Annalisa shifted on her couch and gestured to the breakfast tray. “But we have tea right here.”
Brietta did not look at either of us. The belt of her robe was tightly cinched around her waist, but her auburn braid was mussed.
I did not have to make a magical connection to know something was wrong.
“This is a different tea,” Brietta said. She turned on her heel and left the room, forcefully shutting the door.
Annalisa shot me a quizzical look, but I rose from the couch and followed Brietta. I hated leaving Annalisa, but I could not risk her asking a question that I could not ignore.
Brietta marched across the hallway so quickly I had to pick up the hem of my robe and run just to keep up with her. She flung her bedroom door open and I followed her inside.
The blankets on the elaborately-carved bed were still tousled from a night’s sleep. The couch at the foot of the bed where Brietta had said Derrick slept looked undisturbed. The room seemed sparse, like some furniture was missing.
Brietta slammed the door shut and wedged the back of a nearby armchair beneath the handle. She waved her hand over her shoulder. “The wardrobe is over there.”
She was not acting like herself, but maybe she was just nervous because I was about to perform sorcery in front of her.
I opened the carved wardrobe and the soft scents of oak and vanilla filled my nose. I gently thumbed through the Hyton Blue brocades when my hand found a black linen sleeve. He had worn that shirt during the Presentation—I must have been close to where they had stashed Ilsa’s dress.
My fingers dropped to the cuff of the sleeve and I froze when a threaded pattern traced my fingertips. I lifted the sleeve—two embroidered black stars rested on the inside of the right wrist.
When we were in our fourth year of school, Derrick caught troll pox. The whole Dukedom was in a panic. Annalisa was inconsolable.
Once his letters became less frequent, I knew his illness was serious. Feeling helpless, I had quickly stitched two stars on a small rectangle of linen and sent them to him along with his letter.
I had forgotten I had done it—hell, I was not even surewhyI had done it. Did the two stars symbolize him and I? Or him and Annalisa? Was it supposed to just be a wish of good health?
Regardless of why, Derrick had kept the little gift for years. Even though the stars were lopsided and sloppily done, he had them sewn on his wedding clothes.
I held my breath as my thumb traced the stars once, then I pushed past the shirt.
A glimmer of silvery blue peeked out between more black clothes and my heart jumped.
Found her.
I gently reached into the back of the wardrobe and pulled out the heap of fabric. The dark green ribbons that I had torn from my own Presentation dress were still attached to the sleeves, but the makeshift laces were gone. I laid the dress out on the floor and sat beside it.
Brietta stood over the dress with her arms tightly folded. “What are you supposed to do?”
I lifted the hem of my nightgown and loosened the ribbon from around my leg. “Not entirely sure, but I think this will help.”
I tied the choker around my neck so the crystal was flush with my throat. Calmness washed over me and I closed my eyes. I was powerful. I was in control.
The crystal warmed against my skin and magic tingled my fingertips as I reached over the dress. Each of the Man of the Mountain’s tiny tears awoke in the fabric, sparkling in my mind’s eye like a river on a sunny day.
But I was not just looking for the Man of the Mountain’s tears, I was looking for Ilsa’s.
I kneaded the dress, searching for young Ilsa—that future Duchess who had no clue what her life would become.
The sound of flipping pages entered my mind and I followed the trail my magic was leading me down. I did not find tears, but instead cold sweat.
Good enough.
I smiled and leaned into the memory’s pull.
“Let me get you out of this. I will not touch you, I promise.”
I recognized that voice…
