Of course,now that I actually wanted to talk to my ex-fiancé, the impossible man was nowhere to be found. I’d already looked in four different parlors and the glasshouse by the time I finally gave in, sucked in a deep breath, and pushed open the door to Lord Cosgrave’s library ofmagic.
It was a surprisingly small and cozy room with a crackling fire and a large bay window, and four months ago, it would have looked blissfullyenticing.
Now, I had to force myself to step through the doorway, bottling down every unhelpful emotion and keeping my eyes focused on mygoal.
Wrexham wasn’t there, but my brother was, sitting bent over a small yew wood table with Miss Fennell. Their two velvet-upholstered wing chairs were closely drawn together, and a long piece of parchment sat on the table beforethem.
“...So you see,thissymbol—that line that looks so accidental, following along from the end of the word? As if the writer only forgot to lift her quill in time?Thatis the symbol for ‘beware,’” Jonathan explained. He was clearly absorbed in his lecture and just as clearly hadn’t noticed my arrival, even as I walked steadily towards him across the carpet. “Of course the ambassadress knew the elves would read her correspondence and diaries, so she had to code herwarnings.”
Miss Fennell nodded vigorously, her eyebrows furrowed with concentration. “So what she actually meant, when she let her pen trail after hisname...”
“Was that he was virulently anti-human and shouldn’t be trusted.” Jonathan nodded. “Elves may be famously prohibited from telling direct lies, but that’s never stopped them from conveying the most blatant falsehoods through a bit of careful phrasing. And one doesn’t become an elf lord without learningthatskill!
“That was one of the reasons it took so many months to negotiate our final treaty. Our diplomats, you see, had to hammer down the exact details without either offending the elves with any perceived insult—and some elf-lords, like this one, were so furious at the cease-fire that they were more than ready to take offense—orfinding ourselves committed to wildly different agreements than we’d thought we wereaccepting.”
A prickle of discomfort ran down my skin at those words.Different agreements than we’d thought we wereaccepting...
I’d stepped into my own agreement so easily, I hadn’t even felt the noose slipping around myneck.
Miss Fennell grinned widely. “I say, thisisrather fun, isn’t it? I’d better sharpen my wits before I play thisgame!”
The word tore itself from my throat:“Don’t!”
It was far too brusque an interjection, and it fell into their conversation with the weight of a rock crashing through a window. They both blinked up at me, wide-eyed.
“Cassandra?” Jonathan glanced around at the rows of glass-encased bookshelves, as if reminding himself of where we were. “What are you doinghere?”
It was a reasonable question, I had to admit. I hadn’t entered our family’s library of magic for nearly four months now, and I’d refused to keep any of my old magic books in my room anymore. I didn’t even like walking past the library in our house anymore, and Jonathan had caught me more than once taking ridiculously elaborate routes to avoidit.
The fact that he’d never so much as raised an eyebrow in response was a sign of how thoroughly my older brother understoodme.
I wasn’t about to discuss the matter with him now, though, especially not in front of an outsider. Instead I looked straight at Miss Fennell. “Miss Banks willnotbe happy if you’re tricked and trapped in the elven court. Moreover, she urgently requires your help right here if she’s to have any hope of succeeding in her own goals—forbothyour sakes—with the odds stacked so heavily against her. If you truly care for her, you won’t abandon hernow!”
Miss Fennell’s brown eyes narrowed, and I braced myself for a return blast in her foghorn voice. When a woman planned to rule the world, she didn’t often take well todirection.
After a long moment, though, she shrugged. “Hmm,” she said. “I’ll take that underadvisement.”
Well.Iblinked.
Her fiancée wasn’t the only one full ofsurprises.
Jonathan was frowning at me, though, his attention well and truly stolen from the parchment in front of him. “What’s happeningnow?”
I sighed. “I’m looking for Wrexham,” I told him. “But I beg you willnotmake anything of that! Just let me know if you’ve seen him anywhere, willyou?”
“Aha.” Jonathan’s frown eased. One corner of his mouthtwitched.
I pointed threateningly at him. “Not one stray word,Jonathan!”
“I saw Wrexham,” said Miss Fennell calmly. “Not half an hour ago, he set out with one of the other magicians to inspect the knot garden for Lady Cosgrave. How long does it take to check the spellwork in one ofthose?”
“I...don’t know,” I said slowly. Garden spells had never been my specialty—nor Wrexham’s, for that matter. Why on earth had he been assigned that particular duty? “Thank you, though.” I turned toward the door, trying my best not to take in any of my surroundings as Imoved.
It was no use. The glass on the bookcases glinted tauntingly around me in the light from the bay window. I knew what the books inside would feel like. I knew the treasures that theyheld.
They didn’t belong to me, nor I to them anymore. But that didn’t stop the longing that tightened around my chest like a vise as I finally let my gaze fall acrossthem.
I had to clench my hands into fists to stop myself from following their magnetic pull and opening one of those glass doors as Ipassed.
