Elysia sighed, chastising her sister. “Her name is Mari, Beatriz.”
“I don’tcare, Elysia.”
The Doorman swooped in, her sultry tones diffusing the brewing sibling storm. “Mari, is there a way to stop what’s happening to Elysia?”
There was a hint of pity in the soft press of Mari’s lips. “I’ve never known there to be a plant or method for stopping magic. It’s as much a part of you as the blood in your heart and veins.”
Beatriz began to pepper Mari with questions about who else they could talk to and where they might go for help, but Elysiacut her off with an air of exasperation. “Triz, I don’t want to stop it. I mean, I did. Before. But, now, I don’t.”
Her dark eyes grew resolute, her tone matter-of-fact. “The prince knows everything. He left me for dead last night.”
Frustration had her shaking her head. “Nothing will change the fact that my days are numbered even if we did find some way to rip the magic out of me. If anything”—she turned to Mari—“I want to know if there’s a way to control it. I want to be able to stay in that realm and explore. If our magic is there... Well, I’d rather go down trying to do something useful than trying to escape. Besides, it’d be a long shot getting out of here when every merchant ship and export is overseen by my father, traveling by horse would take forever, and the train construction keeps getting pushed back.”
Beatriz, the older sister who had never protected or coddled until now, let out a deranged hiss. “Have you completely lost your senses?” She grabbed the newly acquired book and strode to the door, holding it open wide.
She stared at Mari. “Get. Out.”
Looking back at Elysia, she snapped. “And you, take the damn pain tonic. If you’re not out or loopy as a bat within the next five minutes, I’ll pour it down your throat myself.” She left in a whirl of feminine rage, her feet banging down the stairs.
Everyone left after that. The room grew warm and fuzzy in a pleasant sort of way. She’d taken the pain tonic, not minding the reprieve it offered from her thoughts and physical agony. The world softened, her discomfort and lingering anxiety flickering out until she was boneless. Sinking back into the pillows, she closed her eyes.
Beatriz might not be willing to help her, but there was someone who would. A loose smile graced her lips as she fell under the blanket of sleep. Yes, there was someone who wouldbe more than willing to help her find a way into the realm of death and deals.
Chapter 24
She kept running eventhough her lungs burned and her ribs ached. Both eyes were open now, even if her face still was an ugly mass of bruises and scratches. A wiser person might have waited longer to train, but Elysia could not stop the feeling of foreboding. The feeling of her time trickling like sand through the hourglass, and because she could not stop it, she tried to outrun it. She bounded through the woods and reminded herself with each step that sometimes it wasn’t enough to be clever. She needed to be stronger, faster.
She had no misgivings about her abilities. Her physical gifts were average, but sharpened to precision through years of training, and she had no intention of letting that change just because someone had managed to beat her halfway to death. If anything, what had happened with Scarzan and the king’s men had only reinforced what she had always known to be true.
Men never expected women like her to be capable of much at all. Big brown eyes and a soft face. They saw what they wanted—a docile creature ready for their boots to stomp on. They didn’t expect you to lunge and grab them by the jaw to force a noxious poison down their throat. They didn’t expect you to get back up after taking rounds to the face and ribs.
Her anxiety countered this, arguing that stamina and physical prowess were still no match for a king or a god, but she ignored the thought. She couldn’t control much right now, but she could control what she put her body through. Running and training until her body hit its limit, shaking and ready to keel over. The self-inflicted pain almost felt good.
If she focused on the whole of the situation she found herself in, then she would become a paralyzed, frozen mess. And what good would that be? None at all. Compartmentalization had a time and place, and it was now.
She made it back to Gage’s house, a sweaty, mud-splattered mess. The gate shrieked when she pushed it open. She cringed, knowing he left it creaky on purpose. Not that he needed the extra security. He was no one to most people, and those who did know Kava’s Shadow were not dumb enough to go looking for his home.
She walked through the arched, black front door to find the man in question in his study, muscular frame hunched over a ledger. Still dressed in a fitted shirt and black trousers from being out on a job, a spot of blood decorated his collar. Yet now he sat at his large desk with candles burning as he poured over a page of numbers, looking as frustrated as any other business owner balancing their books.
“Money problems?”
Gage looked up at her, rolling his eyes, and she raised a brow obnoxiously in response. The day Gage had money problems she’d eat her own foot.
He set his work down, leaning back in his black leather and wooden lounge chair. “Yes, there’s a woman eating me out of my kitchen and distracting me to no end, when I should be out running jobs.”
She smiled sweetly, ignoring the pillow soft jab, and plopped into one of the navy armchairs in front of his desk, making him groan aloud.
Benign disgust contorted his face as he looked on. “For the gods’ sake, Elysia, at least change your clothes before you sit on things. If you were one of my men, I’d skin you alive for tracking shit all over the floors and furniture.”
Elysia shifted, kicking her muddied legs over the arm of the chair. “It’s almost as if I should go back to my own apartment. It’s been weeks—the prince has done nothing. He may have been happy to let me die, but he doesn’t seem to want to do the job himself. The king’s men clearly didn’t identify me,andSir Larkspur hates it here.” She stared at him in exasperation.
Gage sighed, shoving away his work and sitting up to stare at her like she was a complete moron. “Right, right. Maybe invite the prince over for a little heart-to-heart while you’re at it, just really clear the air about that little part where hewas going to let them kill you.”
Elysia ignored the immediate ache behind her eyes at his words and how her body felt a wave of shock every time she allowed herself to remember the truth. But she didn’t let it show, instead she smiled viciously at the man she saw as a brother, knowing it would drive him mad.
“Nothing a good chat can’t solve.”
Gage chucked a crumpled sheet of paper at her head. “For fuck’s sake. You know I want you here, just take a damn bath, will you? You smell bad enough to scorch the hair out of my nose.”
