“And look at you,” he said. “A scribe to the Crown?”
Zuriel’s shoulders pulled back. “Minister of Letters.”
Kaelan stepped back, placing his hand again on Magda’s waist. “And did your mother bribe a witch with a fae wand to make that miracle happen too?”
Zuriel smiled a bit. “I resent your implication that I have not achieved my position by my own merits.”
“As was my intention entirely,” Kaelan said with that same beguiling smile. “Would you care to test my dueling skills now? I admit I’m rather rusty after all of those years in exile with thehumans, but you were always much better with the pen than the sword, as I recall.”
“I’m happy to say that you are just the same arrogant imp-hole that you always were,” Zuriel said, chuckling. His gaze flicked back over to Magda, cooling. “I never expected to see either of you again.”
“I’m sure everyone at the Spire finds our return quite shocking,” she said.
He clasped his hands behind his back. “That is one word for it.”
“And another?”
He smiled thinly. “You have defied all expectations. Your story has caused quite a stir. Is it true you possess the Enneahedron?”
The weight of it pressed against her back. “It is.”
“And you have returned my dear friend from the dead,” he said with the half-convinced air of someone attempting to find a loose thread that would set everything unraveling. His gaze skipped over to Honey, who was hovering just behind Kaelan. “And you have a nymph, with a rat.”
Without warning, Hero’s fur bristled and he sank his teeth into Honey’s neck.
Honey shrieked, grabbing Hero and flinging him away. Magda grabbed Kaelan’s wrist as Hero went sailing above the heads of the dumbfounded crowd.
Honey stumbled, bumping into Kaelan and Magda, knocking them both into Zuriel and a number of others standing close by.
Everyone tumbled into a heap, Magda landing nose-to-nose with Zuriel. His eyes had turned cold and hard again.
“What the—?” Zuriel growled.
She struggled to disentangle herself from him.
“What is this?” Flor demanded.
She finally managed to roll off of Zuriel and out from under Honey, ripping her cloak in the process. Honey plopped to the ground, hand on the side of her throat, blood pouring between her fingers and fat tears running down her face.
Flor knelt beside the nymph. “What in—?”
“Hero bit me,” Honey said, wide-eyed and gasping for breath.
“That damned rat?” Flor said. “When I find him—”
“Why would he do that?” Madga asked.
“Because he is a rat,” Flor snapped at her.
Kaelan scrambled up and over to Honey. “It will be all right.” He placed his own hand over hers. While Kaelan healed Honey, Zuriel picked himself up and offered his hand to Magda. She took it, shaking out her cloak as she stood. Not only was it torn, but splattered with blood.
“Damn,” she murmured.
Zuriel shook back his brown locks, teasing them from where they’d snagged in his mouth.
“Life is so much more exciting with you around, Magdalena,” he said. With a bow, he turned and threaded his way through the gawking crowd.
Kaelan pulled his hand from Honey. The blood had stopped, but was thick on her skin.
