Page 11

She sighed and let go of my chin. “I do not know if your stubbornness is your favored trait or your undoing.”

I leaned against the mantel. “Both.”

Syrra’s gaze lingered on the way my hand shook even as it held me up and she sighed. She pulled a small skin out of her belt pocket and tossed it at me. I knew from the hard set of her mouth that it wasn’t filled with water.

“This is the only time.” She walked to the door, leaving me alone once more. “And if I catch you withwinvraagain, I will have the healers put you to sleep so no one need fret over your poor choices.”

My chest tightened and I hoped the fear didn’t show on my face. Syrra had no idea how piercing a threat she had just thrown at me.

I nodded and she walked to the door. “When you are ready, I am here to help. I know how hard it is to stop on one’s own.” She pursed her lips when I didn’t answer and disappeared back into the dark.

I uncorked the skin and let half the bag spill down my throat. My shivers stopped and my head cleared in the sharpest moment of relief. I tucked the rest of the wine into my satchel and started back to my room.

Vrail turned around the corner with a small pile of books in her arms. I flattened myself against the wall and tucked the faelight into my cloak, but I wasn’t quick enough.

“Keera! I was hoping to speak with you today,” she said, much too loudly and much too quickly for the middle of the night.

I walked past her covering my satchel with my cloak. “We can talk later.”

Vrail followed me like a duckling after its mother. “We have a council meeting later this morning. I would like to brief you on everything Gerarda and I have discovered before I present it to the others—”

“I don’t sit on the council anymore.” I lengthened my strides. Vrail’s short legs couldn’t keep pace and balance the books. I recognized the one on top as the book she had stolen from the library in Koratha.

She stopped and my chest relaxed. I glanced back and saw her pull one of Nikolai’s handkerchiefs from her scarlet robes and place it on the ground. She sat her pile of books on top of it and turned to me. I broke into a light run.

Vrail’s short legs only hastened. “Keera, it’s not worth my time presenting it if you don’t agree—”

“Then I guess you’re not presenting anything.” I gritted my teeth, trying to hold back my annoyance. Vrail had developed a habit of cornering me in tunnels.

“I know how to break the seals!” Vrail shouted, her breathy voice echoing down the hall and into the kitchens.

I turned so slowly, Vrail gulped. “You’ve made no progress for weeks on evenfindingthem. But suddenly you know how to break them?” I folded my arms, suffocating any flicker of hope. “My mother’s instructions wereveryclear. The seals on the syphons were spelled to Aemon. And they died with him.”

“That was her intention but the seals themselves have their own magic—”

“So which one?”

Vrail blinked. “Which what?”

“Which seal did you find and break?”

Vrail’s leg started to bounce. “Well, I haven’t yet becauseIcan’t—”

“Then what is the point of this conversation?” I spun around on my heel to keep going.

“But, Keera,youcan.” Vrail grabbed for my wrist but her fingers slipped upward, brushing the thick scars along my forearm. Both of us stopped breathing for a moment that seemed to stretch for hours.

Vrail’s eyes slowly lowered and I felt her fingers loosen their grip. Fear ignited inside my chest like a wildfire. “I have given enough!” I screeched as I wrenched my arm free from her grasp.

A strong gust of wind blew through the corridor. Vrail flew backward in a blur. She gasped as her back collided with the wall, the sound of it echoing down the tunnel.

I stood helpless, staring at my hand as tears clouded my vision. I hadn’t meant to call my magic, but I could feel it whirling inside my chest, ready to attack again.

Something dropped in the kitchens. I didn’t turn. I was frozen to my spot, too scared to move in case I hurt Vrail again. “I’m sorry,” I whispered. A hot stream of tears trailed down my cheek but I didn’t wipe them away.

Nikolai rushed past me and ran over to Vrail. She coughed as he pulled her into his chest. “I’m okay. I’m okay,” she murmured. Lash knelt beside them both and checked her for any damage. The whirling power in my chest only grew as the moments passed. I felt like my lungs were going to burst if Lash didn’t say Vrail was going to be okay. Finally, he nodded.

Nikolai’s head snapped up. For the first time, he looked capable of using the knife that he was holding in his hand. “What is wrong with you?”