“You need me to get that proof,” she countered. “If you expose me to Allaster, I won’t be able to do that.”
“Indeed.” The King returned to his couch and glass of wine. “I will give you one of those things, Assistant. You may go.”
Kasira snapped her fingers, appearing in the courtyard. Her heart beat in time with her racing thoughts, searching for a solution that didn’t end with her in a prison cell. If she told the King the truth, he would put a stop to Vera’s plans, and her bargain with the Ambassador would be void. Vera would reveal her to Allaster, and she’d lose her position as Assistant. She would lose him. She’d have no choice but to run, her life nothing but a series of escapes once more.
She could use her one request of the King to ask for immunity, but where she believed that Vera would likely keep her word, she did not think the same of the King. He wanted to eliminate the threat against him, and Kasira was a part of that. Vera might be safe from his hand, but the pawns in her service would not be.
“You look like Iylis when someone breaks one of his cups.”
She spun at Allaster’s voice. Somewhere between leaving her and now, he must have found several refills of wine. His cheeks had a light flush to them, and the top button of his coat had been undone, revealing the long column of his throat.
“Why do you always seem to lose a button every time you drink?” she deflected.
He looked from the empty flute in his hand to the offending button. “I ran into Lady Nyelle.”
“What does she—oh.” It occurred to Kasira, not for the first time, that Allaster was much older than he looked. He’d had an entire lifetime before meeting her. Still—Nyelle?
“You and Lady Nyelle?” she asked. “But I thought—Mora.”
A pained look crossed his face. “I loved Mora, but not in thatway. I think May always had more of a romantic interest in her than anyone else, but she soon met Taya.”
“You’re much more talkative when you’re drunk.”
“I am not drunk.”
Ever so gently, she pressed a finger into his chest. Allaster swayed, then shifted back a step to keep his balance. Scowling, he seized her hand and pulled her toward the soulice door. She let him, trying to keep her smile from crumbling as she thought of the choice before her.
More than one set of eyes followed them through the garden, whispers trailing like cloaks in their wake. Allaster seemed as aware of them as she was, his shoulders rising closer and closer to his ears as he bristled.
“Do you need something?” he finally snapped at a particularly obvious set of gawkers, and there was something in the way he said it, about how his hand tightened on hers, that left her feeling untethered.
When had that defensive ire of his gone from being directed at her to being pointed outward around them both?
Allaster wrenched open the soulice door and released her hand as he crossed through. She followed, letting the door swing shut behind her. They had barely entered the portal room before he cast her one last, inscrutable look and vanished.
In the space his absence revealed, something caught her eye. A silver bracelet with a crescent moon charm rested just at the edge of the hallway to the infirmary, as though someone had dropped it on their way through. Except May would never be so careless with it, and—Kasira stopped, the stark sight of blood on the bracelet’s edge turning her cold.
She dove into the magic, seeking her friend’s energy, but found nothing.
May was gone.
CHAPTER 38
KASIRA
KASIRA’S MIND SPUN FURIOUSLY.IFMAY HAD BEEN INJURED, ANDKasira couldn’t sense her—No, she thought.She’s not dead.
There was only one person who would have done this.
She snapped her fingers on instinct, reappearing in front of the sydara vine on the northern rooftop garden. Thane stood at the railing looking out at the gathering dusk. He didn’t even bother to turn when she arrived, though he had clearly been waiting for her.
“Where is she?” Kasira demanded, magic already flowing through her veins.
Thane tapped one finger against the balustrade. “Why does it matter? These people should be nothing to you.”
“Answer me.”
Thane faced her, leaning back against the railing. “Oh, you really do care for this cursed place, don’t you? Tell me, does it bother you knowing you’ve betrayed your own people to become a whore of the Library?”
