Page 52

Priss resettles by my feet. I’m not imagining the huff that comes from the fur ball. I echo it with a sigh of my own. I’m not sure what I want to do with this information about Eza yet. But at least now I have it.

“And I am sorry that I did not find a better way to save you than keeping you in Halazar for the year.” He’s explained it before, but…

“Forgive me for not feeling overly grateful.”

“I might be a prince, which gives me enough sway to help some, but I couldn’t completely overrule a formal judgment.

Especially not when it was my brother, regent of Eclipse City and head of the enforcers, who sealed the decree.

” He can barely finish his sentence, his jaw is clenched so hard.

“I have no say about what happens on the other side of the bridge, not really.”

“Your brother ? Prince Ravin decided my fate?” I sit up now. The conversation has my full attention, and I don’t want sleep to take hold of me. “He was involved?”

“It was his men that caught you, and their trap that ensnared you. I didn’t know where you were until you were taken in.

I happened to notice that some matters weren’t adding up about the case.

I began looking closer into it all. Had Glavstone run a few tests—though I did not find out his methodology until I came to collect you this year.

” Kaelis turns back to the bowl and uses my new position to access my left thigh.

I’m vaguely aware of the feeling of his fingertips sliding over my skin as he pushes back the frayed scraps of my trousers to continue cleaning the blood.

“Ravin’s men…caught me…” I repeat. Griv, the man who had come to me asking me to help him get out of the city…The trap that he led me into. Arina’s cautions about the job, that something was starting to rub her the wrong way. Griv was a mole for Ravin, not Kaelis.

“Ravin is the head of the city enforcers, as regent. So of course he had a direct hand in it. Though, I cannot be sure if he knew you were a Major or not. Or if he even recognized you on the day of the Fire Festival. I suspect not, as that would’ve been his best chance to send you back to Halazar—before you became an initiate.

I declared you my bride out of panic that he might have known who you were,” Kaelis continues, oblivious to the fireworks of thoughts exploding across my mind.

“I’ve been trying to figure it out. I expect Ravin, as my father’s lapdog, to know everything, especially when it comes to another Major.

He would no doubt want to find a Major before me so he could get their card to my father first. Sending you to Halazar just to toy with me… ”

The words fade away as I bring a palm to my head, suddenly hot and cold at the same time. The room spins.

“Clara?” Kaelis’s voice is distant. Concerned.

Arina knew the Arcanist who came to me was someone to worry about.

She’d said she had a bad feeling about it.

I’d assumed it was a reading she did. But could it have been something to do with Silas?

If it was, does that make him Ravin’s mole?

Or did Silas know of a deeper plot and warn her out of kindness?

Griv’s musculature was similar to Silas’s.

His hair was a shade lighter…Eyes a different color, weren’t they?

But he’d worn glasses. Perhaps tinted. Dye could explain the hair.

He was never able to meet Arina, never showing up to our meetings whenever I mentioned she might be there.

My stomach churns. I might be looking for enemies in all the wrong places. But there’s one thing I now know…

“It wasn’t you.” I slowly tilt my head to look at him. “You really weren’t the one to imprison me.” Nor orchestrate all of my other pains. Ravin controls the city enforcers, not Kaelis. Could he be behind Mother’s death?

“I told you I wasn’t,” he murmurs, not meeting my eyes. He did, all the way back to my first night here. But I’d had no reason to believe him. Until now.

“Because you need me to steal from your father.” In all the time that’s passed, in all my classes, I haven’t forgotten my real purpose here.

“Among other things.” Our eyes lock, and my throat goes tight.

“What other things?” I manage to say.

“Your card.”

“Right, absolutely…” Yet, why does it feel like there’s so much more to this? The feeling is made all the worse by how the scent of him still lingers on me from when he carried me earlier. I try to focus on anything but him and myself. “Speaking of, I think I might have successfully used my Major?”

Kaelis sits straighter. “You do?”

“I think so.” It’s easier to speak about cards, and I hide behind the subject.

“When I was fighting with Eza, I used my blood to ink a card…” I trail off as it dawns on me.

“That’s it. I’ve always been able to ink Minor Arcana with anything so long as I dropped a bit of my blood into the ink—added a piece of myself to the card, as Mother would say.

I think my Major must be the same. Or it must be inked entirely in my blood. ”

“Let’s hope not the latter,” he says grimly. Though, given what other Majors sacrifice, it seems somewhat minor in comparison.

Before either of us can say anything more, the door that Kaelis had disappeared through earlier opens and Rewina appears with a silver platter.

