“How could you do this!” the young lady demanded, her voice loud and full ofpanic.
“Why are we shouting?” Stilasked.
“I DON’T KNOW!” his apparent lady-love shouted powerfully at hisface.
Angelique briefly grabbed the wall to keep from toppling over, her thoughts blanking at the oddexchange.
I don’t even know what to thinkanymore.
The wall creaked a little, and Angelique hastily pushed off it and made an effort to stand straight when Stil and the young lady turned to faceher.
Angelique smiled at the pair—though Stil twisted his lips in a frown that told her she had bad timing, and his young lady gaped at Angelique much how Angelique wished to gawk ather.
She cleared her throat—for this new silence was almost more awkward than watching their fight. “I seem to have caught you at a bad time.” Angelique paused for a moment to give the pair a chance to saysomething.
They didn’t.Wonderful.
“I’ll just go for now,” she decided—though the thought of returning to the cold broke her alittle.
“Come back in an hour,” Stilsaid.
“Wait!” The still-unnamed lady—for apparently Stil had terrible manners—zipped across the parlor and approached Angelique. “You must be here to see Stil. I apologize for our loud discussion, but you have not interrupted anything. Please, come in. Can I get you something todrink?”
Angelique stared at the girl in surprise, more disarmed by her unexpected kindness than she had been by finding her in a shouting match withStil.
With her exhaustion leaning heavily on her shoulders and her heart still smarting from Blanche and Rein’s rejection, Angelique’s eyesstung.
She tried to speak, but to her embarrassment, tears escaped her control, and she burst intosobs.
She was vaguely aware of Stil sliding a brotherly arm around her and guiding her to asettee.
He crouched in front of her and placed a hand on her knee. “Angelique, what’swrong?”
Tired and defeated, Angelique shook her head. “Everything.”
Her tears kept coming as Stil exchanged a murmured conversation with his companion—who disappeared through the parlor door. He awkwardly hovered around Angelique as she desperately fought to regain control ofherself.
But she was so tired and so weary of dragging herself into a new fight everywhere she went.Why can’t I just find Evariste?she thought bleakly.If I could just find him, I could bear the rest ofthis.
Her eyes still stung from her tears, and now her face was hot and itchy. Angelique let out a huff of air. “Ihatecrying. It’s so useless, and it only serves to make a person damp and weary.” She angrily sniffed—aware she was madder with herself for losing control than at her actualtears.
“I’m certain that after all you’ve gone through, and after all you’ve done, you deserve a good cry.” Stil’s voice was soft, as was his hand when he squeezed hershoulder.
He sounds so much like Evariste when he’s not being cheeky about his abilities.This thought proved to be the undoing of what little self-control she had mustered, and Angelique cried harder, feeling as though she had been torn intwo.
“I can’t find him, Stil,” she sobbed, knowing the craftmage would guess to whom she was referring. “I have looked everywhere and combed every country, and I haven’t found a hint of him! I even forced my way into Ringsted to see if he was carried down there.Nothing.”
“You’ll findhim.”
“No, I won’t! I haven’t any place left to look! I have tracked him with magic; I have looked for enchanted mirrors; and I have even used our bond as master and apprentice in that spell you gave me. Nothing works! He mightbe—”
Angelique cut herself off, unable to think it or say it. Over a year had passed since she managed to briefly make a connection with Evariste and find out he was in a mirror, and she hadn’t made any progress sincethen.
There was a possibility he was no longeralive.
But I would feel it! I’d know! So he must still bealive.
Stil shifted from his spot next to Angelique’s settee and folded his arms across his chest. “I hate to mention this, but it must be connected to the evil and darkness that has been stirring across the continent,” he said. “The attacks against the countries and royalty are too well done to be coincidence. Whoever is responsible for this has been planning it for years. It is very likely they knew Enchanter Evariste needed to be removed before they could launch their firstattack.”
