She smiled softly. “You never do.” Standing on her tiptoes, she kissed his cheek, then let her forehead rest against his. “I’ll be okay. I know how to control it now. Just trust me.”
“Always,” Leo whispered. The way he looked at her made it feel like we were intruding on a private moment. I glanced away and caught Devora’s eye.
After a pause, Clarissa cleared her throat. “I have one hundred and fifty guests arriving in”—she checked the ornate clock above the fireplace—“sixteen hours. Lark and Chaz, please draftletters and coordinate couriers to initiate contact with the closest kingdoms we have record of. If we can get through to the Triad Realm, they may be our best bet. We need to find out more about the substances Scarven may be acquiring.”
Turning to her brother, she said, “Rose and Leo, take Nox and Devora to your work room in the basements. Maybe you can get a head start on the Alchemy problem.” She stopped doling out instructions to quickly grab Rose’s arm, giving it a squeeze. “Please be careful. Don’t do anything reckless.”
Rose patted her hand. “Leo will make sure I don’t put atoeout of line.”
“And what about me, Empress?” Thorne curved his arms around Clarissa from the back. “What do you need me to do?”
She took a deep breath, then let it out slowly. “You?” Craning her neck, she looked up at him with a soft smile. “I need you to marry me in two days. How does that sound?”
He pressed his lips to her temple. “That, I can do.”
Rose clapped her hands. A determined glint shone in her emerald eyes. “Time to out-magic the madman.”
54
Devora
Rose and Leo led us out of the drawing room and down the lavish corridor until we came upon a set of stairs. Nox and I followed at a distance, and I watched as Leo rested a hand on the small of Rose’s back. A furry tail came out and swiped against her calf, almost like a caress.
I leaned closer to Nox and whispered, “Are all of them always so disgustingly sweet?”
He snorted. “You get used to it.”
“Did you and Rose ever…” I licked my lips, my stomach suddenly tight.
His eyebrow rose. “Jealous, darling?”
“No, I—just curious, that’s all.” My cheeks burned when he gave methatsmirk. The one that sent fire to my core and made my shadows a jumbled mess.
His low chuckle embraced me. “Nothing ever happened between us. We’re just friends.”
I remembered his words from our sparring match in Tenebra. “Right, I forgot. You don’tfall in love.”
We reached a door at the bottom of the staircase. Rose and Leo walked through it, and as Nox held the door open for me, he murmured, “Things change.”
I swallowed hard, but didn’t have time to dwell on his words. We entered a huge, dark chamber with stone walls and a wooden floor covered in a myriad of rugs. They were all different patterns of bold, deep jewel tones—amethyst and ruby, emerald and sapphire, with gold accents that matched the standing candelabras around the room.
Ahead of us, Rose whispered a word, and the candles blazed to life.
“Welcome to my lair,” she said with a grin. “Leo hates it when I call it that.”
“You sound like a villain in a fairy tale,” he muttered.
She blew him a kiss. “Rissa let me commandeer this section of the basement to set up a work room. I travel back and forth between here and my own apothecary in Feywood, making healing drafts and anything the hospital wing needs, plus whatever other charms may be useful.”
“She likes to come down here and play with her leaves,” Leo added. I couldn’t help but laugh.
She smacked his arm. “Iliketo experiment.” Her eyes widened. “Not like Scarven, of course. But Alchemy is always growing and changing. I like finding new ways to use what we already have, come up with new charms and spells, that sort of thing.”
I could see why Nox thought she would be perfect to help. I took in the work room, the tall bookshelves with haphazardly stacked tomes and pieces of parchment, the glass vials of all shapes and sizes, the dried bouquets of herbs and flowers hanging from the ceiling. It smelled like a greenhouse and apothecary all in one.
In the center of the room stood a large desk with a black velvet chair behind it. Three leather-bound books were perched on the edge of the desk, and one was open right next to them with a quill lying on top.
The whole place was teeming with magic. A vibrant energy that spoke of someone who loved what they did and put time into perfecting their craft.
