The illusionary Angelique was frozen, and then the darknessshattered.
It was so bright, Evariste had to cover his eyes to block out the light, and then…he heardit.
“Can’t evensleepnow without having to work. I should have socked Finnr in the nose when he told me I couldhandle the sorcerer. I’m starting to think he was just hoping this would kill me,” an achingly familiar voice grumbled with adorably badhumor.
Evariste slowly stoodagain.
He was in a forest of some sorts. It was blurry and smudged—as if whoever was picturing it couldn’t quite recall the details—but sitting on a stump was a simultaneously enraged and tiredAngelique.
Is this a dream? If I move closer to her, will she disappear…or is this just another memory?Evariste tried to take a step closer, but his body wouldn’t move. He was almost too afraid tobreatheand make herdisappear.
Her hair was its true dark shade of brunette, and her eyes flashed silver. She wore an iridescent dress—the one Evariste had bought for her and meant to give her for her verbal test with the Council—and her hair was pushed back with bejeweledcombs.
But despite her finery, she sat with her legs sprawled in front of her, dark circles under her eyes, and a crabby expression pursing her lips as her silver magic clustered at herfingertips.
Even in bad humor, she was the most beautiful thing Evariste had seen in a long time—perhapsever.
“Angelique?” Evariste felt numb as he stared at her, afraid tohope.
“Whatdo you wantnow?” She twisted to face him, and Evariste could tell the moment she saw him for she blanched. She gulped, her eyes wide, as she stared at him as if she had seen aghost.
Would a dream Angelique react like this? I don’t think so…which might mean she’s a memory. But I didn’t give her the dress yet, so that wouldn’t be part of arecollection.
Evariste finally let himself take a step closer, which only made Angelique’s eyes bigger until she was full-on bulging them athim.
“No,” shesaid.
Evariste froze midstep. “No?” heasked.
Angelique shook her finger at him. “This is just because I’m tired, and Sano and the others put the thought in my head.No. It can’t betrue!”
Evariste drew a little closer. At this distance, he could smell the floral scent that always seemed to follow her. “What thought?” He reached out, everything in him straining as he moved to brush his fingers against hershoulder.
Angelique shot backwards, avoiding him and scurrying across the ground whilst still seated. “Oh, no. No, no, no! You’re not dead. I don’t care what they say—I don’t even care if you’re my subconscious trying to tell me that Evariste is dead. It doesn’t matter. He’snot!”
Evariste stared at her, stunned. Not by her outburst, but because of the way she wasacting.
We’ve never discussed my death, so this cannot be a memory, and it’s certainly not an illusion from Liliane or anyone else. They would never know to make Angelique this caustic. But that means…this really is her?How?
Normally he would have been more skeptical, but hewantedto believe. He so badly wanted to see her, even if it meant grasping atstraws.
Angelique was seemingly unaware of his shock. She pulled her legs to her chest and was generally preoccupied with grumbling to herself. “I let them boss me around for the good of the continent, but I refuse to give them the ability to bully me in my own thoughts. I’m going to keep looking for Evariste until we find him or until Idie.”
She licked her lips and squinted up at the smudgy sky. “Which, given that I’m chasing a wyvern, might not be too faroff?”
Evariste approached Angelique. He knelt in front of her, his hands and shoulders trembling from the force of his emotions. He shakily cupped his hands on her cheeks, making her meet his eyes. “I’ve missed you somuch.”
Angelique’s eyes instantly clouded with tears. “This is unfair.” A hiccup escaped her. “That you’re saying that withhisface.”
Evariste lowered his hands and instead set them on her shoulders as he mentally tried to calculate how out of character it would be if he embraced her. (Frankly, he didn’t care whether or not it was like him. But he got the feeling that if he came on too strongly, she’d leap out of his arms.) “It’s really me,Angel.”
Angelique narrowed her eyes. “But…how?”
“I don’t rightly know,” he truthfully said. “They were using my magic to put me in some kind of waking nightmare. When I saw you in that nightmare, my magic reacted oddly, and then I feltyourmagic.” He tried to tug Angelique into a side hug, but she was an unmovable stone weighed down by suspicion. “It seems we have aconnection.”
“Let me guess.” Sarcasm dripped from Angelique’s voice as she hunched her back. “It was the power oflove?”
Evariste held his breath. “Perhaps.”
