Page 16 of City of Promise and Light (Mates of Gods and Fae #1)
Samian
A knock at my door pulled me from the books I’d been gathering for Sybil’s first lessons.
Without thinking, I strode to the door, swinging it open.
My throat tightened when Ezra’s hard face emerged from the shadows, his lips set in a thin line.
Frowning, I gestured for him to enter, widening the door enough to allow him through.
Peering out, I searched the darkened hallway, making sure no one had followed him before silently closing the door.
Ezra walked through my room, pulling on a discrete handle at one of the bookcases that lined my wall.
The bookcase opened, the hinges groaning as he pushed his way into the hidden room behind it.
Securing the bookcase behind me, I followed Ezra to the table in the middle of the room, sliding into the wooden chair.
“Did you find out anything?”
“No, I’m just here so you can teach me whatever insufferable thing you’ve learned about lately.” Ezra’s tone was thick with sarcasm, but his eyes were hard as stone .
Snarling, I cut him an icy glare.
Rolling his eyes, Ezra continued, “He is planning on using Arianna and me to make Sybil afraid of her magic. He wants her to agree to his bargain so that he can control her powers.”
“Shit.” I leaned back into my chair, running a hand down my face. “Anything else?”
“He dismissed me but asked Arianna to stay, so I didn’t get everything. But whatever he has Arianna in charge of, it’s not going to be good, Samian. Arianna is not someone to mess with.”
I studied him for a moment, waiting to see if he knew more than what he was telling me, but Ezra’s tone was tight, and his body was rigid. He didn’t like Ambrose’s plan any more than I did. And with Arianna receiving a task on her own, whatever she intended to do would be vile.
Arianna was the worst type of fae imaginable, always playing dirty or using people’s secrets and fears against them.
She was always so willing to do Ambrose’s foul deeds since the damned bastard was too afraid to defile his own hands.
But she would do it. She would do anything to make him love her and that made them a dangerous pair.
Leaning back into my chair, I released a tight breath, considering our options.
Sybil was new to this world, so I had to be careful with what I shared with her.
Outright telling her not to trust Ambrose would just make her shut down and be more cautious around me, which meant I would need to leave hints wherever I could and pray to Morgiana that she would understand well enough to be wary of him.
Keeping my eyes glued to the table, I restlessly twirled the ring on my middle finger, letting the warm metal soothe my anxious thoughts.
“I’ll discuss bargains with her during our first lesson.
I’ll make it imperative that she never agrees to one, but especially one with Ambrose.
We won’t know where her allegiance lies until she learns more about this realm, so be careful what you share with her. ”
Ezra shifted in his chair, his throat bobbing. “Let’s just hope she listens,” he sighed. “I’ll see if I can schedule our training during the times Arianna has meetings, or at least have one-on-one training with Sybil far enough away from Arianna to where she won’t be able to butt in.”
The tightness in my chest eased slightly. “Thank you, Ezra. Let me know if you see or hear anything else.”
Nodding, Ezra pushed on the stone wall behind him, which opened into a passageway that lined the inner palace.
The passage system had been long forgotten after the new palace was built around the original.
Ezra only knew about this section of the passage that led to the courtyard.
There were more stone openings hidden along the way, but they were a secret that I kept close to my heart.
A secret that only one other knew of, besides the queen.
Exhaling, I gripped the edge of the table and stood from my chair.
Whatever Ambrose was planning for Sybil, I knew he was going to start by manipulating her emotions, and with his magic, it wouldn’t be hard to do.
Until she learned how to use her own magic, she would be vulnerable to him and his whims.
Leaving the hidden room, I pushed the bookcase back into place and searched the books along the shelves, finding ones on bargains and the various types of magic.
If she was going to have any chance of resisting Ambrose’s powers, learning how to recognize the magic of others was imperative and something she would need to learn quickly.
My hand paused on a worn book, my mind flashing back to earlier in the day.
Ever since I ran into Sybil in the middle of the street, it was a continual fight to shut down the urge to see her, to be near her.
Even now, I could feel my soul begging to cross the short distance to her room and hold her close.
My hand tightened around the book, and I pushed back the need to be with her.
She’s too new to this world, to her magic .
I repeated that to myself over and over, hoping that it would calm the force pushing me to her. It would be too dangerous for us both if I acted on my wants, if I lost control of myself and followed my heart’s demands.
