“Don’t thank me,” I murmured back, loosening my hold—which, to be fair, was probably a shade too tight, considering I didn’t know when I’d see her again. “Just…be careful, Ari. You have plenty of time to see the world. Enjoy every minute.”
“I’ll see you soon,” she murmured, and I pulled away before I could cry and ruin my fierce Commander of the Dreadwatch reputation forever.
“Soon,” I echoed, then forced myself to let her go and move toward the door, my feet wanting nothing more than to stay.
But…
Rooke and Ryland and Varian were waiting.
I had a world to explore, too. My own future to build. And I knew exactly where to find my sister, if I needed to come and check on her.
At the doorway, I paused and heard her voice—bright, casual, lethally charming.
“Tavion,” she called, sweet as honey. “Do you happen to be any good at cards? I wondered if you could teach me a game or two?”
I didn’t so much as break stride.
Tavion, my friend, you are so fucking screwed.
Torin followed me out,to where Rooke was dressed and waiting, looking far better than he had a few hours ago. His jaw was set, eyes looking like someone had carved new strength into his bones.
I opened my mouth to say…something, when Torin moved, drifting toward Rooke like a storm rolling in quietly over the flatlands. With enough purpose, my heart missed a beat.
“Prince Rooke,” Torin said warmly, like they were already old friends. “A word, if I may?” Then she hooked herarm through his and escorted him away, while I watched them disappear, a cold knot forming low in my belly, my heart now racing.
Torin didn’t pull someone aside unless she meant to test them, warn them…or reveal something terrible that could alter a person’s fate. Nothing good could come of this, I told myself, pacing down the hall.
But in a matter of minutes, they were back—Torin’s expression serene—and when I searched Rooke’s face…he seemed…oddly at peace.
“Are you ready, Lyrae?” His fingers brushed mine. I laced my hand with his for the span of a heartbeat, just long enough to answer.
Yes.
The palace corridor vanished as his power snapped us away.
65
LYRAE
The mist that shrouded Frostveil Keep split apart the moment my boots hit the ramparts and I drew an unsteady breath—then another—as the world settled back into place around me with cold, gray finality.
Rooke’s arms lingered around me for a long minute as he scanned our surroundings before letting me go.
“I don’t know if I can do this,” he confessed, staring down at me. “I have to do some research—see if there is precedent for giving our magic back to the land. I mean, it sounded so…logical inside my head, but…”
“Anaria managed it. You can, too. Just…”
Just…what? Put that Crown back on your head and command it to stick your ancestral power back into the ground? Point the magical staff in the right direction and hope for the best?
Damn it.I’d hadplansfor these six hours. Plans I now had to put on hold, because too much was riding on this for Rooke to fail.
“Let’s get started, then,” I urged, tugging him toward the door. “We have six hours until Zeph arrives with the others and we’d better be ready, because he’s an impatient son of a bitch when he has to wait. And two trips down here in two days is sure to put him in a foul mood.”
While Rooke bent over the biggest book I’d ever seen inmy life—theRooke Ancestral Codex, he called it—I spent the time sitting on the worn leather couch, trying not to stare.
Trying not to notice how the misty light hit his face just right, picking out the faintest glitter of gold in his indigo-blue eyes. Definitely trying not to notice the way his corded forearms flexed with every turn of the page, or how long those elegant fingers were, the way I wanted him so badly I could taste it.
There was a perfectly good bed right upstairs, and here we were…researching.
