Page 13 of A Crown of Tears and Treason (The Curse of Silver Secrets and Cruel Shadows #1)

Chapter

Thirteen

EVIE

“ H ow?” I asked in amazement as I approached the table with slow, hesitant steps.

This wasn’t real.

A trick.

But my heart soared all the same.

A silvery strand of smoke flowed up from the open book, billowing into an oval. Within it, Allie’s face shined. She had a broken, trembling smile that fought so hard not to vanish.

“It’s a palaver portal. Kind of like that book you told me about, the one you had back at the cabin. Different spell, same principle. It allows you to reach texts or people in different locations. Great for sending coded messages if you know the secret cypher,” Allie said. “It’s also our only option to talk for the foreseeable future, since the pompous, blood-thirsty, heinous sons-of-bitches the Blood Brotherhood deems good enough for their Elite ranks–”

“I heard that,” a disembodied, gruff voice said from somewhere on Allie’s end of the portal.

“Good, I wasn’t whispering,” she called over her shoulder, the mask of the vicious, prideful Huntress slipping on seamlessly. “Stop eavesdropping.”

“I would if you didn’t curse my Clan–loudly–each opportunity you get.”

“I can’t help myself, it’s such a fertile conversational subject.”

A door slammed somewhere behind Allie. She growled, showing her teeth and all, before turning back to me. Her unflinching mask melted away. The corners of her lips drooped, her green eyes lost the fire in them, and her shoulders sagged.

She looked defeated.

“I really want to hug you right now,” I whispered, as if afraid I would somehow blow the portal out of existence. It shimmered and floated, soft as a feather in the wind.

I’d missed Allie and my cousins so damn much.

“We have to settle for words.” She sighed. “How are you, Evie?”

“Alive. How are you ?” I bit the inside of my cheek. “I heard about uncle Alaric. I’m so sorry–”

“I can’t.” Allie averted her gaze. In that simple movement, I saw the weight of the world flash in her eyes. “Not yet.”

“I understand.” I still couldn’t talk about my parents, either. Perhaps it was a Protectorate tradition, to bottle the feelings inside until they macerated into a wound that scarred you too deep to ever patch it up. “I’m so sorry. Is there anything I can do?”

“Thanks.” Allie sighed again, her entire body deflating. She’d lost weight. Her eyes looked hollow, and her hair had lost its wild waves. “Just…talk. I’ve missed you.”

“I missed you, too. So much.” I licked my lips. “How’s everyone else? Where is everyone else?”

“Silas is on my throne and I can’t find out how that happened,” she rumbled. “Clara is beyond herself, her father isn’t answering any of her letters. Thankfully, Dax and Dara have spun some magical scheme and postponed meeting both of their fiances. Nobody is crying a river over that, but I can barely get a hold of them.”

I shook my head. “I didn’t mean for any of this to happen.”

“None of us did. And it’s not your fault.” She waved off my concerns, then took a deep breath. “When I find out who’s behind all of this, there will be no safe place in Malhaven for them to hide.”

There was the Allie I knew and admired. Shattered over the death of her father, but still fighting. She blinked, and the steel was back in her eyes. “Now let’s get to important things. Where is the Blood Brotherhood Capital? We’ve been looking for it for decades. Centuries, really.”

“I–I don’t know exactly.” I shifted from one foot to the other. “Somewhere near a coast, but not Marea Luminara, it’s too salty and humid here. The plants don’t look like anything I’ve ever seen, lush and plump and too big.”

Allie frowned. “I’ve never seen giant plants. Do you think it’s before or after the Bone Bridge?”

“Definitely after.” According to Dormant Deserts and Daring Peaks, the famed Bone Bridge cut the sacred lake in the middle of Malhaven in four. But after the beasts had risen from its watery depths, nobody had dared cross the bridge again. All journeys had to be taken by sea, and mine had been long.

“That is far,” Allie said. “Did they blindfold you on the journey there? The bastards. I should have known–”

“No, I…” I gulped. “I fell asleep. I drank some magicked water.”

Allie rolled her eyes. “I’m not surprised. The Blood Brotherhood would stoop to any low.”

“I didn’t think about it.”

“You would have had to drink water eventually, and you’re not used to Clan ways.”

My insides twisted. One of these days, I had to stop disappointing the people I loved. Though Allie didn’t seem disappointed, I could almost hear my parents’ frustrated sighs from beyond the grave.

My face must’ve been the same shade as the red columns around me. “I want to be. I want to learn how to survive here.”

