It was like a whisper that coursed through her body, sweeping out through her fingertips and toes, feeling every inch of the room, and racing back to gather once again under her palm. For the slightest moment, she thought she felt him, the touch of Damien’s fingers on her wrist, the warmth of his breath on her cheek, but then it was gone. When she lifted her hand, the feather was gone too, leaving only a smear of blood on her palm and chest.
Eyelids closing, her hand fell away, the cool, briny air of the tower room stinging the open wound. Would it be enough? Enough to…gods, what did she expect, exactly? For Damien to rush into the heart of danger, to a keep full of soldiers under the sword of a man he’d stolen from? To come to her rescueyet againat great peril to himself and everything he’d worked for? He would surely be sick of howabductableshe was by now—she was certainly sick of it.
In the dark, her mind slipped in and out of consciousness, dropping her into nightmares of Cedric returning, of pain and blood, and then waking her with reminders of her failure. How could she expect Damien to come after she’d yelled at him? Told him to sit and stay like some dog? For all Damien knew, she had just left! Walked off with no intention of ever returning to him. She may have still had the talisman in her, but his interest in it had been waning anyway, and he was resourceful; there were surely alternatives, and he had friends who could offer them. Friends like Xander.
Another nightmare took her of being faced with people she loved who had turned on her, this one pulling her so much deeper that when she woke from it, she had forgotten where she was. The dim light coming through the narrow window had changed, brighter with very early dawn, but it was enough to remind her: she was trapped and still alone.
She shifted, and the cut on her chest stung.What if he just doesn’t want to come?Amma thought, drawing in a deep breath, eyes squeezing shut and fists balling. Sleep didn’t come again, but there were visions: stabbing a werewolf, hurling that animate book in the Grand Athenaeum, shedding blood to wake Lycoris, scaling the largest, wildest liathau in existence.
Amma sat upright, eyes wide.Abductable. The word flashed into her mind, and a burn flared in her chest. Amma had been abducted many times, it was true—people who would do her harm were stronger than her, and they were resourceful and manipulative too—but despite being spirited off so frequently, Amma had yet to remain truly kept. She glared at the tiny tower room and huffed. This abduction would be no exception.
It was quiet outside Amma’s door while the sun rose, but Cedric wasn’t to the keep yet which meant she still had time to sit and listen and wait. The soldiers believed she was enthralled—a funny word for crazy, more like—but she could hear the guard outside her chamber being changed, and the new one had hopefully not seen her being carried off like a mad woman the night before.
Amma waited until there was quiet again, boots falling away down the spiral steps of the tower. She brushed fingers through her hair, pinched her cheeks, and straightened her tunic to make sure the slice was properly covered but that her breasts were being as supportive to her plans as possible. She poised her hand to knock—what a joke, knocking to getoutof a room—and then paused.
She flipped her hand over and imagined arcana there, and the faintest, emerald light shined in the center of her palm. She clenched a fist around it, El’s spell finally worn off.
Hand hovering again, she tried to smile. It felt so odd, so wrong, that it actually hurt. She scrunched up her face, working her jaw and tried again. More awkwardness, more discomfort. Then she imagined opening the door and seeing Damien.
The watchman who answered her knocking eased open the entry to find a sweet, smiling, sane Lady Ammalie Avington, and this seemed to completely throw him. Perfect.
“Hi,” she said, breathy and beaming. “It’s Jon, right?”
He was young and wide-eyed, and his baldric was a bit too big for him. “Right,” he said, then shook his head. “Uh, I mean, no, my lady. Sorry, it’s Arthur.”
“Arthur.” She touched her chest, keeping her voice low. His eyes darted down to her hand then back to her face, still holding the warmest smile she could. “Of course it is. Apologies, Artie, I’m having a very, well…confusing morning.” She worried her features and bit her lip.
Arthur made a small noise in the back of his throat.
“It’s embarrassing, really.” She fidgeted from one foot to the other, clasping her hands and squeezing her arms inward as she took a heaving sigh. “But I don’t exactly remember how I got here, and I was hoping, Artie, that you could tell me where I am?”
“You’re in Brineberth, my lady,” he said with apprehension. “Krepmar Keep.”
“And where is my…my beloved?” She swallowed back the bile that rose in her throat.
“Marquis Caldor is meant to return today. He will be so relieved to see you, especially if you’re feeling better.”
“And I really,reallyam. Oh, Ced, how I miss himso.” Amma pressed hands to her chest again, wincing when she accidentally bumped the cut, but covered it up with a lovesick moan. “I just wish I could be with him right now, but, oh, Artie, maybe you could help me?” She blinked up at him with a hopefulness that was actually sincere.
He glanced over his shoulder to the winding stairs and back. “My lady?”
Amma took a big breath. “Well, I am just a mess, and I can’t greet the marquis like this. Is there somewhere private I can clean up and perhaps wait for him?”
“Oh, um?” Arthur looked to be thinking very hard. Good, she wanted this to be difficult. “The well inside the keep has gone dry, but Salwel has blessed us with a second, outside the walls. I can have some water brought up?”
Ah, so he was also pious. “Could you really?”
“I can call for—”
Amma chanced touching his arm, and that silenced him. “Couldyoubring it to me?”
It was Arthur’s turn to bite his lip.
“It’s just…” She sniffled though there were no tears coming. “It’s so embarrassing how dirty I’ve become. It’s an affront to the gods, really. I was under a terrible spell, and I was so unruly and confused, and the marquis will already be so upset and disappointed. But if you could help me, as a favor, I would be eternally grateful, as would Salwel, I imagine, as the god of wells and…and water?”
“The coast.”
Amma nodded with a grin. “Exactly!” She fetched the empty wash basin and brought it back to him.
