My ex-fiancé’stangled black hair showed the disorder of his spellcast travel; the branch that lay before him must have snapped off one of Lady Cosgrave’s elaborate knotwork hedges, caught up in the whirlwind of hispassage.
The contrast between the vivid memories that I’d only just escaped and the reality of his presence before me now was so striking that for a moment I couldn’t speak. For one dizzying instant, the two figures—Wrexham then and now—seemed to overlap each other in myvision.
Of course he wasn’t that lanky twenty-year-old boy anymore, the intense scholarship student from a Maratha-Anglish sailor’s family, with too-long hair, secondhand robes, and the most brilliant magical mind in our class…at least, until I’d joined mid-year and become hiscompetition.
First, we’d competed for top honors. Then we’d egged each other on. Andthen…
He had grown into himself over the years, his lankiness filling out into a hard, lean strength. And his work for the Boudiccate had brought him honors far beyond any that we’d ever competed for in our years at the Library, along with comfortable financial security. The gleaming polish on his knee-high boots, and the elegant, multi-caped greatcoat he wore now, were both unmistakable reminders, snapping me out of mydaze:
The man I looked at now wasn’t the boy who’d once dazzled me. No, he was the adult I’d shouted my most venomous words at two months earlier, when he’d arrogantly and unforgivably refused to understand what should have been obvious for any simpleton tosee.
He was the one I’d driven away to save usboth.
There were shadows under his eyes now that I hadn’t seen two months ago. His light brown cheeks, still dusted with dark stubble from his journey, looked disconcertinglyhollow.
But I would not worry about him. I wouldnot.
Instead I looked pointedly from his tangled hair to the branch that lay at his feet. “You were in too much of a hurry to protect Lady Cosgrave’s hedges? Not very well-mannered for ahouseguest.”
He arched one dark eyebrow, his narrow lips quirking into a half-smile. “Andyou’reworrying about propriety now? You really have changed,Harwood.”
The familiar name ran like a knife beneath my ribs, making me suck in a breath. “MissHarwood,” I said icily, “if we’re worrying about propriety. We’re no longer affianced, if yourecall.”
“Oddly enough,” said Wrexham, “I have no difficulty at all in remembering that small detail.” He nudged the branch with the toe of one gleaming boot. “You needn’t fear that Lady Cosgrave will kick up a fuss. She was the one who urged me to catch you up ‘with all haste.’ She was concerned about your welfare, apparently.” There was a decidedly sardonic tone to his lastwords.
I could have hissed with exasperation. Curse our hostess! Once a politician, always a practiced maneuverer of people—and of course, she was one of Amy’s closest friends. I knew exactly what she’d been up to with that humiliatingstrategy.
Letting out my held breath, I crossed my arms and glared up at him. “And you? You thought you had to come running to…what? Save me from the terrible dangers of asnowstorm?”
“Hardly,” Wrexham said. His smile reappeared, turned rueful. “I’ve seen you at work,remember?”
Damnation.The echo of our past was too much for me to bear. I turned and struck out blindly across the uneven ground, only hoping that my feet were still carrying me north. “You can tell our hostess that you’ve confirmed my safety,” I called back to him. “So you’ve done your duty as aguest.”
“Ah, but we haven’t found Miss Fennell yet, have we?” Wrexham fell smoothly into step beside me, his greatcoat swishing about his long legs. “Lady Cosgrave wishes all the magicians of our party to join thesearch.”
“Then—”No. I snapped my teeth shut just in time, before I could give in to temptation and order him to searchelsewhere.
My ex-fiancé might be infuriating, but he was no fool. I couldn’t afford to drop such obvious clues…and if I truly hadn’t any feelings left for him anymore, as I’d claimed so vehemently two months ago, then I shouldn’t mind where he chose to conduct his search. No, I should be perfectly cool and collected in hiscompany.
I said, with poisonous sweetness, “Shall we talk about theweather?”
“If you like.” He glanced up at the snow-clouded sky, walking as easily up the steep slope of the hill as if we were taking a morning stroll about a garden. “It wasn’t meant to snow for at least another three days. Don’t you find this storm a bitpeculiar?”
I rolled my eyes. “As if weather wizardry were ever reliable.” It was one of the first things we’d been taught after my arrival at the Library, as our tutors fought valiantly to clear our minds of superstition and instill a more Enlightened approach tomagic.
“It could be, though. If they forgot about trying to mimic the ancient druids and took a more modern approach—or if someone would finally devote the time and effort to persuading any of the non-human beings to share their own strategies…hmm.” Wrexham broke off, his voice sharpening. “Where are we,exactly?”
“You don’t know?” I slanted a glance up at him through the falling snow. “You just traveled directly here,remember?”
“Yes, but I wasn’t aiming for any particular geographical point.” His words sounded abstracted as he peered into the distance, frowning. “I was aiming for you, ofcourse.”
But there was noof courseabout the matter. That particular spell took an enormous amount of power and effort...and, far more unsettlingly, a bone-deep familiarity with itstarget.
I kept my tone light even as my fingers tightened around my lantern and compass. “It’s a pity no one in our party knows Miss Fennell well enough to do the same. But—ahh!”I gasped as the ground suddenly lurched beneath our feet, sending me stumbling forward. “What wasthat?”
Beneath us, the ground had re-settled...but in the distance, a boulder shifted up anddown.
Boulders didn’t move on theirown.
