“What is it?” Elora asks, side stepping a couple who are far too comfortable with exploring each other’s mouths in a public setting.
“Dimania.”
Elora gasps at Cass’s answer, her eyes widening.
“What? What is that?”
“Dimania is a flower that grows in the richest soil at the base of our northern mountains. It’s crushed into a powder and mixed in with smoking tobacco and is known for itsaphrodisiaceffects.”
Gods above. I take another cursory glance around the room as we near the other side, noting that while there still are quite a large number of people simply laying wherever, a fewareengaged in activities of a more sensitive nature. Mostly at the edges of the space, where the shadows can hide their movements. But certainly not all.
“You look so horrified right now,” Cass teases as he claps my shoulder. “Don’t worry, I don’t think we were exposed to much. And even if we were, we are all sleeping in separate rooms anyway.”And thank the gods for that.
We finally reach the dining room, the space small and filled with only a handful of tables and a mismatched collection of chairs. The three of us take a seat in the farthest corner and order food. It’s predictably a stew but one that’s at least full of recognizable vegetables and void of any questionable meat.
“Do you think we should reach out to Nox? Let him know where we are?” Elora asks once we finish eating.
“I told him that we’d limit communication to only what is necessary,” Cass says from where he’s reclined in his chair, his arms folded over his chest. “Let’s wait until we have good news to report.”
I try to ignore the way my anxious thoughts swirl inside of me, my stomach queasy. It isn’t that I don’t believe wemightfind dragon glass. It’s that I can’t be sure we’ll find it without being spotted by a fae or, worse, a dragon. I had never seen one of the beasts beyond a description on a page, but that alone was enough to spook me into believing that this trip was just a single stroke of bad luck away from becoming a suicide mission.
“Well, my reading hasn’t revealed anything yet on how to actuallyrepairthe Mirror once we acquire the dragon glass. I’m hoping that Nox’s magic will be fixed by the time we get back because if it isn’t…” She shakes her head, tossing her braid over her shoulder.
“It will,” Cass says confidently.
“If he’s even therewhenwe get back,” I add, stacking my arms on the table.
The quiet that stretches between us is charged with thoughts of Nox and Rhea, the latter the type that shows up in my quiet moments when I am alone. Everything had happened so quickly the night she was taken; one moment, I was talking with her, her panic evident on her face, and the next, I was waking up alone in a small pool of my own blood. Her jewelry broken on the stonepathway next to me. Realizing that she was gone—that I would then have to tell Nox—was one of the worst moments of my life.
“He’ll get her back,” Elora says softly, her eyes lifting from where her hands flex nervously on the table.
“He will,” Cass agrees. “And if we have to wait until—”
I don’t hear his words as pain, bright andhot, bursts to life at my shoulder.
“Daje!” Elora screams at my side, her face draining of color as she tentatively reaches a hand towards me. I follow her line of sight, my breath choking off in my throat before reaching my lungs, as I look down and see thedaggersticking out of the front of my shoulder.
Chapter Ninety: Daje
“Godsdamnit!”Cassshouts,standing and kicking his chair behind him, two blades already in his hands. “Are you okay?”
“Fuck.” I stand from my chair as I scan the room. My vision goes double, each breath choking off in a groan as I struggle to draw air in.
Reaching for Elora, I attempt to tug her towards me, but she resists, her face drained of color. “You have a—”
“Protect yourself!” I tell her, my anger stirring at the very familiar hilt of my ownfuckingdagger sticking out of my shoulder. Blood trickles down my chest, and I move to reach for the blade when I’m shoved from the side, sending me careening towards the ground, my shoulder screaming at the impact.
“Fae sympathizers! You’re working with them!” I look over my shoulder as the man who hit me lunges again, his dark eyes gleaming with malice while his fingers curl towards his palm and he begins to wind his hand back. Keeping my gaze on him, I quickly reach for the dagger and yank it out. More screams fillthe room, my vision flashing black, and for a single moment in time, everything goes quiet. There is no chaos unfolding in the dining room of this inn. There are no entangled feelings of love and lust and friendship. There’s no domineering, perpetually disappointed father with a penchant for being cruel. There is nothing but the sound of my breath rattling in my chest. My heartbeat pounding in my skull. And then, all at once, it comes rushing back in. My vision flashes back at the exact moment the man charging for me falls to the ground. Cass’s shout of warning rends the air right as Elora’s scream sounds. Perhaps it’s instinct—something that’s been there as part of me being mage or male or some combination of the two—but I react before I think as I launch to my feet.
Spinning the bloodied blade, I toss it up in the air, watching as it goes tip-over-hilt before I catch it and then fling it towards the man at Elora’s back. She blinks, spinning with her own dagger drawn in one hand and her pink magic flaring in the other just in time to watch the man fall, the blade now embedded between his eyes.
“Are you alright?” Rushing towards her, my hands grip her shoulders before I cringe at the blood I’ve gotten on her blouse.
“Am I—” She cuts herself off, shaking her head. “Areyouokay? You were stabbed, and I—” Her chest rises with a heaving breath, her mouth opening and closing quickly though no more sound comes out. I take stock of her shaking hands, the one holding the dagger covered in blood. Once I’m sure it isn’t hers, I lean in close, getting on her eye level.
“I’m fine. I’ll live, but I need you to protect yourself so that I can help Cass. Can you do that?”
She nods as a tear escapes and trails down her cheek. I don’t have time to comfort her the way I’m called to, not when my friend is shouting for my help. “Follow me.”
