Isa released the towel and straightened. “My magic. You are hiding something.”
I watched her expression change as the impossibility of what she had said came over her. She had truth-read me. My node-tie should make me immune to her power. Unless she had access to even more magic than the node itself. Like if she had her own tie to the node in addition to her innate gift.
Suddenly, her ability to truth-read me didn’t seem so impossible. What had the aspekts of binding scroll said? If the primary node-tie holder gave himself to another in heart or body. By thought or action.
And my thoughts had been all about Isa. When I first read Berklay’s message, I hadn’t worried about the princess’s arrival. I had worried that Isa’s reputation was being torn to shreds back in Leort. When I finally focused on the fact that all my efforts at secrecy were about to fall apart, my first concern hadn’t been that I’d soon be known as Duke Feline. No, I had lamented the fact that Isa would soon be on her way. Without Marc’s interference, a second attempt to send a revised contract to her father would surely succeed, and Icouldn’t refuse to send that contract—no matter how much I wanted her to remain at Rose Castle.
I waited for Isa to figure it out. I worried how she would react when she realized I had conferred the aspekts of binding on her, but there was nothing I could do. I had fallen for Isa. Whether she wanted it or not, she had my heart.
But she didn’t figure it out.
“How can I truth-read you? You are immune.”
“No, I have the power of the node behind me.” I considered leaving it at that. But Isa would figure it out, eventually. Once she got over her shock and started thinking clearly again, she’d draw the correct conclusion. Better to see her reaction now. “You have your own power plus the node’s, it seems.”
She gasped. “The aspekts of binding. But how did I gain a node tie? We’re not married.” A bubble of nervous laughter burst out of her. “We certainly haven’t slept together.”
My resolve faltered. If it didn’t even occur to her that I might be in love with her, then I didn’t want to raise the issue. I certainly didn’t want to watch her make excuses and start avoiding me. “Technically, the Truth didn’t say sleeping together was a way to confer the node-tie. It said something along the lines of giving your body. I’ve let you hold and pet me. Perhaps that is enough.”
Isa frowned. “Perhaps.” After a moment, she shook her head as though trying to dislodge an unpleasant thought. “I’m going upstairs to change into dry clothes. I’ll meet you in your office afterward?”
“Let’s meet in my spire room, instead.”
Isa was already walking to the stairs, but she looked back long enough to nod at me. Her expression remained a fierce mix of confusion and determination.
I watched her go and wondered what she was thinking. Had she figured it out? Would she tell me if she did, or pretend she had no idea?
Thirty-One
Isabel
???
Felix was lyingto me. Well, not lying in the strictest sense, but he was trying to misdirect me.
I couldn’t pinpoint when I had started hearing the truth of Felix’s words. Hearing the bells of my magic was more normal than the silence I had experienced speaking with Felix these past few weeks. I was fairly certain I had heard them before we went out into the rain to search for Frederic. But I hadn’t noticed, because the magic wasn’t telling me anything I didn’t know. I didn’t need magic to understand Felix anymore.
At least, not until he started misdirecting me about his reason for sending me back to Leort. Then he compounded his deceit while discussing how I might have gained a node-tie. Here I was, getting comfortable spending time with Felix—more comfortable than I’d ever been with anyone, my sister included—and he was looking for ways to make me leave. He wanted me out of the castle. He was uncomfortable knowing that I had a tie to his node.
In my room, I changed into dry clothes, annoyed to find that my wet outfit dried the instant I hung it up, though I remained damp. I took the time to braid my hair, knowing it would become a frizzy mess as it dried otherwise. Then I had no more excuses. I had to go face Felix again.
I climbed the stairs to his spire room with a growing sense of dread. Unless they had nothing to do with me or anyone I cared about, I didn’t ignore lies. Occasionally, when I knew the intent was benign and no harm could come of it, I let a white lie slip past. But usually, I confronted people; I demanded answers. Never had I hid from the truth.
I wanted to hide now.
I didn’t want to learn why Felix was so intent on sending me away. I didn’t want to understand what made him so uneasy about the fact that he had accidentally conferred a node-tie on me. I didn’t want to know that while I had been developing feelings for him, he still saw me as nothing more than a means to an end.
Though he had asked me to meet him in his spire room, Felix didn’t seem to be in a mood to enjoy the plush comfort of the room. He sat up straight in a rare spot of bare floor, the pillows and blankets pushed aside. His tail lashed back and forth, stilling only when he saw me enter the room.
“If I go to Leort, I can’t help you experiment with the node. We still haven’t determined why you can create Truths, but not reverse Lady Cecily’s curse.” The words poured out without conscious thought.
I didn’t want to leave. I’d like to contact my sister, but I missed little else about my life in Leort. As annoyed as I had been to leave, even the risk to my job wasn’t enough to tempt me back. My career as a constable felt less compelling by the day. People’s lies were easy to understand and not nearly as interesting as untangling the secrets of the Truthhold Node or analyzing contracts for loopholes.
I wanted to help Felix break the curse. I wanted to be here when he transformed back into a man, and not only because that would be proof we had succeeded. But he wouldn’t have a need for me once he was human.
Since staying at Rose Castle wasn’t a long-term option—not if Felix wanted me gone even before we broke the curse—perhaps it wastime to move on. Not just back to Leort. I could go to Haiwella, where the magistrates wouldn’t hold my sex against me.
Felix tilted his head, his bright eyes seeming to look right through me. “Don’t you want to return home? If I can send you to Leort, you could even bring a new copy of the contract addendum Marc never delivered to your father. You could be free.”
