As I near the steps, where a group of guards awaits—meaning Valoria is surely up there right now—I slow my pace. There’s a familiar figure standing on the opposite side of the guards, lingering in the shadows like he’s not quite sure how to approach them.
“Karston! Hey!” I wave him over.
He raises his head, giving me a hesitant smile but not coming any closer—and who could blame him, after last night’s incident? I’d be beyond embarrassed if I stumbled into someone else’s bedroom in my sleep.
Finally, he seems to decide I’m not about to tease him and strides past the guards to join me by the windows overlooking the garden. “I... I’m so sorry about last night,” he says as he reaches me. “I hope I didn’t interrupt—”
I throw my arms around him and pull him against me for a hug, shocking the rest of his words right out of him. “Honestly? I’m gladyou did. Let’s just say you saved me from saying a lot of things I would’ve regretted this morning. I owe you, big time.”
He studies me with mild concern—and, perhaps, understanding—as we break apart. “Girl trouble?” he asks. Judging by his tone, he knows something about that.
“Girl trouble,” I confirm, pressing my lips together in a firm line to keep from frowning when I think of the way Meredy and I went to bed after Karston left last night—with neither of us saying a word to the other, only curling up against each other for warmth at some point during the quietest hours of the morning. “That’s why I’m here,” I add, gesturing up the stairs that lead to Valoria’s tower room. “For some advice. What about you?”
Karston scuffs the toe of his boot against the floor. “I... well...” Forcing his gaze up to meet mine, he confesses, “Girl trouble, too, believe it or not.”
Having seen the way he looks at Noranna, I sure can.
“She tells Valoria everything,” Karston continues, as if he’s certain I already know who theshein question is. “I figure Her Majesty might have some advice for me on how to get Noranna to finally notice me.Reallynotice me, I mean. But it can wait. I still can’t decide what I’m going to say, and your situation sounds more pressing, besides. You should go up there first.” He gestures to the stairs.
“I haven’t even told you what happened!” I say, shaking my head but smiling. “Thanks, though. I promise I won’t take up too much of our queen’s time. I’m in a hurry this morning. Oh, and Karston?”
He meets my eyes again as I turn back to him. “You can talk to me about your girl trouble, too. Not that I’m in any position to give advice, but...” I shrug. “I’m always happy to listen.”
“You know, I just might take you up on that. Thanks, Odessa. It’s too bad we can’t be partners. You make me wish I’d turned out to be anecromancer after all.” He gives me a smile so bright and unexpected that I can’t help returning the gesture.
“You should have supper with us tonight,” I call as I hurry on my way. “All of us. Me, Jax, Simeon, Danial, Meredy, Valoria... think about it, at least.”
“I’ll be there!” His voice follows me up the stairs.
Even though it’s fairly early, I find Valoria already dressed for the day in a gown of rose gold, her hair pinned up in a braided crown and decorated with sprigs of dried lavender. Her head is bent over a piece of parchment on her workbench, but she quickly looks up as I enter.
“The flowers were Bryn’s idea. She’s always thinking of things like that,” Valoria says when she notices my gaze traveling over her braids. She swipes at her cheek, leaving a smear of grease across her pale skin. “Now, what brings you up here this morning? Not that I’m complaining.”
“Here.” I pull a handkerchief from my cloak pocket and offer it to her so she can wipe her face clean. It’s one that Meredy gave me, with colorful leaves sewn on the edges. As Valoria uses it, I feel something tighten in my chest.
“Oh, Sparrow...” Valoria frowns, her bright brown eyes telling her more than I could convey in a single sentence as they sweep over my face. “Tell me everything.”
We sit together on a rug near the pile of wires and gears Valoria is always intending to sort through, and she takes my hands as she listens. I don’t spare her any detail—not even the nasty things I said. Confessing them to anyone else, my face would be burning by now, but with Valoria I always feel safe to be honest.
“So your current theory is that this crystal takes a person’s private thoughts and somehow plays them aloud to a room in the voices of dead loved ones?” she asks thoughtfully when I’ve finished. There’sa darkness in her gaze as she adds, “I’d like to meet the person who invented such a thing and ask them what they were thinking, deliberately tampering with people’s minds! They should be forbidden from ever using magic again.”
I shake my head. “I don’t know who invented it—I doubt it was the man who sold it to me, though.” Gently gripping Valoria’s forearm, I ask, “What should we do? I’m so worried about her. And not just her burns.”
“Me too. But all we can do right now is try to find the crystal,” Valoria says. “Once I have it, I can study it, see how it works, and hopefully come up with a cure for Meredy. She needs a clear head—we all do—if we’re going to survive the challenges to come. There are so many dangers in Karthia now, and I’m afraid this unknown magic could—sort of like when you were taking the potions—”
“I know,” I cut in as Valoria’s lower lip trembles. “I’m afraid for her, too.”
“While we’re trying to find out where she’s hidden the crystal, we can at least do something for her burns. Ask Danial for his orange salve. It really helped my leg—as much as anything could, anyway.” Valoria gives me a weak smile, and when I return it, she seems to take heart and casts a quick glance at the parchment she was reading when I arrived. “I should get back to work now, but you’ll come see me again soon, won’t you? And let me know how Meredy’s doing?”
Stepping up behind Valoria, I wrap my arms around her and assure her, “Not even a pack of hungry wolves could keep me from you, Majesty.”
“Don’t call me—” She whirls around to see my teasing look and relaxes. “Say, I have an idea. Why don’t you and Meredy help me test out my air balloon some night soon? I’m going to ask Devran to come along as well, to show him how exciting some of my inventions canbe, and on the slim chance he agrees... I know I shouldn’t be alone with him.” When I nod fervently at that last part, Valoria beams, taking it as agreement that I’ll get in her balloon. “Maybe that’ll take your mind off the crystal for a while—yours and Meredy’s.”
“I don’t doubt it,” I mutter dryly, thinking of how much Idon’twant to be off the ground in a basket held up by a canvas sail and a fickle flame. I especially don’t want to go anywhere with a man I don’t know, a man who’s already caused so many problems for Valoria with his rebellion—even if he swears he and his people aren’t the ones who’ve been trying to have her killed.
“Say—any more news from Empress Evaria?” I ask, as I now do every time I see Valoria. She shakes her head regretfully. At least Valoria has contacts willing to report on the Ezorans’ activities, even if news travels slowly and sparsely.
As I head back down the stairs, visions of plummeting into the sea in a wicker basket have me so preoccupied that I don’t notice Azelie striding urgently through the hall until we collide.
