Chapter Eighteen
Valeris
Iclenched my jaw asI pulled my uncle over to the edge of the balcony.“Would you like to explain to me what happened back there?”
He stared at the doors Analleia had disappeared through seconds ago.
“That’sAnalleia Kallistar?”he asked.“The girl who destroyed your alliance and knew about what happened to Rivero?”
I rolled my eyes.“Did I not make it obvious when I saidthis is Analleia Kallistar?”
He gripped my arm, a strange emotion mixed with intense fear filling his voice.“You need to be careful around her, Valeris.Very careful.That girl is not who she says she is, and I doubt her motives are pure.Her face is shrouded with enchantment.”
Enchantment?
I shook my head.“What are you talking about?”
“She’s covered in it,” he said.“But it’s strongest around her face, shimmering at the edges as if it’s hiding something.She has received an enchantment—a powerful one.”
My eyes flicked back to the doors.My uncle had dabbled in matters of magic in his past, but it was never something he had brought up with me before.Ever.Paravellian law voiced no restrictions against enchantment at a ball because those who could wield magic were so rare it had never been an issue.Goose flesh pebbled up my skin.My thoughts swirled, pulling together a myriad of explanations.
“Something changed,” I deduced.“She needs something from me.”
“What do you mean?”
“That first night at the ball...she wanted to destroy my trade deal with Lord Eyreling, and she did.When I tried to make an alliance with her the next day, she outright rejected me, wanted nothing to do with me, but she backtracked at the second ball.”
“After you won the duel, she approached you in public because you wouldn’t be able to say no in front of an audience,” my uncle put in.
I nodded.“She needs something from me.”
“But what?”
“When she bargained with me, she said she needed my influence, but I don’t think it was so much my influence as my connections.”
“I don’t like it,” he said.“You need to sever ties with her.Whatever she’s up to, it won’t do you well to fraternize with her.”
My brows lowered.“No.”
Uncle Wylan started at my rejection.
“No,” I said again.“That is the opposite of what I should do.If she’s up to something, we need to figure out what it is.”
“This is dangerous, Valeris,” he growled.“You need to think about it.”
“I am thinking about this,” I argued, “and I think it’s more dangerous for me to be in the dark about whatever she is planning.Better to keep an eye on her and uncover her secrets than to let her surprise us with her dark schemes.As you’ve always said, Uncle, keep your friends close...”
I looked at him expectantly.
