Well, not the captain. My bear really doesn’t like Captain Finch’s monster, and sometimes that bleeds through.
We’re halfway to the exit when Reva stumbles, her face going pale as she clutches her chest, and then we’re barrelling through the crowd, not caring how many obstacles we knock out of the way.
Aster and I both reach her at the same moment and I cup Reva’s elbow. “Are you all right? What happened? What did he do to you?”
“I’m fine,” she replies. “Felt dizzy and kind of sick for a moment, but it was nothing he did.”
“And how do you know that? He might have put some kind of hex on you to make you feel sick so he’d have to cure you with his potions.”
“Torin,” she says with a patient smile. “I’m fine. Can we get out of here before we garner too much attention?”
“Of course.” I don’t let go of her, escorting her out of the door and into a private alcove midway between the room filled with sorcerers and the hotel’s foyer.
Once we’re out of everyone’s eyeline, I run a critical eye over her. “Are you sure he didn’t put some kind of spell on you?”
“I’m sure,” she says. “But you can check if you like.”
She pulls something from the pocket of her dress and thrusts a pair of gold spectacles into my hand. “They’re Kit’s. I’d forgotten I had them with me until I needed to dig out a dress for this evening. They’re supposed to tell if there’s magic or curses on objects, but I’m assuming it should work for people too.”
I’m fairly sure they were a gift from Jack. I slip them over my nose, attaching the earpieces.
—and am bombarded with an absolutely insane number of colours and textures all at once. I immediately snap my eyes shut.
“Holy shit. Literally everything in this building seems to be running on or connected to some kind of magic.”
“We’d noticed,” Reva replies, when I peel my eyelids open again I can see she’s rubbing her temple and leaning against Aster more heavily than usual. “Every little thing in this city, even the mundane things, seem to have magic tied into them. It makes you wonder where it all came from.”
“And at what cost,” I mutter, taking a longer look around. This time, instead of getting distracted by the magic that’s on the floor and the ceiling and weaving through the air, I focus my attention on Reva and Aster.
He seems to have a red cord wrapped tightly around his throat. His voice box, I’m guessing.
And Reva...
Has golden threads wrapped around her heart, one leads directly to Aster. A second is trailing on the floor, leading somewhere out of the door. And then there’s one that seems even looser than the other two, and that one... well, that one links straight into my own chest.
It’s duller than the other two, so fine it looks fit to snap at any moment. Beside it in her chest, there’s something odd that catches my attention and I frown at it trying to work out what I’m seeing.
“Anything?” she asks.
Going over the area right between her ribs again, there’s something off about that section of her chest, but it’s difficult to tell exactly what it is.
“I can see your mate bonds,” I reply distractedly.
Reva freezes, her eyes locking onto mine. All the blood has drained from her face again and I wrap my arm around her when she looks in danger of stumbling.
“Wh-what did you say?”
“I can see your bonds,” I rasp. “All of them.”
“Including the one with Kit?” she asks softly, screwing up her eyes at my answering nod. She grabs the spectacles and stares down at her chest, her expression folding in on itself. “I can’t see any of the bonds. And I only just found these in my bag, but I must have had them this whole time. If we’d known, we could have just followed Kit’s bond.”
She visibly droops in front of me and I keep my arm around her to hold her steady. I’m still peering down at her, distracted by what I can see in her chest more than anything right now.
“There’s something in your chest that doesn’t look right,” I tell her. “Almost like there should be something there. Is that what’s making you feel unwell?”
“I’ll explain it all later,” she replies, patting my hand and giving it a squeeze. “Kit has something of mine with him I should never have let out of my sight. And now that I've been away from it for a while, I’m starting to really feel the effects.”
“What can we do?”
