Page 9

Her last paramour had been a socialite who had cut off things out of the blue. She had thought Avenay’s bookishness charming at first but came to find it boring as time wore on. It left Avenay reeling forweeks, hiding her little heart, torn to shreds, in the spines of books and research, swearing off love. She didn’t need that. She wasn’t built for it.

“I’m not talking about my love,” she said. “That subject has been laid to rest in the gloomy graveyard of my dead heart. I’m talking about someone else. You’ll know soon enough who it is.” She admitted she said it smugly, happy to know something that the all knowing, all seeing Cyrus didn’t. Seraphina told Avenay everything about her adventures, bestowing all the advance details others didn’t have. And she guarded them like a dragon did its hoard of gold, delighted to be her beloved sister’s confidante. She knew all the little details about how the duke had been hinting at a proposal soon, asking her when she wanted to have her wedding.

“Are you talking about how Seraphina is going to be engaged to that simpering, annoying duke soon?”

Her jaw dropped, and she poked a finger in his chest, accusing. “How did you know?”

He gently swiped her hand away. “Everyone knows.The High Fliersdid an entire article on it a month ago. Each week, they’ve been setting up bets on how he’ll propose.”

She raised her chin imperiously. “I wouldn’t know. I don’t read the gossip pages.”

Cyrus gave her a dull look. “Oh?”

In truth, she devoured them; she must have missed that one, though, as she’d been so focused on this presentation for the last month. The academic circles didn’t regard the gossip pages or her beloved romance novels as intelligent. Everyone already thought of her as mad. She didn’t need them to know that secretly she enjoyed all the drama.

She walked on and he chuckled. “Sure you don’t. You always read over my shoulder when a certain Queen of Iniquity is mentioned.”

Avenay humphed and sped up. “Enid Erebus is fascinating as a subject for research, that’s all.”

Cyrus hummed. “She’s also beautiful.”

Avenay’s cheeks flamed. “You make me sound shallow. We don’t know what she looks like now. Those sketches change weekly! Lord Dryston hasn’t brought her to a social function since she was seventeen. She could look completely different.”

She’d heard plenty about Enid in the gossip pages since meeting her eight years ago. Mostly painting her in such a different light than Avenay remembered that she wondered if she’d imagined it. They called her a heartbreaker, a rake, and flighty. Every time Avenay read those words, she scoffed, certain that the version she knew of Enidfrom all those years ago was the true one. There had been a few reports she clung to as truth, ones that most said were unconfirmed rumors. Of Enid using her shadow shroud technique to transport refugees who’d lost their home to rebels under the cover of night. Or of her breaking into a cruel gryphon breeding farm and breaking them free.

The articles had stated that it sounded nothing like Enid Erebus, and concluded it was someone else.

But Avenay felt in her heart that it was Enid. That moment on the balcony years ago had shown her so much about the demon that it would take much more evidence to sway her.

“She’s missing, you know,” Cyrus said.

Avenay did know. Enid had been missing for months now, and Lord Dryston had been searching desperately for her. Each week, they posted a new report of a dead female demon, asking if it was her. So far, it hadn’t been.

Seraphina sat on the porch as they came around the corner. She had a shawl wrapped around her shoulders, despite the warm night. Her dark skin was ashen, her eyes weak and tired. They lit up when she saw them, though, joy coming off in her waves of little bursts of light. Seraphina and Avenay were light bearers, like their mother had been, meaning they could manipulate and produce light from their beingeasily. Seraphina’s magic came out of her like a halo whenever she saw someone she loved, and she loved everyone, so she almost always glowed.

“Cyrus!” she greeted, standing and swaying from the movement.

Cyrus rushed to her, placing his hands on her side and steadying her.

“Careful, Seraphina,” he said.

She gave a breathy chuckle and swatted his arm. “You’ve always been too overprotective. It’s been ages since you’ve stopped by.”

Cyrus’s jaw clenched as he took her in, emotions warring in his eyes that Avenay couldn’t parse out.

“I’ve been working a lot lately. We’re training more to escort the delegates to the summit.”

“Oh? Are we afraid all these stuffy academics are going to get up to something wild?” Seraphina laughed and winked at Avenay, who shook her head.

“We’re not all stuffy.”

“Only you are, dearest,” Seraphina said, walking over and throwing her arms around Avenay, squeezing her in a weak hug. “But you do it so well it’s bound to become fashionable.”

“Any day now,” Avenay replied, pulling Seraphina tighter against her. “Let’s go inside. You’re cold.”

Seraphina nodded and let Avenay hold her up as they walked in. Seraphina had good days and bad ones. This was a bad one, and Avenay had an idea that her sister had spent most of it in her bed, sleeping.

“I’ll be heading home,” Cyrus said.