I swallowed and slipped the nightgown on. Maybe she had not rifled through my trunk to find the damning evidence of my treasonous actions. She knew me for too long to suspect anything. All I had to do was act normal and I could slip past her.
“We were friends for six years, Sera,” Brietta said. “We have a lot to talk about…”
She pulled her hand out of the pocket and my stomach dropped. She held up my choker, the illegal crystal catching the candlelight.
“…and you had better not lie to me this time.”
Of all the ways I had prepared to be confronted with my sorcery, standing in my nightgown fresh out of a bath was not one of them.
I stared at my Nordingaard crystal in Brietta’s hand and kept my face schooled. Brietta had always kept my secrets in the pocket I had sewn in her heart, but that was when I was her friend and not a threat to her new House.
Just the crystal was enough evidence that I was using sorcery. If she turned on her heels and took it to Duke Hyton, my head could be on the chopping block by sunrise.
The magic in the bathtub glimmered in my mind’s eye. Maybe I could enchant her to forget it, but the crystal would glow if I used my magic. Then I would truly damn myself.
Brietta’s eyes were hard. “I was raised in the House of Elvar. I know every gemstone that is mined in the Dukedom or traded across our waters.Thisis not any of them. This is—”
I held up my hands. “Brietta, I—”
“You know everything is different now.” Her lip quivered for only a moment. “It’sLady Hyton.”
My shoulders curved forward. Brietta had always towered over me, but I had never felt smaller until that moment.
Ihatedhow she made me feel small.
“I watched you drinkfiveglasses of faerie wine,” she said. The ribbon of the choker rippled as Brietta’s hand trembled. “I have carried stacks of books that weigh more than you—that fourth drink should have knocked you on your ass by now! What happened to you?”
My white flame burned the bottom of my throat, trying to push out an answer I did not have. The magic in my blood must have made me more resistant to spirits. Daigen should have fucking explained how my body had changed!
She took a step forward. “What happened to your husband? We all know he is not here.”
The answer flew out of my mouth. “The Queen of the Giants took Riyan.”
I clamped my teeth down. Fuck! Why had my body forced the answer out?
White fire swirled around my chest, growing bigger and bigger. I had to keep still. I had to hold firm. I could not lose control in front of the future Duchess.
“The Queen of the Giantstook your husband?” Brietta’s lip curled. “Why are you still lying to me?”
My white flame exploded.
“It is not a lie!” My blood was alight, the flames from my magic burning the walls of my chest. “I cannot…I cannot lie anymore!”
White light flared from the crystal. Brietta yelped and dropped the necklace onto the rug.
Brietta stepped away, her eyes not leaving the crystal on the floor. “Sera, what are you—”
“A-and he is not my husband anymore!” I could not stop.Could notstop. “My blood bond is gone! It is fucking gone!”
The water in the bathtub was suddenly ablaze. My breath quickened. I shut my eyes and tried to focus, but words flew out of my mouth like arrows. “Nikkolas and Hilda Bloodstone are dead! The North is going to collapse if I do not get Riyan back!”
Why was I spiraling out of control? What did my heart want so badly that it was forcing my body to combust?
Suddenly I heard whispered poems against my ear. Then shared laughter in the lecture hall. My fists loosened, and I felt a dinner roll that I had passed beneath the dining table in my hand. I felt hands braiding my hair. Wet tears on my shoulder. A warm hug against my cheek.
I just wanted to unload the burden of the past few days. I wanted help from someone who once knew me.
I wanted Brietta. I…wanted to be her friend again.
