Oh, no, he thought, something like horror blooming in his chest. He only hoped it didn’t show on his face.
The magician snagged the line where it swayed in the air and connected it to her belt. She gave it a firm tug before grinning at Blaine, a manic gleam to her brown eyes. “Ready when you are. I’ll shatter the shield spell once we’re on board.”
Blaine had nothing to say to that. Everything he wanted to say and do—shake her until the damned woman saw reason and lock her away to keep her safe—he couldn’t. Instead, Blaine called up to the decking, and the rope jerked with a heavy tug, hauling him into the air. The magician joined him, and she kept her wand pointed at the train below them that suddenly grew smaller as Honovi abruptly gained altitude, flying away from the tracks.
Blaine looked back, seeing more automatons clamoring onto the cargo carriage in the glow of the magician’s shield. Then the spell shattered with a flick of her wand, the aether brightness snuffed out at her command.
The wind that blew around them was cold as the airship picked up speed. As they were hauled to hull height, Blaine kicked his legs out to brace against the metal-lined wood, walking up it. Hands reached for them both when they made it to the railing, hauling them to safety.
The moment his feet hit the decking, the airship engines changed pitch as they ascended rapidly, putting the train behind them. Blaine sucked air through his teeth at the sound of the magician’s breathless, disbelieving laughter.
“A word, if you will, miss,” he snapped, getting a stranglehold on his temper.
She stared guilelessly at him as she tucked her wand into its holster. “Of course.”
Blaine spared a moment to pop his head into the flight cabin and give Honovi a nod to show he was all right before leading her belowdecks. She took the steps slower than he did, not having the years he had under his belt at finding his balance in an airship running at speed.
He led her a little ways from the stairs before turning to face her and raising his hands. “If I may?”
She blinked at him but gave him a nod anyway. Before she could step back, Blaine reached for the pendant sitting at the hollow of her throat and undid the clasp there. She took in a sharp breath and made to jerk away, but it was too late. The veil came undone, magic sliding away, the face she’d worn throughout the night becoming her own.
Blaine stared at Caris, heart hammering against his ribs, as she looked back at him in alarm.
“I can explain,” Caris said as she hastily reached for the clasp of the veil to do it all up again. The magic glimmered like a haze on a hot day, her visage once again becoming someone else entirely.
“You’re not supposed to be here—” He pointed at the holstered wand. “—withthat.”
“I wanted to help.”
“You’re not known as a magician. Youcan’tbe known as that right now.”
Those brown eyes—not gray like he’d grown used to seeing over the years—narrowed at him. “And what do you mean by that?”
Blaine realized too late he’d backed himself into a corner he hadn’t even known was there. Before he could respond, the sound of footsteps on the stairs reached them. Honovi came into view seconds later.
“We’re heading to the rendezvous point.” He frowned at them. “Is everything all right?”
“Perfectly fine,” Caris said with all the haughtiness of the title she’d been born to in her voice.
She spun on her heels and hurried back abovedeck, leaving the two of them alone in the narrow hallway lit by a dull orange gas lamp. Honovi watched her leave before returning his gaze to Blaine.
“What was that about?” he asked in E’ridian.
“Thatwas Caris, doing what she pleased when she shouldn’t,” Blaine replied in the same language, keeping his voice low lest they be overheard.
“Then why do you look as if you saw a revenant?”
Blaine swallowed thickly, remembering the way she’d flung magic about on the train roof, knowing now she’d channel aether without the need of the wand required by nearly everyone else. He knew what that meant—for her and for the country.
“She has the ability to cast starfire.”
He said it with a certainty he’d felt only once before, when he’d said his vows to Honovi and accepted the marriage torc around his throat. And Honovi, stars guide him, understood the weight of that statement. Even through the veil he wore, Blaine could see the worry in his eyes.
“She’ll be a target.”
Blaine’s mind dredged up the distant, smoky memory of the night he escaped Amari with Caris in his arms, the both of them leaving everything behind. “She was always a target.”
And it was his job, wrapped up in a dead bloodline’s duty, to somehow protect her and bear witness to her being seated on the Ashion throne.
