So I did what any restless, desperate girl would choose to do in this situation. After a quick glance at Jex—who was still slumbering soundly on the bed—I quietly slipped out of the room, following them.
44
The Prince
ALASTOR
Talonwassomewhatmoresubdued than I remembered, his exhaustion hanging heavy on him as he led us to a small, empty room at the end of the corridor.
“How’s this?” he asked with an arch glance towards Radven. “Private enough for your standards?”
Rad went in first, making a show of checking the perimeter as if he was concerned that Talon was leading us into a trap. I wasn’t especially fond of Talon myself—the man was entirely too sanguine for my tastes—but I trusted Oak’s assessment of his character, and I saw no reason to doubt his loyalty to our cause. Rad and Talon’s rivalry, by my estimation, was entirely personal, and therefore of little interest to me.
“I’m sure it’s fine,” I said. My patience was especially thin tonight. Even before the tragic events that had led us here, all of the drinking I’d done at the Festival had left me with a pounding headache.
That girl is going to be the death of me.I needed to be more careful around her—especially if she was the one I’d seen in my visions so many years ago.
“It will do,” Rad said, turning to the rest of us. He leaned against the closest wall and slipped a dagger out of his sleeve. He liked to remind people of how easily he could gut them if they displeased him.
The rest of us filed in, and Talon pulled the door shut behind us.
“Now, to answer your earlier question,” Talon said, eyeing Radven. “Yes, of course I have an opinion on what happened with Mordren, but I don’t expect you lot to listen to me.” He leaned against the wall next to the door, mirroring my brother on the opposite side of the room. “But I will say this—if there’s even a question of whether or not you should take that deal, then you aren’t the men I thought you were. She’s just a girl. And Mordren…well, I don’t have to tell you what he’d do to her if he got his hands on her.”
“No one’s taking the deal,” Oak said firmly. He was calm now. Confident. Slipping back into the man he showed the rest of the world. There was no indication that, mere moments before our return, he’d turned on Radven and me in a fit of rage, convinced that one or both of us had been seriously considering Mordren’s offer.
I looked to Talon. He claimed his birds had told him everything they’d witnessed in the woods, which likely meant he knew about that altercation. And a man like Talon—a man who’d cunningly created his own little court of followers here in the underworld of society—was sharp enough to guess at the implications of that incident. He would have noticed the cracks in his old friend. Made note of them.
I could see him thinking. Taking in our bruises and torn clothes and deciding not to mention them. Despite my feelings about the man, I respected him for that.
Finally he said, “So this attack was about the girl.” It wasn’t a question. “I think it’s time you tell me exactly who she is and why the Circle wants her so badly. I’d assumed you were the main targets.”
“So did we,” Oak said. “But now that they know how much innate power Marigold possesses, apparently they see her as the bigger prize.”
“I saw the pearls,” Talon said, watching his friend closely. “But where did she come from? How did you lot find her before the Circle?”
Oak glanced to me, then Radven. We hadn’t discussed when we would reveal the truth, or to whom. But we’d accomplish little here without recruiting allies, and if Oak trusted this man…
I nodded. Rad did the same.
Oak gave his friend a brief overview of what had happened to us—and how we’d found our way back to Therador, powerless and with Marigold in tow.
Talon looked alternately shocked, horrified, and bewildered by Oak’s tale. It was a wonder the fellow could keep a secret, given how every thought he had flashed across his face like he was a damned pageant player. It was no surprise he had taken to Marigold after such a brief acquaintance—the pair of them were cut from the same cloth in that respect, wearing their emotions plainly for the world to see.
That girl.She was entirely too demonstrative, too sentimental…
“And now you can’t access your abilities,” Talon said. “Unless the Circle decides to return them to you.”
“We don’t even know if that’s true,” Oak replied. “Mordren could be lying to us. We still don’t understand how this curse works or how to break it completely.”
“But in the meantime, you’re powerless.” Talon rubbed his chin.
“Not powerless,” Oak barked back. “Neverpowerless.” He drew himself up to his full height then, and I knew the show was as much for himself as it was for Talon. None of us liked being neutered in this way. But it ate at Oak and Radven differently than it did me.
My brothers had lost their greatest strengths, the powers they’d claimed as part of themselves. But I… I had lost my way. Without my visions I was directionless. Aimless. Wandering in the dark, as useless to Therador as I’d been in the days before my gift had been bestowed on me.
Even the royal seal I now carried everywhere inside my coat, the thing that tied me physically to my land, didn’t give the same sense of connection it once did, as if it sensed the hollowness of what I offered in return.
I lifted my hand, touching the spot near my chest where the seal lay tucked away. Instead, my fingers met an unfamiliar bulge, and I remembered I’d tucked Marigold’s little plant in the same interior pocket.
