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Destin kept me preoccupied with numerous books and manuals about blood mages and restoring dormant magic, or trapped magic in something they calledsakanasstate. Gwyn told me it literally meant hiding creatures.

So, I had a hiding creature within me that refused to bend, and I was no closer to finding these skull crowns than I was before.

I rose from the small desk my room had been provided and took out the night dress from the drawer—more like a slip than anything, but it did seem like it would allow a bit more movement and air. “Agatha really likes the ladies of the palace to not move as they sleep, doesn’t she?”

“To that woman, females only experience any sort of reaction when they’re fulfilling wifely duties, as she puts it.”

“Gross,” I said, refolding the nightdress. “Sad to hear even in another world there are people who think like that.”

“Some mage sects nearer to the Sanctuary of Seers raise their young ones to be utterly devoted to the gifts of this land, with the only thought of such indulgences being a necessity to procreate our world. Agatha has lived within the gates of Vondell long enough to know differently, but rather enjoys being haughty and aggravating.”

“Makes me want to cut some of the hems on these gowns, just to see her reaction.”

With a quick glance over her shoulder, Gwyn’s smile grew wide, almost villainous. “Once, when she was making the rounds in the seamstress corridor, I may have summoned a man to aid in the illusion that deliciously scandalous events were taking place in my bed.”

“Tell me she barged in on you having sex.”

Gwyn’s cheeks darkened with pride as she took up another clean gown and aimed for the wardrobe. “I said the illusion of it. Cy favors men, but he loves a good ruse and was more than willing to pretend for the evening.”

A gurgle of a laugh scraped from my throat and Gwyn smoothed her hands down the front of her wool gown. It was made of blue fabric, hemmed in intricate gold threads, and a few beads dangling over her neck. She was stunning with simple braids, simple clothes, and as much as I did not want to admit it, she had a simplicity to her honesty.

A sincere person, one who did not shy from the truth.

There came a click to the window pane. A dusty feathered hawk was perched on the outer sill.

“Hakon.” I unlatched the glass and opening the window to the chill in the air. “Does Cy want to play on the phone again? I keep telling him, eventually his shock spells are going to fry the battery and it won’t work at all.”

After explaining the chirping box was a mortal communication device, Cy and Asger had taken a great fascination in restoring it back to life from Kage’s drowning session. It did not work without a blast of combustible herbs to spark the battery to life, and only lasted about twenty minutes at a time.

They didn’t care, and I feared I’d caused the first mobile device obsession in Magiaria. Dozens and dozens of half-framed, caught in the moment Cy-selfies were now crammed into the gallery. Even a few video clips of Cy chattering on about nothing when he did not realize he’d been recording.

The message Hakon relayed in his odd flicker of images in my mind wasn’t from Cy, and I could not stop the twist in my belly when Kage’s voice filled my head.

I scratched the hawk’s nape before he soared away. “I’m supposed to go to the palace library. Want to walk with me?”

Gwyn didn’t press, but wore a smug grin as we quit my chambers.

Until we rounded the corner, and the ground shifted.

Kage—thief, prince, and wretchedly handsome bastard—stepped from a narrow alcove. Never did I think tall boots and tunic shirts with oddly fastened pants would add sex appeal to a man, but he could don a canvas sack and I would feel the heat in my veins.

Tall and athletic, and in his insistence to keep his distance since the last nightmare, I might’ve taken a few additional sparring lessons with Cy and Gwyn when Kage was there with Asger and Hugo.

The ripple of his muscles beneath his sweat-soaked top had not gone unnoticed.

Kage clasped his wrists behind his back. “My day has been made better by seeing your lovely faces.”

Gwyn snickered. “Rake.”

“That’s what they say.” Kage didn’t take his gaze off me.

“Careful,” I whispered. “You keep talking like that, and I might be swept away.”

“I sense a bite to your tone.” Kage dipped his face, drawing his mouth close to my ear. “Remember what I said about my love of women who bite.”

“Stand tall, Adira.” Gwyn muffled a laugh behind her hand. “Be one of two women who does not fall to their knees, begging Kage to make them a princess.

“Stop exaggerating, Gwyn,” he said. “That has not happened in some time.”