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“Except you.”
“She’s my familiar—of course she’s friendly with me.” Evelyn shook her head.
“Come,” Tovi said, taking Evelyn’s hand. “I want to hear everything. Where you’ve been. How you are. All over a glass of wine.”
Evelyn laughed, following her friend down the street with Maxie in tow, a feathery lightness easing her shoulders.
If she had left Callum, she wouldn’t be here now in the presence of a friend.
The early darkness of night descended in the small parlor inside a townhome situated in the northeast side of town. Riven, Tovi’s twin brother, had purchased it weeks ago after planning to stay during storm season and ensure their new trading route ran smoothly come the winter months.
Evelyn and Tovi had finished an entire bottle of wine while discussing the last two years. How she changed her name in every place. Used moonstones from her wedding dress for bartering. The odd jobs she’d taken to gain money or lodging. Disguising her magic with an enchanted bracelet.
Evelyn held it up for Tovi.
“So, witches can’t sense you,” Tovi said, her eyes widening.
“Or werewolves,” Evelyn said, twirling the bracelet around and around. The magic laced within it hummed. “I added wolfsbane.”
A few lone grapes and slices of cheese still sat on the plate of snacks Tovi had laid out, and the candle on the table had a skirt of wax on the hilt of the candelabra.
With the black curtains and tinted windows, it was difficult to tell how much time had truly passed. The dreary lighting had to do with printing, ink, and drying times, according to Tovi. A beast of a machine sat wedged in the corner, its copper and iron parts gleaming in the candlelight, and stacks of trading pamphlets, advertising goods sold through her father’s trading company, sat waiting to be handed out in the harbor tomorrow.
“I’d have you stay here, but I’ve taken over Riven’s spare room,” she said, her tone dismissive at the mention of her brother.
From what Evelyn knew, her brother was like Tovi’s father—demanding and harsh. Unlike for witches and werewolves, birth order meant nothing to humans. No leader firstborns, no second-born scholars, no third-born protectors. Instead, gender meant everything, and as the daughter, Tovi was expected to marry, something Evelyn’s best friend cringed at the very mention of. Tovi had never wanted to fulfill her father’s demands, but Evelyn couldn’t fulfill her own family expectations and those of the prophecy. It’d been Tovi who’d encouraged her to find a different way.
The two friends had sat on Evelyn’s roof, days after Evelyn’s parents’ bodies had been laid to rest, drinking a bottle of wine. Evelyn could still taste the tannins biting her tongue and the rawness under her eyes from so much crying.
“You could protect them in a different way,” her friend had said.
At first, Evelyn had blamed her wicked idea on the wine. But her friend’s words had rung in her thoughts for days. Her plan manifested itself, deeply rooted in her desire to protect her people. Like Tovi, who’d found her own way in her father’s business, Evelyn had found a different way to fulfill her duty.
Leaving.
“Do you have news of home?” Evelyn had wanted to ask at least ten times during their conversation, but the words had turned to ash on her tongue, leaving her anxious and with a dry mouth.
Tovi sighed. “The efforts at the Void and at the Wall are the same. Demon attacks have worsened, but at least vampyr attacks have lessened.”
Evelyn nodded but was too guilty to feel relief. She’d expected as much, seeing as no news had traveled to the shores of Torren since she’d arrived, but she often wondered about the state of her homeland in her absence.
“And what have I been up to?” she asked with a scoff.
Tovi gave her a weak smile and rose from the table. At the desk in the back, her friend sifted through various papers. A moment later, she handed Evelyn a Nua pamphlet dated from five weeks ago.
“It’s the last one I got before boarding a ship here.”
Evelyn read through the columns of news. Art festivals. Holiday parades. Shifts in leadership. The latest fashion. And a single paragraph about the “secret mission” that she and Kade “couldn’t disclose but felt confident in.”
“I see they’ve been able to keep up the ruse,” she muttered, throwing the pamphlet back onto the table.
Witches and werewolves back home believed Evelyn and Kade had solidified their union. Right under everyone’s noses in a village north of Nua, Evelyn had first read about her wedding in a paper a month after running away. At first, she’d been angered they’d used her like some story, some tale to add to the paper for witches to read over their morning coffee, but she understood it for what it was.
Damage control.
She’d run, and neither the Elders nor the Alphas would ever let witches and werewolves—or the vampyr king, for that matter—know they’d lost the Daughter of the Goddess. Her flame was a beacon of hope to their people and a weapon against the vampyrs.
Tovi leaned across the table. “I have to ask, but did you ever . . .”
