“And the rest of the boundless Library we reside in was clearly uninhabitable for her as well?”
“Oh, leave him be, Allaster.” Nyelle pressed a hand wearily to her temple. “Vera is sending you a new mage candidate. He’ll be at the portal door in an hour.”
“Where he’ll stay.” Allaster pitched forward in his seat to snatch Nyelle’s glass. “I’m not letting another beast slayer into my Library.”
Iylis’s tail thumped indignantly against the floor. “Lady Kasira is far more than that.”
“Do you mean a liar, a cheat, and a fraud?” Allaster asked flippantly, though every word scraped at him.
“If I have to answer that, you haven’t been paying attention.”
Allaster groaned, well used to Iylis’s cryptic answers and far too drained to parse them. “The point is, I don’t want another Kalish pawn in the Library.”
“You don’t have a choice.” Nyelle’s voice softened, which was an even worse sign than the whiskey. “Unless you have proof that Kasira was not a part of some ploy by the Library to defraud Kalthos of its choice of candidate for Assistant?”
Allaster downed Nyelle’s drink, relishing the burn. “Of course I don’t.” Meanwhile, Vera had a host of witnesses who would swear that, upon discovering the deception, Allaster had refused to turn Kasira over. He might not have initiated Vera’s scheme, but he’d upheld it, and that gave Vera leverage.
“Saints.” He slammed the glass down hard enough for it to crack, and Iylis’s tail twitched. But the safety of the leopard’s glassware was the least of Allaster’s concerns. This new mage was yet another reason why he’d needed so desperately to trust Kasira. For while the King made peace with the Yadoras, Vera had set her sights on the Library, and Allaster had no doubt she intended to use it as a platform upon which to build herself support, starting with that mage.
Nyelle reached across the desk to squeeze his hand. “We’ll make it through this, Allaster. We always do.” She stood to go, but Allaster didn’t let go of her hand. It had been years since they had been together, decades even, in which Nyelle had found a new partner who had since passed, but she had always made him feel steady on his feet. And with Mora gone and May leaving and Kasira … He had never felt more alone.
But he had ended things with Nyelle, and she had had a full life since then, a partner she had deserved for what time they’d had together, and so he let her go.
“I have a favor to ask,” he said as she straightened. “I need to know everything you can find on Kasira Vitalis.”
CHAPTER 29
KASIRA
WHENKASIRA AWOKE, THE NIGHT BEFORE CAME BACK TO HER INbits and pieces. The sight of Dessen stepping through that door. The hurt and betrayal in Allaster’s eyes. The sound of her name on his lips when he snarled,Kasira belongs to me.
The idea of setting up her foundation again exhausted her to even think about, but she had to get Allaster back on her side. She ran through what she knew of him as she washed and changed: He valued studying and history, but reading a few extra books wouldn’t get her out of this. He had a prince’s ego, and it was likely bruised after discovering he had been fooled, but his reaction last night had not just been pained, it had been almost frantic.
I needed you to be telling the truth.
For all his flippant remarks and reclusive behavior, at his core, Allaster was the Librarian of Amorlin. He cared deeply for the Library, enough that he’d made the decision to keep her here despite knowing Vera would use it against him. Because he thought that letting her go meant giving Vera another opportunity to install a pawn. If she wanted to earn his forgiveness, she would have to make him believe that not only was she still not a threat, but that she cared too.
Settling onto a cushioned stool before the floor-length mirror that now occupied one corner of her room, she worked a brush through the tangles of her hair. The woman reflected back at her was at oncefamiliar and unexpected. The dark shadows beneath her eyes from lack of sleep had faded, and her face had rounded out along the edges from consistent meals and late-night snacks courtesy of the leopards. She sat straight now, where she used to curve in on herself, disappearing slowly with each passing day.
There was a determination in her eyes Kasira hadn’t seen in years.
She ran a finger along the small scar at her jaw, the crescent shape yet another reminder of her time in Belvar. It had been barely a month into her sentence, and she had woken to the sound of a guard in her cell. Only a lifetime of quick hands had let her react fast enough. She broke his fingers; he nearly broke her jaw. That moment felt impossibly far away and yet as close as the damaged skin beneath her finger.
A knock came at her door, and Kasira slipped into the magic, detecting May’s presence. For some reason, facing the First Mage was more daunting a task than facing the Librarian, but it would help to have May on her side before addressing Allaster. Still, the thought of lying to May again turned Kasira’s stomach. She called her in, feigning an inability to meet her friend’s eye that felt all too real.
May perched on the edge of the bed. “So. Kasira, huh?” she asked after a protracted silence. “I think I’ll call you Kas.”
A tentative relief fluttered inside her, and Kasira faced May. “You aren’t angry?”
May’s brown eyes searched hers with the acuity of a blade, and Kasira laid bare her hope, letting May see how much this meant to her—because it did. If May wouldn’t forgive her, Allaster certainly never would. But there was something new in May’s expression, something that bordered on desperate.
“Why are you here?” she asked.
It was not the question Kasira had been expecting. “Why did you do it,” or “Are you on our side,” yes, but not that. She had told Allaster she’d taken Eirlana’s place because she’d had nowhere else to go, but that wouldn’t be enough for the First Mage. She needed something personal for May, something she would understand. Like escaping the darkness of one life for something new, something safe.
“I was in a bad situation,” Kasira finally said. “And I saw a chance for something better.”
May’s edges softened at that, and she folded her hands in her lap. “I would like the full story from you. Allaster was … worked up.”
