“Yes, I can.” He glared at him. “I thought you knew me well enough not to assume the worst of me. You were ready to end my life.”
Zev dragged a hand down his face. “I’m sorry, but what else was I to think? After hearing your conversation, I assumed you had lain with her.”
Cassiel’s face heated. “I-I did not.”
“Aye, I know that now,” he said, the lightness returning to his tone. “You’re sputtering at the thought of it. Have you never—?”
“Donotfinish that question,” Cassiel growled, prompting Zev to laugh.
Lucenna rolled her eyes. “Men.”
“Well, now that we have cleared that blunder, we should make our way to the pier and purchase our boarding passes,” Rawn said. “If we have time, I may stop by the courier’s office—”
A knock came at the door.
Cassiel groaned and entered the room. “What is it?”
“Daily news, sir!” a voice called. “Only five russets.”
Sighing, he yanked the door open. A boy in a cap stood in the hallway, hugging a cluster of rolled-up parchments in his arms. He held one out, but when he saw Cassiel and the others in the room, he froze.
Cassiel took the parchment and reached in his pocket for a coin. “Thank—”
The boy ran away.
“Wait, you forgot your money.”
But the boy nearly tripped as he dashed down the stairs. Why did he look so frightened?
Frowning, Cassiel unrolled the pages and read the harsh black letters. The room skewed, distorting his surroundings as all air left his lungs. He stared at the words, an icy rush sinking through his body. The pages slipped from his fingers and he bolted out the door. His feet pounded on the floor, his heartbeat thudding in his ears. Dyna didn’t want him to go after her, but he didn’t care. He needed her safe. Needed her with him. He needed—
Her.
Chapter 45
Lucenna
The pages fluttered to the ground at Lucenna’s feet. Panic squeezed her lungs as she stared in horror at the wanted posters with all of their faces and the large, bold lettering beneath them. She was hardly aware of Zev’s curse roaring through the room. Lucenna couldn’t tear her eyes away from the page with a rough illustration of her face.
MAGE WANTED
REWARD OF 5,000 GOLD PIECES
EXTREMELY DANGEROUS
CAPTURE ALIVE
They were searching for a mage. They were searching forher. Lucenna’s fear nearly drowned out the cynical part of herself that wanted to correct the notice. The rest of Urn wasn’t familiar with the term sorceress.
What did it matter? These notices must be all over the kingdom. Mages all over the country would be on alert, and more Enforcers would come.
She clutched the sheet, crumbling it slowly in her shaking grip. The freedom she had been aspiring for was slipping away.
Her father must be behind this, or so she thought, until she glanced down at the wanted notice on the floor. It bore Cassiel’s face and his first name, wanted for fifty thousand. Then she looked at the page in Zev’s hand, and her breath caught.
WANTED
DYNALYA ASTRON
