Page 59 of A Wayward Movement

Alina nodded.

“Your comment about the wasted magic overnight made me think of it. This isn’t something to spread around, but when my brother was in Torrens for his betrothal celebrations, some strange things happened. Things that appear to have been…experiments.”

“What do you mean?” Alina asked, frowning.

“They were all incidents involving the release of huge amounts of magic,” Xavier said. “And we have good reason to think it was being captured somehow in objects. With the intention of releasing it later for some specific use.”

“What?” Alina’s mouth fell open. “Surely that’s not possible. I mean, it’s a basic tenet of the craft that you can’t store Dust.”

“So we all thought,” Xavier agreed grimly.

“And you think players from the continent were behind those experiments?”

“We couldn’t prove it, but yes,” Xavier told her.

Alina looked very troubled. She no doubt had plenty more questions, but she didn’t get to ask them immediately. They’d left the unfinished fence behind them and passed into a rockier section of ground, and another guard came jogging up. Xavier paused to allow the man to catch him, waiting while the guard executed a quick bow.

“Apologies, Your Highness. Blair requested that I tell you to avoid the old quarry out this way.” He pointed. “It’s been abandoned now because it’s unstable. Apparently they have a bigger and better one some distance away, where the stone for the fence is being quarried. He offered to take you on a tour of that site once he’s finished with the meeting.”

“Yes, all right,” said Xavier, not much interested in seeing the quarry.

When the guard had trotted away, Xavier didn’t return to the previous topic of conversation. His two remaining guards had come up alongside them, and the time for private speech was past. Instead, he flashed a grin at Alina.

“Should we defy orders? I wasn’t planning to explore the abandoned quarry, but now I know it’s forbidden, it’s all I want to do.”

One of his guards made a small noise of protest, but Alina just laughed.

“He didn’t say forbidden. Just unsafe. And since you won’t let me walk five yards alone in case I get snatched up by ruffians, it seems very hypocritical of you to want to run into danger simply because you don’t like being told what to do.”

Xavier laughed as well, and he could feel his guards relax. His compliance was well rewarded because as they continued walking, the guards fell back to a more discreet distance.

“I’ve never been very good at being told what to do,” he told Alina meekly. “Maybe you’d like to teach me.”

“No thank you,” she said tartly. “You’d do better to practice the skill of not constantly telling me what to do. You’re becoming quite domineering, not letting me walk across my own town without your escort, ordering me from the room when you feel like storming out of a meeting.”

Xavier let a lazy grin grow over his face. “Not storming out,” he protested. “That makes me sound childish.” When she didn’t respond, he prodded further. “When in fact, I’m commanding and regal. The heir to the throne, master of my own destiny.”

“But not master of mine,” Alina shot back.

“Of course of yours,” Xavier said outrageously, his voice raised a little over the wind that had been steadily picking up as they walked. “Everyone in Siqual is within my reach, remember?”

As he said the words, a large gust of wind suddenly blew up a flurry of sand which stung their legs with surprising force. Before he knew what she was doing, Alina had harnessed the Dust from the movement. Xavier felt an invisible cushion blossom into being behind him, the pressure pushing him forward like a buffeting wind. He didn’t resist it, taking wicked delight in the attack as Alina mimed tugging on an invisible rope purely for dramatic effect. She didn’t stop until he was an inch away, her eyes triumphant as they looked up into his.

“You don’t have all the control in this situation, Your Highness,” she said defiantly.

It took Xavier a moment to find words around the purr of approval filling his chest. If she’d thought he wouldn’t like her taking charge, she’d been hugely mistaken. He liked it a great deal, especially when it involved her pulling him closer. Her proximity had his blood thundering in his ears. It would be so easy to use a casual touch or a well-chosen compliment to turn the situation into the type of flirtation he was so good at. But he didn’t want to recreate those light moments of entertainment.

“What have I told you about Your Highness-ing me?” he said instead, the words low and intimate. “If you insist on saying such provocative things, there’s no telling what I might do with the invitation.”

“I said nothing provocative,” Alina protested, her eyes narrowed as if in annoyance. But her voice didn’t match it, and she wasn’t stepping away. “It’s a perfectly respectable title.”

“Move back, miss.” Xavier’s guards were suddenly flanking him, one of them daring to take hold of Alina’s arm in his mission to create some distance between them.

Chapter

Fourteen

“What are you doing?” Xavier protested, anger flaring in him at the sight of Alina being manhandled. His guards had never tried to act as chaperones before. It was no part of their role to spoil his sport.