He went silent for a moment, his features annoyingly unreadable. I was suddenly very aware of his rough hands on my waist, the material of my shirt doing little to keep out his touch.
He was trying to keep this mission safe. I understood that. And perhaps I was being impulsive. Reckless, as he called me.
But Theodore Gayl had said theonething that took precedence for me. The one thing that would ensure I moved mountains to meet with him.
Your father was the same.
The emperor knew exactly how to force my hand. That thought should have scared me, should have made me heed Leo’s warnings. Instead, it only solidified my resolve. Ihadto know what he meant about my father.
“I could make you stay, you know.” Leo’s dark eyes bore into mine, commanding me to listen. A man who wasn’t used to being defied. His thumb dragged across the fabric, and I let out a small breath when his skin met mine.
“You could try,” I said, holding his stare.
He kept me there, challenge and resentment and tensionrolling and swelling thickly. My fingers edged toward my pouch, wondering if I’d have to curse him in order to get away, when his arms fell to his side. He didn’t speak, but he took another step back, his silent way of letting me go.
I crushed Gayl’s note in my fist and wrenched my gaze from his as I darted down the corridor.
31
Rose
Iflew through the palace, following my map to the west wing and hunting for the entrance to the tower. When I turned left down another hallway, I was met with the sight of a winding wooden stairway, the steps becoming increasingly narrow as they extended into the upper levels and out of sight. I took a deep breath and gingerly eased myself onto the first step.
The wood creaked as I ascended the spiral staircase, the air growing colder and mustier the higher I climbed. I could tell I was nearing the top when a draft whistled across the steps and made the ends of my hair flutter. When I finally reached the highest point of the tower, the steps opened to a mostly empty room, save for a bench, a large, cracked mirror, and several dusty sconces lining the dark stone wall.
And a man standing in a high, open archway overlooking the palace grounds.
His gloved hands were held behind his back, which faced me, and his dark hair was tied and hanging at the nape of his neck. The cool night wind had his navy cloak billowing at his heels, casting a shadow that skulked along the wooden floor. He didn’t turn, even when the top step squeaked as I entered the tower, nor when I joined him at the archway.
We gazed down at the world spread at our feet, the trees mere flecks against the ground, streams flowing and branching like the veins in my palm. The buildings in the nearby village were as small as ants scattered across the terrain. My breath caught at how close the moon and the stars appeared—almost as if I could reach out and capture them in my hand.
“Many are afraid of such great heights,” Gayl said quietly, breaking the silence and making my muscles tighten in surprise. “But I’ve never understood this fear.”
He paused, as if expecting me to respond. I didn’t know what he wanted from me, so I said the first thing that came to my mind. “I’m not afraid of them, either. Just not particularly keen on the falling part.”
“Yes, that’s understandable,” he said with a chuckle, a low rumble that seemed to make the very air waver. “What I fear is the idea that inevitably, there will one day be nothing greater. No higher climb. Nowhere else to go. Eventually, you reach the end—a point where you will have no choice but to look down on what you have left behind.”
A chill swept through me. “Well, you have a lot of that, don’t you, Your Majesty?”
My eyes widened at my own brazen words, preparing for his wrath. But it didn’t come. Instead, he hummed.
“I know of your ire toward me, Miss Wolff, and it’s not unwarranted. However, I imagine you are angry for the wrong reasons.” He turned to me, and I matched his motions, seeing him for the first time in such close proximity.
His blue eye was as dark as an endless ocean, while his white was a sharp glacier, piercing me to the wooden floor. Deep wrinkles adorned the weathered skin at his forehead, beneath his eyes, and around his mouth. Shadows of a beard formed on his normally clean-shaven face. A tendril of black and silver hair had escaped its leather strap and fluttered against his neck. There was something in his features, in the cleft chin and straight nose, that sent a waveof familiarity cascading over me. Perhaps it was my Alchemy blood sensing his own great power.
“Do you fear me, young Alchemist?” he asked softly, tilting his head with his hands still clasped behind his back.
My heart pounded in my chest. “Yes.”
“Then why did you come?”
I considered my words, unable to read the expression on his face. “Because I want the truth.”
He nodded. “The question is, which truth? I have many to offer.”
“I…I don’t understand, Your Majesty.”
“I imagine you want the truth about the Somnivae curse, no?” My lips parted in surprise as he brought his hands up to a steeple in front of his face. “Or perhaps you’d like to hear what I know about those Sentinels you have become so fond of.”