I knew she could feel it too, this link between us.
I could see it in the way her eyes always found mine, in the way her body reacted to my touch.
She could feel this pull as much as I did, though I knew she didn’t understand it, couldn't comprehend why or what it implied.
Which meant that I would need to keep a firm hold on myself, possibly even a barrier to stop Sybil from acting on her emotions.
Letting my hand fall from the book, an idea popped into my head, though not a very good one. I cringed, knowing the lashing I was about to receive, but I pulled on my magic, transferring myself to a brightly lit office.
Standing behind the female, hunched over, lost in her thoughts while reading her research, I braced myself and cleared my throat.
Aster leapt from her chair, gasping, launching a thick book toward my face with a curse. I caught it before it could do any damage and gave her a sheepish grin. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“Are you insane?” Aster hissed, her face pinching in anger.
“I need a favor, and I didn’t want anyone to know I was here,” I shrugged. “It was the only thing I could think of.”
Aster glared at me, her gray eyes piercing and cold. “And you think I’m the one that would help you with this favor? ”
My smile widened, but before I could laugh, Aster flung her sharpened pen in my direction. I stepped to the side, the edged point lodging itself into the wall behind me. “It’s just a small favor, I promise. You wouldn’t have to do anything really.”
Aster’s brows pinched, her lips thinning. She stared at me with such cool regard that I could have sworn she was the one with ice magic instead of Ambrose. Finally, Aster let out a quick breath. “Tell me your favor and then I will decide whether to help you or not,” she grounded out.
Drumming my fingers against my leg, I considered my words carefully. “I need you to pretend that we’re together,” I said slowly.
“Excuse me?” Aster balked, appalled by the words that escaped my lips.
“You don’t have to do anything,” I said quickly, holding my hands out in front of me. “And you just need to pretend in front of one person in particular.”
“And why do you want me to do that?”
“The woman I would check on in Mide? She’s here.” I forced out the words, my stomach twisting in the process.
Aster raised a brow, her nose lifting in the air. “And?”
“And,” I breathed. “I need her to believe that I am unavailable.”
“You’re not giving me much to go on, Samian,” Aster pointed out, annoyance making her words sharp.
I let out a shaky breath and found a chair to settle in.
Running a hand over my face, I leaned back, letting my head fall back against the wall behind me.
“I can barely control myself around her. I need her to think I’m inaccessible because if she makes a move toward me, I don’t know if I would have the strength to stop myself.
I need her to be the one who holds back. ”
An unreadable emotion flickered across Aster’s face as she studied me, though it doesn’t take long for realization to dawn. “She’s your?—”
“Don’t say it,” I hissed, straightening in my chair.
“I don’t understand. Why are you avoiding it? This is a good thing, Samian.” Confusion filled those steely eyes of hers but quickly shifted into alarm.
“Exactly,” I pressed. “If Ambrose finds out, I don’t even want to think what he would do to her.
” I swallowed, memories of Aster’s detached eyes finding mine when I found her lying so still in the middle of a dark room flitting across my mind.
I pushed the thoughts away, not wanting to relive those moments of me holding her brutalized body to mine as I rushed her to the closest healer I could find.
Aster’s eyes remained distant for a moment, until she blinked away the flashbacks of Ambrose.
“Sybil is new to this world, to her magic. She just lost her fiancé. I don’t want to push this onto her, and I can’t allow Ambrose to find out.
He already has some plan ready for her. I can’t allow him to have that too.
” My stomach dropped at the thought of Ambrose hurting Sybil, of doing the things he did to Aster just because he saw how close we became.
I wouldn’t allow another person I cared for to become his plaything.
“Fine,” Aster sighed, her sharp eyes finally meeting mine. “I’ll play along. However , I will not lie if she asks me any questions. Understood?”
Relief flooded through me, my body relaxing into the chair. “Understood.”
Aster rolled her eyes and returned to her desk. “Go away, I’m busy.”
Standing from the chair, I snorted and walked up behind Aster. “I appreciate you,” I said, giving her a quick pat on her head.
Aster twisted in her chair, cursing, throwing another pen my way and I laughed. It was the first real laugh I felt in days since Ambrose found Sybil. Picking the pen from the floor, I waved it at her. “Thanks for this,” I grinned before pulling my magic to me, transferring myself back to my room.