“You need to. Because not everyone in the Blood Brotherhood is pleased that you’re there.”

So people kept telling me, but it was Allie’s opinion I trusted. “Do you really think someone would risk the prince’s ire just to kill me? I’m not that important, Allie.”

“You’re important enough to risk a Clan war. Don’t forget that.”

“But why?” I asked, desperate voice shaking. I wasn’t any closer to finding the answer. Zandyr had been constrained by the contract and Code, fine. But Fabrian had caused so much chaos to get me in front of that altar. “I’m not the future leader of the Protectorate anymore.”

“You were still born one. The only Daughter of the First Son of the Protectorate,” Allie said. “Blood and power like that cannot be replicated, no matter what titles we throw around.”

I shook my head. “Power.”

“Yes, power,” Allie chided like I had cursed our ancestors. “We’re all Dria Vegheara’s descendants and her power flows through–”

“I can’t do magic, Allie.”

The wretched words spilled past my lips, leaving me numb. This was so much different than revealing the secret to Zandyr. I’d been goading him into leaving me alone back at the wedding, but he hadn’t cared.

Telling Allie, though…I felt small again. Like my bones didn’t fit quite right in this body of mine. Like I was wrong.

Allie scoffed. “Of course you can. Mara and Falor were renowned for their spells, there is no way you couldn’t have inherited–”

“No,” I said, that single word shaky. “I don’t know how to use magic. They forbade me from ever learning.”

Allie shook her head. “That’s not possible. It’s against Protectorate rules–”

“Like disappearing in the middle of the night and running away from the Clan?”

Allie pursed her lips. “We do not speak ill of the dead.”

We didn’t and I hadn’t. I was speaking the truth.

“Grandpa Constantine said I had potential…” Gods, why was it so hard to ask for help? Allie cared for me, she was one of the few people I could count on. “I can’t just squander it. I need to learn, Allie. Will you–will you teach me?”

A heavy silence fell between us. A dull roar resounded in my ears and my heart constricted. She was going to say no, just like my parents, and then I’d never–

She nodded solemnly. “I will. I’ve never taught anyone, but I will do my best.”

“Thank you.” A brilliant smile bloomed on my face, even as the corners of my eyes stung. “Thank you so much.”

A hint of a smile played on her lips, too. “My pleasure–” Her eyes widened. “That means you don’t have any protective spells on you.”

“I don’t–I don’t think so.”

“Shit. I should have thought about it, but I would have never imagined Mara and Falor would do something so insane. May the gods have mercy on their souls, of course.” She inhaled deeply. “Let me try something.”

I watched in amazement as she cupped her palms and closed her eyes. Her lips moved too quickly and her voice was too low for me to catch the words she chanted, but a deep frown appeared on her forehead, followed by beads of sweat. Whatever she was doing looked painful. Nothing like the flick of her fingers back at the wedding.

I stepped closer to the portal, mesmerized. Magic. Protectorate magic, happening right in front of me.

Tendrils of blue light appeared around her palms, swirling and swerving in a slow pattern that hypnotized me.

When Allie’s eyes popped open again, they were blank.

I gasped. No green iris, no black pupils. Just a sea of wild silver coiling in her bottomless gaze. She looked eternal, a creature carved out of time itself. Finally, the tendrils snapped from her palms, dissipating in a blue haze, as she chanted faster.

A breeze passed through the portal, straight into my chest. I gulped a breath as my lungs seared. As sudden as it began, the blazing sensation vanished.

Allie blinked quickly, her eyes returning to their untamed green hue.

“What was that ?” I asked, patting my chest as if I could pull out the blue tendrils she’d shot inside me. One crumb of magic, and I already wanted more.

“A light protection spell. It’s all I can do when I’m in the freezing outskirts of nowhere and you’re in the bloody Capital. And I’ve been depleted since the wedding, too.” She fanned herself, face reddening around the cheeks. “First lesson–magic always comes with a price. It takes something from you, usually energy.”

I nodded, fascinated.

“This spell should help protect you against some milder incantations,” she said. “But you have to fight them off, too, Evie. Our magic is all about intention.”

Intention. Safety. Energy.

“We’ll start the lessons in a few days,” she said and my heart soared. Magic, finally. “Until then, please don’t get killed.”

“I won’t.”

Allie gave me an unwavering look. “Watch your back, Evie. Something rotten is going on and until we find out who attacked us and took my throne, we’re all targets. Especially you.”

“You’re more dangerous.”

She hesitated. “I’m not the one marrying the precious Blood Brotherhood prince.”