Still, they seemed to surprise him. “You had agreed we would help them.”
“I hadn’t agreed to what help looked like yet.” The first lesson Adela had taught her—be careful negotiating and only ever sayexactlywhat you mean. And the idea of her staying back from the front lines was utterly unappealing.
“You’re a smart woman. I trusted you to see logic.”
“Do not compliment me in the same breath that you are using to set aside my worries,” Eira cautioned him.
“I didn’t mean to, just that…I truly thought it for the best. We could help Lorn, free Hokoh, and have a base of resistance—maybe even distract Ulvarth in the process. And you would stay safe and ready to attack him when the time came.”
She sighed and shook her head, at a loss of what to say. There were so many things that shewantedto. Yet, she didn’t know where to start. It wasn’t that what he was saying waswrong… But none of it felt right. Like they were singing the same song but at two different parts.
“You’ve said it yourself, we’re going to need all the help we can get when it comes to defeating Ulvarth.”
“I know.” Eira shifted, looking up at him. Not harsh, not cold, but also showing no hesitation when she said, “In the future, I want to be consulted on these plans before they’re decided, all right?”
He nodded. “Of course.”
Even though that’s what he said, Eira was left wondering just how the man who had once seemed to understand her more than anyone, now seemed to be making such lapses in judgment. Part of her wanted to ask, but she was afraid of what the answer might be.
31
They were in their places by dawn. Eira was perched in the window of a nearby building, ice under her skin so thick that it bloomed on the surface as spots of white frost. It was the only way to keep her agitation at bay.
She was going along with this plan solely for the sake of getting them out of Hokoh and on to Risen faster. Arguing would’ve chewed up more time and only seeded tension among the group. Neither of which she wanted. But she was far from happy biting her tongue and biding her time.
Who was Lorn to command her to be off to the side? Why did Olivin think it was even the slightest bit of a good idea to put her—arguably their strongest at this point and among their most skilled—where she’d do the least good? She’d heard his argument last night—that he wanted to make sure she wasn’t injured before facing Ulvarth. But the fact was, if a random Pillar could wound her then she had little hope of facing Ulvarth.
It would’ve been better if she was down there. Why hadn’t she argued more?Olivin seemed so convinced it was for the best…
Eira massaged the scar of the rune permanently carved into the center of her chest as she watched her friends get into theirpositions. The only reason she was going along with this, for now, was for them. At this point, it was best if they had the backing of the Court of Shadows. But her compliance was as fragile as spider’s silk. It was going to snap sooner rather than later.
The bell tolled across the city. Pillars made their way through the early streets like ghosts in the thin morning fog. Eira stretched out her fingers as wide as they would go. She didn’t need the motion to command her power, but it felt good. It was better than stillness, and she was alone, so there was no need to worry about others seeing the tell.
Like low storm clouds, the fog continued to roll over Hokoh, chasing the Pillars inside. With the last toll of the bell, the doors to their temple closed. Eira continued to thicken the fog. Her friends emerged from their hiding places.
In time with the wriggling of the fingers of her left hand, streaks of frost cracked across the roads. The windows were already hazy with white. A wicked notion echoed in Adela’s words:I’ll freeze the whole city if I have to. She’d said it before they’d left Ofok. That’d be one way to accomplish her goals…
Her friends had encircled the temple. They drew a collective breath. The bell tolled again.
With a pump of Alyss’s fist, the wooden doors slammed open. Olivin and Cullen rushed in. Ducot’s magic rippled through the air, changing things that Eira couldn’t even see from her vantage. Alyss was the last to charge inside as the windows illuminated with Lightspinning.
Yonlin remained perched, like she was, but in a building opposite. One hand was on the pistol, the other ready to magically summon a rain of arrows.
Unlike her, Yonlin was content to be off to the side. It was the positioning Eira would’ve given him because itsuited him. But an errant notion wouldn’t abate that there were deepermotivations behind Olivin’s decisions for his placementandhers.
Yonlin was everything to Olivin. His brother had been his mission to protect. Any future that Olivin built would be as much for Yonlin as it would be for himself, or Eira. He’d said as much—he was willing to give up journeying with her, at least for a time, to ensure his brother was safe and settled. She had seen what the mere notion of Yonlin being injured did to Olivin’s composure.
He can’t handle another loss, she realized. It was as bleak and obvious as the dawn. Olivin would do anything to avoid that pain, or the risk, and that drive was already leading him to push her to the side, consciously or not.
Anger streaked through her with a sharp, sorrowful ache. Did he even realize what he was doing? Maybe, maybe not. But her frustration was present either way.
Eira’s hand closed into a fist. The streaks of frost across the ground rose as jagged walls—walls that she was only supposed to make in the unlikely case of reinforcements because it would make her presence obvious. She turned from the window and stormed down the stairs of the empty house. In a breath, she was out the front door.
The ambient temperature had dropped from the ice and chill mist. But Eira’s breath didn’t even cloud the air. Her feet made no noise as she crossed the frost. The window Yonlin had been perched in was thrown open. Eira met his eyes as he leaned out. He hadn’t called to her and they shared a long, purposeful look.
She lifted a single finger, curled it, then pointed it down to her feet.Come, the motion said. A commotion was rising behind her, muffled by the wall of ice. It competed with the shouting and explosions from within the temple.
Ice rippled out from her, smothering the doors. The wood groaned and buckled as the ice continued growing around it.There was nowhere for it to go, and, with a mightycrack, the wooden doors of the temple splintered like the small boat she had used to get to Meru.
