“Laleh!”
“Sura,” she whispers as I reach down to hug her.
Thankfully, she smells more of floral shampoo and the ozone scent of magic, an odd combination, but I suppose she would, given the Everlean healers tending to all her injuries. Laleh makes space for me on the bed, and I look her over. Indeed, she’s no worse for wear, though her eyes still show signs of weariness and... worry.
“You’re safe,” I tell her. “I’ve been treated well here. You have nothing to fear.” Except for the volatile, much-too-handsome king who despises me for no logical reason and changes into a feral manticore when he gets overwrought, though I keep that information to myself. “How did you get here? How are Papa and Amma? And the inn?”
“I was looking for you. I paid a runecaster from Veniar to make a portal... and of course it dumped me into a fucking basilisk lair.” She swallows, revulsion crawling over her features for a second before her eyes brighten. “If those smoking hot, bend-me-over-a-windowsill horse people hadn’t come along, I’d have been that thing’s dinner.”
“It’s dead,” I say with a snort. I’ve missed her ribald humor. “Why were you looking for me?”
She cocks her head. “So it is true then. You’ve lost your memory? One of the healers mentioned it,” she explains at my look of confusion. “The pretty, dark-haired woman who asked me a million questions with a sandsdamned truth root.”
Oh, she must mean Ani.
“She did the same to me. And I haven’t lost all of my memories. I remember you and my life in Coban. Everything else from later on is... scattered. Kaldari. The prince’s selection. The wedding to Javed. You were there, I know that.” I pause. “But there are also big gaps, and when I try to remember, it hurts.” I don’t tell her that filling in some of those gaps leaves me with an awful feeling that my brain is trying to protect me from something terrible. Somethingexcruciating. I think of my family and my heart free-falls. Is that why she didn’t answer my earlier question? “Laleh, are my aunt and my father... well?”
She nods fervently. “They’re fine.” She pinches the side of her belly between her thumb and forefinger. “Amma makes sure I’m being fed your portions of food, which is probably why that basilisk wanted me in the first place. I’m excellent eating.” We share a laugh that makes my chest squeeze with joy. “They want you to come home, Sura. We all do.”
“I want that, too,” I say, lowering my voice, though the healer on the other side of the room can’t possibly hear us. “But only the king can open a portal because of the magical wards here. In fact, I don’t even know how you managed to get past them.”
She shrugs. “Me, either. But I found you... so, win?” Laleh grins, and I feel my eyes smart with tears at the familiar sight. “So what happened? We heard so many conflicting things. Some snooty noblewoman from Regulus said you’d been eaten by the king’s pet monster. The rumors were wild.”
Sands, how do I explain what happened? And why am I strangely reluctant to do so? Laleh is my best friend... Ishouldwant to tell her everything. But many of the secrets I now know aren’t mine to tell. They belong to Everlea and to its king. Where has that strange sense of loyalty come from? An odd tug in my center is my only answer.
As if my thoughts have summoned him, the door opens as Ani and the king of Everlea walk in, instantly crowding the small room. My breath catches in my throat at the sight of Darrius. Tattoos peek from his polished armor and writhe slightly as if to remind me of what they can do. A shiver winds over my skin, pebbling my nipples in an inconvenient burst of arousal, and I cross my arms over my chest. Cheeks heating, I drag my eyes away, back to Laleh.
I notice her tense, but I remember doing the same thing. Darrius is intimidating at the best of times. I risk a glance back at him. His eyes are fastened on me, but they immediately flick to my best friend and cool a few degrees. Her eyebrows arch as she sends me an intrigued look that means I have to spillthosesecrets the minute they leave. My cheeks flame hotter.
Stars... pull yourself together, Sura!
“My sister has explained everything you told her under the Verac root,” the king says to my friend in a measured voice, though I can sense his unease. “How did you circumvent my wards? No one can portal into this realm.”
“I paid a runecaster,” Laleh says. “Maybe there’s a flaw in your wards.”
“Or maybe you have a spy on the inside,” he says. It’s a miracle he doesn’t look at me, considering how many times he has accused me of being one. But I have no functional magic, so no viable way to weaken his wards. And I arrived here with the mate of his bonded azdaha.
Laleh lifts one shoulder. “Sounds like ayouproblem.”
I stifle a giggle as that incredulous obsidian gaze widens in affront and then lands on me when I pin my lips together to keep from bursting into laughter.
“I can see why you’re friends,” he remarks humorlessly.
“Bestfriends,” Laleh says, and my eyes well up with joyous tears again. I reach for her hand and grip it tightly. It’s good to have someone I know and trust with me. A small smile touches Ani’s lips as if she knows exactly what I’m feeling and is simply glad to see me happy.Twopeople, then. I catch sight of Darrius’s glower and sigh.
“There is a feast tonight in honor of the Gauntlet of Mithral,” the king says, his mouth thinning as he peers down the length of his nose at me. “With the Aspacana. We cannot refuse them our presence or it will be taken as an insult. They seek to honor the slayer of the basilisk.”
“I didn’t actually kill it,” I point out. “It was already dying.”
His mouth flattens even more. “Nonetheless, yours was the final stroke. The feast and tournament will move forward for now.”
“Can’t we politely decline?” I ask.
His jaw flexes. “Not without repercussions. They take the gods very seriously. For the harvest ritual in autumn, the clans honor Huma, the god of harvest and rain, for a full month.” He shakes his head with a thoughtful frown. “But the Gauntlet of Mithral hasn’t been celebrated in years. It’s odd they would choose to do so now.”
“You can claim—” Ani begins, and is immediately silenced by a fulminating glare from the king. I frown, staring at the siblings. What had Ani been about to say? Claim what?
A muscle throbs in the king’s cheek. “This couldn’t have come at a worse time, when our borders are being threatened, but I will be expected to participate in the tournament,” Darrius says, and my brows jump to my hairline.
