“He recognized that magic,” Acri continued. “It was all over his face when I came in the room. He thought this was hisescape.”
Funus scowled. “He’s not going to just blab thatinformation.”
“Obviously,” Acri snorted. “But can’t you think of the rightincentive?”
Suzu snapped her fingers, and black fire bloomed in herpalms.
Evariste took another cautious step backwards, but he laughed—a jaded and cynical sound. “You’ve already taken so much from me. Do you really think I’ll give this one up?” Mockingly, he leaned forward. “Do. Your.Worst.”
Acri laughed. “I was so hoping you would put up a fight! Suzu, doit.”
Evariste stiffened himself for pain, but he wasn’tconcerned.
Pain was temporary, and while it was consuming, it didn’t threaten to steal away his very self like the grayness of the mirrordid.
No, whatever torture they tried wouldn’t loosen his lips.At least it will break up the monotony, he cynically thought before the burningstarted.
Chapter 11
With the braceletbroken and useless, no matter how Angelique tried to recreate the spell, it didn’t work. She tried supplementing it with some of the gifts Evariste had given her: dresses, pearl hair pins, books; nothingworked.
In the end, she concluded that the mages holding Evariste might have realized she got through their defenses and doubled down onthem.
It makes sense, Angelique thought gloomily when, two weeks later, she busied herself with sorting through the various correspondences—magical and otherwise—she had received.The mages are crafty enough to capture Evariste. There is no possibility that the spell went unnoticed—particularly given Evariste’s concern. It’s likely they would increase their defense to make certain I couldn’t get backagain.
For a moment, she stared unseeingly across the library.But at least I got something out of it. They’ve imprisoned him in a mirror. I need to stop by Enchanter Clovicus’ office and tellhim.
Angelique paused when she found a letter stamped with the wax seal of the royal Arcainianfamily.
It must be from Gabrielle—but it came through the Veneno Conclave? Why wouldn’t she send it to medirectly?
She tugged on a scrap of paper stuck to the seal and saw it had a message scrawled acrossit.
Angelique—thought you might want to look into this given your friendship with the Prinzessin. It was a general message sent to several enchanters and enchantresses, but to my knowledge, no one has the time or ability to investigate the matter at themoment.
-Clovicus
Curious, Angelique broke the seal and unfolded the letter, scanning thecontents.
It was a request from Prince Erick ofArcainia.
King Henrik of Arcainia had married a new bride shortly after Severin and Elle had been married in earlyspring.
Unfortunately, it seemed the circumstances surrounding King Henrik’s new marriage were rather suspicious. (He had met the woman in the woods and kept her a secret until they announced their engagement, and the woman—reading between the polite garbage Prince Erick had written—had the personality of a shrew. Moreover, King Henrik seemed almostaddledby his love for this woman, and he had made several questionable decisions over the past fewweeks.)
Prince Erick’s request was for a high-level mage to come to Arcainia and meet the queen to see if it could be discerned whether she was using magic or any sort of enchantment on theking.
Angelique scratched her collarbone as she looked around thelibrary.
Outside, the lawn was green, and the mid-spring flowers were blooming with a vengeance, creating a colorful picture. Even through the walls of the house, Angelique could hear the birds chirping andsinging.
It’s been three years since Queen Ingrid of Arcainia died. It’s not a bad thing for King Henrik to marry again, but given the famous passion of his romance with Ingrid, I would have thought he would not enter into something with such secrecy—for the sake of his children and hiscountry.
Angelique chewed on her lip. “I suppose I could drop by. It would be nice to visit with Gabrielle, and I’d like to talk to Puss about Evariste being sealed in a mirror. Though we’ll have to do that in secret—if I recall correctly, he’s posing as a regular, non-magical and non-talking cat at themoment.”
Angelique tapped the letter on her hand before she nodded, her mind made up. “Yes. I’ll do it. I don’t think I’m going to have any more success with this spell, so I had best start pursuing the lead Idohave.”
Angelique tossed the rest of the correspondences on the desk and left the library, making the trek to herroom.