Kaelis pulls his hands off me so quickly that I would question whether they were there at all, if not for the warmth they left behind. “Rewina, thank you.” He goes to meet his maid, taking the platter from her.

“You are most welcome.” Rewina respectfully ducks her head. Her eyes turn to me. “Goodness, sir, you did not tell me she would be in such dire need of fresh clothes.”

“I’m fine,” I start to object.

Kaelis speaks over me. “A grievous and shameful oversight on my part, without doubt. Do you mind remedying this?”

“With haste.” Rewina excuses herself and departs the way she came.

“I said I was fine.”

Kaelis sets down the platter on the table, far enough away from the bowl of bloody water that splashing isn’t a risk. “I said I cannot have my betrothed looking in such a state.”

“And I said that you should really let the whole ‘we’re engaged’ thing go.” I add, “At least when it’s just the two of us, we can drop the pretense.”

“It’s safer for us both not to.” He reaches down and plucks a grape off the platter, popping it into his mouth. “Last thing we want is to get so comfortable in private that we make a mistake publicly.”

“I suppose you’re right…” Especially when it comes to the “getting comfortable” part. I help myself to some food, preventing myself from saying anything else.

Rewina reappears even faster this time. Perhaps she’d already been expecting this oversight on Kaelis’s part. “My lord, lady.” She bows her head to each of us as she places the clothes on a nearby chair.

“Thank you,” I say after her, just before she leaves. My focus sticks on the clothing. “Do you just keep outfits in my size lying around?”

“I don’t question what Rewina thinks is best when it comes to managing the storerooms of my apartments. Which, speaking of…” He stands and starts for the entrance to his study. “I’ll give you some privacy to change. Give a knock when you’re finished.”

He’s gone before I can say anything more. Begrudgingly, I stand and engage in a staring contest with the door. Even though I’m alone, I feel as if the world’s eyes are on me— his eyes are on me—as I reach for the hem of my shirt and pull it over my head. Everything in me aches, still.

Using the bowl and rag, I try to finish cleaning myself up as much as possible before dressing in the new clothes. They’re simple loungewear. Buttery silk from head to toe with enough structure that I don’t feel as though I’m comically underdressed. But, also…I’m still vulnerable.

“I would’ve preferred the leathers or stiff velvets you gave me in my wardrobe in my room,” I announce as I open the door.

Kaelis turns away from what he was inspecting on the desk, quickly lowering his hand from his mouth. Was he biting his nails? The act seems so unlike the usually composed Kaelis.

“I would bet that Rewina suspected you’d be more comfortable, given your injuries.”

“Injuries that are mended, thanks to you.” I follow him back to the sitting area, choosing the clean sofa.

Kaelis does as well. Which I don’t blame him for.

But there were chairs as an option to not sit next to me…

farther from the food, though. Why am I overthinking his proximity?

“Really, it would’ve been fine to leave me in the other clothes. Twenty know I’ve been in worse.”

Kaelis reaches for another grape, but rather than putting it into his mouth, he gently presses it into mine.

I’m too shocked to object. “Stop fighting, Clara, and accept my kindness. It’d be a shame to waste it; I give it to precious few.

” He turns back to the platter, and I can’t properly read his expression in profile.

“Besides, you will not have to ‘be in worse’ ever again. Not so long as I’m around. ”

“You don’t have to do this.”

“But I want to.” Kaelis glances my way. “Consider yourself lucky. ”

I can’t help a laugh. I’ll take this luck.

“Who was the first to teach you about the cards? Your mother?” Kaelis casually asks as I reach for more food.

My hand freezes midair. All the suspicions I’ve ever had about the prince return. “How do you know about my mother?”

“You mentioned her earlier, that she was the one to first say to put ‘a piece of yourself’ into the cards. Clever, though I doubt she meant it literally.” He doesn’t seem to realize the panic that those words instill in me.

I grab one of the oversized sandwiches, stand, and announce, “I should get back to the dormitory. My roommate already suspects me of a great many things.”

“Clara—”

“Thank you for everything, Kaelis,” I mumble through a large bite of the sandwich.

“ Clara. ” He says my name like a command. Like a plea.

“I won’t let anyone see me leave. I know the way.” He doesn’t stop me as I help myself through his closet. As I sprint for the back door and into the dark tunnels.

It isn’t until I’m most of the way back to the dorm, sandwich long gone, that I realize I’m not looking over my shoulder to see if Kaelis is following…

but for Eza, or any other threat. For the first time, I realize his apartments are the only place in the academy where I feel safe.

That Prince Kaelis, of all the people in this world, for reasons I don’t want to fathom, is a balm to my frayed nerves.