head. ‘Yes.’
‘Then get me the fuck out of here before I rip the smirk right off that highborn prick’s face.’
As they rode away from the academy in silence, Torj’s thoughts were of Wren, as they always were. He wondered what she was doing at that very moment – if she was with Darian, or if she’d managed to extricate herself from him by now. Was she standing at her workbench in her room, pondering over her crucible? He would have liked to think she was in the conservatory, digging up supplies for her potions... or in the gardens, where she looked the most free. The reality was that she was likely being dragged into another meeting with the vipers. He knew Thea would guard herwith her life, that there was no one better for the task than the midrealms’ most revered Warsword, and yet... He wassoul bondedto Wren. She washisto protect, and he wasn’t there.
‘Has there been news of Vernich?’ he asked Wilder, inquiring after their senior Warsword, who’d gone missing not long ago. Anything to stop his mind churning over thoughts of Wren and who she was with.
His friend sighed. ‘None. He’s still missing. There have been no reports, no sightings pertaining to his whereabouts. Audra is pushing hard for his safe return.’
‘I’ll bet,’ Torj muttered. ‘If Silas can take down one of the three original Warswords from the shadow war, that might be enough to turn the people against us entirely. And without unified kingdoms standing behind Wren, Delmira won’t stand a chance. The silvertide roses will be in his hands, turning our potential cure into his ultimate weapon.’
The hour was growing late, and their venture was only just starting, which only made Torj want to turn his horse around even more. What if Wren was wrong? What if hehadn’tbeen poisoned, and it was all just a ruse designed to force her into an alliance with the Devereuxs? He certainly wouldn’t put it past the bastards. They were more than capable.
