“He’s… a friend.”
The woman’s face hardened. “I’m afraid he is indisposed at the moment.” She stopped before a charming inn, motioning them inside. “You may stay here for as long as you need. We see plenty of displaced people come through these parts, so please, make yourselves at home. There is food inside, and clothes will be brought to you shortly.” At this, she eyed their curious clothing again, though abstained from commenting on it.
She made to leave, but Aspen stopped her with a concerned frown. “Pardon me, but would it be possible to get in touch with Anatolius? It’s just I haven’t seen him in so long, you see.”
A pause. Then: “Are you an acquaintance from his old village?”
“Yes,” Aspen said, and Emory herself nearly believed her for how honest she sounded.
The Knight Commander bowed her head, mouth downturned with sudden sadness. “Then I truly hate to be the bearer of bad news. Anatolius has broken his most sacred oath and turned his back on the light.” Her throat bobbed with emotion. “For this, he has been sentenced to death.”
Aspen faltered, all the blood leeching from her face. “No, that can’t be.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Please, if I could see him…”
“You can see him at the Chasm, the arena where he is to fight to the death in two days’ time,” the woman said in a clipped voice. She gave a curt bow at the waist, golden helmet tucked beneath an arm. “Good day.”
The rest of the knights followed her at once. Only the young page, Caius, hesitated, his green eyes trained on Aspen, as if he wanted to say a word of comfort. But a sharp command from Master Bayns had him following.
“What are we going to do?” Aspen lamented. “I can’t let him die.”
Emory stared after the retreating knights, tempted to call on her Memorist magic to peruse their minds. But after what happened on the ley line, she abstained. “Let’s start with getting changed and fed, and we’ll go from there.”
As they settled into the quarters the innkeeper brought them to, Romie took Emory aside, dragging her to the small balcony overlooking the city streets below.
Romie crossed her arms. “What in the Deep was that back therewith you fainting on the ley line? And if you lie to me or say it’s nothing,” she added quickly before Emory could utter a word, “I swear I’ll shove you off this balcony. No more secrets, remember?”
Emory shied away from her gaze. “I think being on the ley line allowed me to access Aspen’s magic. I saw what she saw when she scried.”
Romie’s eyebrows shot up. “Is this the first time it’s happened?”
A nod. “It was like this overload of power inside me. And when I passed out…” She heaved a sigh.No more secrets. “Keiran appeared to me.”
“What?”
“He pulled me into this space that looked like the sleepscape.” She frowned, remembering how Keiran had told her to run before pushing her out of that odd state of consciousness. She told Romie as much, and though she couldn’t exactly bring herself to say it’d felt like he’dsavedher, Romie seemed to deduce as much.
She scowled. “Let’s not forget he tried to kill Aspen and attacked us with a horde of umbrae. You can’t trust him.”
“I didn’t say I trusted him.”
“Well, heiswearing your ex-lover’s face.”
Here it was. The real reason Romie had pulled her aside.
Emory felt anger and guilt warring with each other. “This is exactly why I didn’t tell you about me and Keiran. I knew you’d judge me.”
“Judge you? Tides, Em, I couldn’t care less who you fall for.”
“Ouch,” Emory said.
“No, not like that—of course I care toknowthese things, but I’d never judge you for it. And I get it. Keiran was charming and mysterious and, let’s face it, gorgeous as hell. He had the whole college fawning over him, not just the Selenic Order, and not just you.” Romie fixed her with a hard stare. “But I’m mad that you kept this from me after wejustpromised each other no more secrets.”
“Like you’re so transparent?” Emory bit out. She knew she was in the wrong here, but Romie’s words only made her angrier. “This whole thing started withyoukeeping secrets. For a whole year, you drew away from me, lied to me, made me feel like I was losing my best friend. And when Ididlose you, I fought like hell to get you back. You don’t get to fault me for a few secrets now. Not when half the things I had to do to get you back are things I’m not proud of. Things I wish I could take back.”
“I never asked you to do anything for me.”
