He made it sound so easy. And maybe he was right. Maybe it worked. “He won’t notice the memories are different, though?”
Raphael shook his head. “You took only a short time. His mind will quickly fill in the gaps.”
“The memories won’t come back? What if . . . what if it doesn’t last?”
What if I’m weak? What if I did it wrong?
“You did well, Samara. Trust yourself,” he urged. “The bigger danger is when a great number of memories are tampered with. The mind struggles with that kind of thing far more than a brief omission. It’s harder to control the ripple effect. For this, though, he’s only suspected for a day. Clearly, he thought to confront us here as an ambush.”
Okay. That made sense. Down the bond, I felt nothing but certainty, though I was sure Raphael could feel my trepidation. “He made it sound so . . . personal with Anagenni. That you were betraying him by not killing me.”
Raphael furrowed his brow. “He says a lot of idiotic things. It’s, regrettably, a hazard of his company.”
Despite myself, I smiled. Raphael’s hand dropped to my shoulder, and he slipped the jacket off.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Well . . .” Raphael drew out the word, laying it thick with implication. “You still have twigs in your hair, and I likely still have leaves on me. We have about three hours until we need to deal with my brother again.”
“So you’re thinking we should make sure we meet Julian’s standards?” I snorted.
“I’m thinking that I’m going to bathe my woman,” Raphael said slowly. “And then I’m going to see how it feels to fingerfuck her in that tub until she’s forgotten my brother’s name.”
Well.
That didn’t sound like a bad offer at all.
Chapter Forty-Seven
Amalthea
The hard part wasn’tgetting back to Ioni without shoving her fur-lined sock in Lady Kayara’s mouth, or procuring a raw steak the size of her thigh without rousing suspicion. It wasn’t even tracing Mina’s path on the map she kept stashed in her room, though orienting herself to the owl’s location wasn’t exactly easy.
It was the waiting.
Waiting to be left alone, waiting for Mina to find the path, which took over a day, the magic connecting them mercifully holding fast. Waiting while she begged off as ill the next day to rest, and she prepared to sneak out of Ioni.
Noon didn’t feel like a clandestine time to slip away, but for vampires it was the best option. Thea packed carefully. A small rucksack of provisions tucked under her cloak, coins in the sole of her boot, her deck slung low on her hips. And most importantly, clutched close to her chest, the map she’d sketched showing the location of the temple. The map was now enchanted, a bit of luck that would prevent anything unfortunate, like a tea spill muddying it, a tear ruining it, or eventhe wind taking it. A fresh warmth charm was cast on the cloak, and another primed for whatever horse she took.
That was the one wrinkle in her plan. Amalthea had only one transport card she could use, a frustrating limitation. If she could magic herself to the temple and back, she could have the wand before anyone was the wiser. But now she was cut off from her contact and hadn’t been able to secure another.
She’d need to get there on foot. Then she could use the card to get back to Damerel. Dyna was an unfortunate complication, but . . . one thing at a time.
Thea didn’t creep down the hall for the same reason she didn’t bother using an invisibility enchantment. For one, there was no point—her heartbeat would give her away to any vampire awake and listening. More importantly, it would rouse suspicion. So she let her door latch only slightly, muffling the sound, and walked down the corridor as if she had not a care in the world.
Ioni was far smaller than Damerel, and Thea was confident she’d learned most of it over the past week with Lady Kayara. There were three main sectors of the palace—one for guests, like her and Dyna, one for the rulers, and one for the rest of the court. Thea made it out of the guest wing easily enough, then moved through the one where the rest of the court was. Sneaking out would require her to continue through that sector. Bright blue spires of icy stone formed the walls, glistening with blue torchlight.
“You’re up early, Lady Amalthea.”
“Consort Quinn,” Thea said, trying to hide her surprise. She hadn’t expected to see any vampires up at these hours. Definitely not the consort, out of their wing. “I’m afraid I couldn’t sleep. I thought to walk through the frost gardens in the daylight.”
Thea counted her breaths, trying to slow the jump of her heartbeat.
“This isn’t the way to them,” Quinn replied.
Thea gave the consort a shy smile. “I may have gotten twisted. These aren’t my usual chambers.” She glanced back, hoping she had already passed Kayara’s rooms. She’d studiously avoided visiting them over the past few days. If Thea had planned better, she would have readied a lie about sneaking from Lady Kayara’s room sooner, but she hadn’t expected to see anyone here.
With her visions so focused on the necromancer, there was a lot she wasn’t seeing these days.
