He draws my arms from around him and the movement is a little too fast. I fumble with the rubies. He helpfully grasps my hand, and?—
One of the stones glints between my fingers.
He freezes. His gaze flies to his ring and back to me. Confusion floods his features. “Tansy, what are you doing with those?”
I wrench out of his grasp. “I need them.”
“What for?”
“I can’t tell you.” I dart toward the front of the cube, whispering a spell as I go. “Love linger, love delay, love stay.”
He lunges in my direction. “Tansy, wait!”
My spell takes hold, and he stops in his tracks, his feet glued to the floor. It won’t hold him for long, but it’ll give me long enough to get the rubies to Mother Kadris.
As I step through the entrance, the cube releases me.
I glance back one more time, poised in the opening.
The look on Alexei’s face freezes me to the spot.
Betrayal.It floods his features like a knife to my heart.
His gray eyes are a storm of thunderclouds as he asks, “Was any of this real?”
My voice fails me. He must think it was all a ruse to steal the rubies from his ring.
I force myself to speak. “All of it was real. I love you, Alexei Mason. I will do anything to give you the chance to love me back.”
I spin and race away before he can break free of the spell.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Rushing along the corridor, the rubies held firmly in one fist, I snatch up a leaf from my dress, its golden handwriting glowing at my touch. I release it into the air as I run toward the rainbow stairs, pushing through the revelers to take the stairs two at a time.
This spell is more dangerous than I would normally use, but I speak it anyway, recklessness overtaking caution. “Illuminate ill will.”
My instinctive magic pours through me, triggered by my heightened emotions, so strong that I’m not sure if I’m using the spell or my magic this time.
Show me Mother Kadris…
The leaf flies ahead of me, blazing a path toward the other side of the roof. A glow that only I will be able to see spirals over the rooftop, a swirl of light that settles on a far sunken couch, illuminating her head and shoulders.
I hurry across the distance, gratified when Mother Kadris jolts as I slip into the seat opposite her. My chest heaves as I slap the rubies on the table and slide them across its smooth surface.
Her jaw drops. She stares at the stones and then at me.
I glare at her. “You didn’t think I’d find you without your permission, did you?”
Her startled eyes flash to mine. “I didn’t expect you to betray him.”
I pause at her choice of words, considering her carefully. “Betray him…?”
She continues to stare at the rubies. She seems oddly thrown. Her voice is a murmur. “I thought you would stay with him once you saw him again. I thought you would see that he…” She shakes herself. “You actually stole them.”
I struggle to make sense of what she’s saying. “We had a deal and I’ve kept my part of it.”
Mother Kadris’s eyes widen. She leans across the table toward me. “You don’t know what these rubies are, do you? He never told you?”
