Daigen ran his claws through his hair. “I told you Ganora cared about her sister…”
“Then tell me why!” The words seared my tongue. “Tell me why the Hytons enslaved her! Tell me how I can set her free! Tell me something, because if you will not let me ask—!”
Daigen quickly raised his claw and suddenly all the air from my throat disappeared. My hands scrambled to my neck as I tried to draw in air, but his brow stayed hard as he looked at me. “Your answers will come at the right time, be patient.”
Why was he being vague when I had only three weeks to save Riyan from eternal enslavement? I shook my head and ran my fingertips along the ribbon of my choker as my lungs burned.
“Magic is not logic,” he said firmly. “Youhaveto just trust me.”
He released his enchantment and I gasped. My palms spread across the pebbles as I coughed through the pain in my lungs.
All the questions I could not ask burned in my chest. Why did magic not make any logical sense? Why would Rosaline send me to Daigen as my answer to help Riyan? What had the Hytons taken from him that he would need my help to get?
“Se-ra!”
I looked up—the two black ravens beat their wings against the night sky, flying straight for us.
Daigen groaned. “Not this again!” He scooped up some glowing white water from the spring and dripped it against his forehead. The healing spring suddenly dulled into its normal cerulean luminescence. “I got the memory I want. Let’s go.”
He quickly leaped out of the spring and threw on his tunic and cloak as he shook his legs dry.
“Se-ra! Se-ra!” the ravens croaked.
I watched the birds as they flew closer. Why did they want to get to me so badly?
Daigen’s hooves clacked against the rocks as he rounded the spring toward me. Steam curling off the surface of the hot spring warmed my face, and I swore I heard laughter as the steam kissed my ears.
Not just any laughter—the laughter of a boy on a summer afternoon.
I knitted my brows. I recognized that laugh…but it could only come from a memory…
Daigen’s claws wrapped around my hand, but my eyes stayed on the ravens even as the magic in the air dragged against my skin.
In a flash of white light and a blink, a wall of icy rocks consumed my entire vision. Frigid wind blew past me and my hair whipped around my shoulders. I wobbled on the balls of my feet and I looked down.
Tree tops. I snapped my head up—we stood on a tiny ledge on the side of the mountain, only wide enough for my feet and not an inch more.
I gripped Daigen’s hand and swallowed a gasp. He laughed.
“Not afraid of heights, are we?” He tugged me forward.
A goat bleated above us. Another answered from below, but I was too afraid to look at anything other than the back of Daigen’s head as I tip-toed behind him.
Luckily, the perilous path was only a few steps long. With a click, Daigen pushed open a door and pulled me inside a small house.
Daigen flicked his wrist and a fire sparked to life in a small hearth. He locked the door and hung his cloak on a peg. Four other cloaks of dappled shades of grey, green, and brown hung near it.
How did he havethatmany cloaks of invisibility?
“I would love to learn how to become invisible,” I said, careful to make my statement not sound too much like a question.
“I’m certain you can master the ability.” Daigen looked over his shoulder and fanned out the grey and white cloak. “It’s an ancient form of sorcery known as paint.”
My fists gripped my wool cape and I shot him an icy glare.
He dropped the cloak and his smirk disappeared. “Can’t even take a joke? You still have to learn how your power works,Litlnadr.”
“Just tell me—!”
