Vaasa gauged his facial expressions, searching for a thread of mistruth. When she found nothing but the desperate features of the man she had once loved, she let her shoulders fall. “If you’re lying to me, I swear I will release you from your post.”
It was within her power. Ozik would likely allow it, especially if she said it was Lord Karev’s demand.
“I understand,” Roman asserted.
Vaasa took the coat from his hands, slipping her arms into the fabric. Warmth coasted over her skin, and she sighed softly. She hated to admit how cold she was.
Roman reached for her. “Your feet are going to freeze. The hem of your dress is soaked,” he said, eyes looking over the places the gauzy dress draped on her. “Let me carry you.”
Vaasa touched her mask as if reminding herself that she was still hidden. That he couldn’t see her face. Before she could argue, Roman scooped her into his arms and carried her through the snow like his own bride-to-be until they were closer to wherever he planned to claim he’d found her. Her body remained tense, her mind screaming that she was everything this city had once called her.
Gingerly, he set her down on the shoveled porch of one of the quieter taverns. Roman raked a hand through his hair. There was something so strange about his expressions, about the shakyway he held himself. “Take off your mask. Wrap the coat tighter around yourself.”
When she did as he asked, he gestured for her to walk.
“Karev can’t know,” Vaasa reminded him quietly. “He can’t know that I left with you.”
“The men at the gate that night have been released,” Roman said. “There are only two waiting for us, and they are loyal to me. They won’t say a word to Karev.”
She pursed her lips, once again wondering what Roman had done to earn a position with this much authority. Even before he’d been sent to die at the border as a punishment for their affair, his trajectory wouldn’t have amounted to this.
“I have just as much interest in keeping this private as you do.”
Vaasa sighed in resignation. She took every step silently until he led her around the corner where a single carriage waited, manned by two guards who kept their eyes down.
Vaasa loaded into the carriage, and when Roman followed her in, she didn’t argue. They needed the windows closed where he couldn’t be seen. The carriage lurched forward. They sat in silence. Vaasa stared at the closed curtains. After a few minutes, Roman’s voice came low. “Things would be infinitely different if I had it my way, Vaasa. You know that.”
“I know,” she whispered.
“Tell me you have thought of a way out of this marriage. That you’ve got something up your sleeve, and this is just a way to protect yourself. You have a plan, you always do.”
Vaasa pursed her lips as if contemplating. “If you mean what you say, that you’ll take me to see my friend, then yes. I have something up my sleeve.”
She was going to break his heart. When she fled this city with another man, it would leave him in shambles, and there was nothing she could do to change that. She was a witch. The wifeof the Icrurian headman, the very man she had just fucked in the middle of a hallway.Catastrophicdidn’t even begin to describe the consequences they would have faced had they been caught, so she supposed this outcome was still better than that. And yet, she had gotten a dirty thrill at the thought of subverting all their expectations, at embracing the very thing they tried to insult her with.Whore. An Icrurian’s plaything. Not fit to rule.At least in that moment, she didn’t have to pretend any longer.
Because shewantedit. She wanted her life with Reid more than she had ever wanted anything, and this time, she wasn’t going to flee from those desires. No amount of fear was going to leave her lonely. She would fight and claw and kill if it meant she got to go back with him.
She looked across the carriage at Roman, and she accepted him as a casualty. She couldn’t convince him to stop coming back to the things that hurt him—Asterya, her. They were the same. This nation had sent him to be a prisoner of war, and yet he’d returned.
She was in love with another man, and still she thought he would chase her. That he would never release the image of her he’d made up in his mind.
“We’ll go to the prison tomorrow night,” Roman said.
“Thank you.”
Vaasa stared at the curtains of the carriage once more. She could only hope Roman followed through.
“Funny, you never seemed to get caught sneaking out when you were younger,” Ozik said as Vaasa walked into the greenhouse.
Her stomach rolled, the silphium Roman had obtained in the early hours of the morning causing her abdomen to cramp. She’d taken it there in front of him, if only to seal his desperation. Her muscles ached. Everything felt sluggish and sore. The lack ofsleep would eventually catch up to her, but what other choice did she have? Daytime in Mekës was boring and useless. It was only under the cover of night that the true city came out. “Mind your business,” she said to Ozik.
He chuckled. “Snappy today.”
Magic flooded her body, no longer a small trickle that he controlled in order to allow her to acclimate. He simply opened the lid, and the force careened across the cord that bound them. This morning, she didn’t hesitate. It didn’t pain her, and her breath stayed steady.
Vaasa immediately shot the magic out of her hands, not bothering to wait for it to transition from smoke to wolf. The creature lifted its head and sniffed the air, then lowered its nose to the gravel. It stalked forward, and this time, Ozik took a careful step back.
“Why can Veragi magic be fueled by others when corporeal magic can’t?” Vaasa demanded.
