“Good.”
Without another word, Vi stormed out of the room. She barely resisted slamming the door behind her to punctuate the conversation. She knew she’d acted rashly. She understood Zira’s motivations. She’d apologize later. Right now, she was seeing red, and sparks were crackling against her hands. Her fingers were clenched so tightly they hurt. But Vi was afraid that if she unraveled them, her spark would get loose and burn the whole place down.
Vi emerged into the cool desert air and gulped it down like a tonic that would soothe the flames raging within her. She walked several paces into the street and stopped. Tilting her head back, Vi looked at the stars above and tried to relax the tension throughout her body.
A familiar voice interrupted her thoughts. “Are you all right?”
She didn’t believe for a second that he or his smug grin actually cared about her. Luke strolled out from the inn.Had he been in the bar when she’d entered?Vi struggled to remember.
“What do you want?” Vi asked.
“Is that any way to address a lord?” He arched his eyebrows. “I think not. It’s odd to see you in this area of town, at this time of night.”
“I didn’t notice you paid such close attention to my comings and goings,” Vi said flatly.
“I think people notice what you do a lot more than you give them credit for.”
“I’m flattered.” Vi started back toward the castle. She needed to get Luke away from the inn before Zira left.
“I’m glad I could flatter you. I do hope you have a good night, Yullia. I’ll see you at tomorrow’s council meeting. I can’t wait for Euclan’s report. The Knights of Jadar are becoming so infamous, next we’ll hear about them killing ghosts.”
Vi stopped dead in her tracks. She was so focused on her general annoyance with Luke, so overwhelmed with her hatred, that Vi didn’t realize what he had been doing—stalling. She hadn’t asked the right questions out the gate. Like, why was he there at this time of night? Or, had he followed her?
Her stomach went sour. Without another second’s hesitation, Vi sprinted back into the Hog and Bone.
The bar downstairs was as cheerful as it had been when she’d left. Though three patrons who had been hunched around the corner of the bar were now gone. The hairs on the back of her neck lifted upright.
No, no, no, her mind repeated over and over.
Movement at the very back caught her eye; in the alleyway behind the inn, the flutter of a cloak rippled in the dark before the door snapped shut.
Vi dashed out the back door and into the dingy alley. Darkness clung like grime in all the corners. Two men and one woman were arguing about thirty paces away.
“… payment and then you’ll have it.”
“Give it to me now,” the man on the right snarled.
Vi didn’t have to wonder what “it” was, given that the woman was holding the sword.
“Drop it and I’ll let you live,” Vi lied. She was going to kill them all.
The three turned. Vi’s heart dropped though her stomach at the sight of the woman. Across her forehead in place of eyebrows were three faintly glowing dots.
A morphi. There was a morphi in Norin.
“Juth c—”
“Juth mariy.” The man on the right stopped her magic, shattering it before it could form. He said to the woman, “Go, they know the deal.”
The woman holding the sword leapt into the air and the dark wings of a large crow stretched out between the pulses of magic. The Knight of Jadar stared, slack jawed, as she flew away. He blubbered, trying to make sense of what he had just witnessed—until the other man uttered a quick, “Mysst soto larrk,” and cut his throat then and there.
“They said a ‘strange sorcerer’ was here,” the pirate said with a smile. “I assume you’re one of Lumeria’s?”
Vi didn’t even dignify him with a response. “Juth calt.”
The man crumpled, dead on the spot. Yet another from Meru who hadn’t considered all the creative ways Yargen’s words could be used. She looked upward, scanning the dark sky. But the morphi was already gone with the sword. And that meant—assuming “they could pay” as the pirate had said—it would be in the Knights’ hands before dawn.
Cursing aloud, Vi rushed back inside. She ran past the doors and up to the second floor. The door to Zira’s room was slightly ajar. Vi pushed it open to confirm her worst fears.
