“I will arrange things,” I murmured. “But you’ve spoken to her about it, haven’t you?”
As she pulled away, Max nodded. “Yes, she knows. We agree that it is best. I wouldn’t do anything without her knowing and consenting first. When she is well—and not before.”
I cupped Max’s face in my hands, emotion drawing my vocal cords tight. “I will miss you so much.”
She mirrored the movement, an old gesture between the Maere. It signaled equal footing, even within hierarchy. “I will miss you too. Despite how I’ve acted these past years.” She sighed deeply, her spine straightening—a warrior’s stance. “Shortly after we left Orphium, the sword appeared on our kitchen table with the promise that if we never came back here, they would return her sword, in time.”
Max was a terrible liar. She had been since she was a child, and had a thousand tells. Not one of them showed in this moment. I searched her face, then nodded, my hands falling to my sides. I couldn’t blame her for taking the opportunity. They were both angry with me—and the sword gave Max the power she’d needed to protect Sera while she recovered.
If I’d requested healing for Sera sooner—if I hadn’t been so afraid of Myrine saying no—they might not have been so vulnerable to the bribery of the sword. Not that I’d ever have expected them to reject it, but my clever sistren would have found a way to double cross whoever did this to us.
“If I’d been better all along, this would not have happened,” I said, my voice soft as Max’s eyes widened. “All I’m asking now is that you stay with her until she’s well again—and until we get the rest of the swords back.”
Max nodded. “I wouldn’t leave her until she’s strong enough to defend herself. Surely you know that.”
“I do,” I said, drawing Max in for one more hug. Her arms went around me. “Go,” I said, pushing her away before tears could spring up and show how much this moment meant to me. I’d put more than enough of my feelings on display for today.
As she disappeared inside her own door, resolve hardened in me. I turned back to Rhiannon’s door. It was whole again, themagic of the library mending what even immortal hands could not. I stared at my own door for a long moment, wondering what it would be like to go through it. To arrive back on the island, unannounced and unplanned.
Would they force me back here? Could Myrine be so cruel? My heart weighed heavy in my chest as I moved towards the stairs. I knew the answer to that, and now was not the time to contemplate this. With so little time until the auction, we needed to find out as much as we could about the Maere who’d been exiled from the island. If there was any possibility they were behind all of this, I needed to know why.
I opened my phone and sent Kara Asterion, leader of the Aradios Maere, my first communication in over twenty years.We need to talk.
CHAPTER 27
ARES
The Automat was empty,but for the spirits. Dozens of flickering fluorescents gave off an erratic buzz that set my teeth on edge. The mac’n’cheese wasn’t nearly as good as mine, but it was decent enough. When I arrived, the spirits had congratulated me—on finding the Angel, on rescuing the child. It was odd. They seemed almost singularly interested in the two of them, and once they’d confirmed that those tasks had been taken care of, they lost interest in me completely.
In fact, they’d lost interest in almost everything. It was as though they were alltired. But that was impossible. Fatigue was for the living. The dead never tired. When Eli Cabot pushed through the door, his mood dark as the thunderstorm brewing in the late afternoon air, the Automat’s spirits simply left.
That was the funny thing about the Thaumas—spirits were naturally repelled by them, even when they were as serious as Eli. Avaline always joked that Eli was the only one of the Thaumas that truly belonged with us. In many ways, she was right. Most thaumaturges had a sunnier outlook than he did.
Today, the big miracle worker wore jeans, work boots, and a fisherman’s sweater. He hadn’t bothered with a coat, because apparently rain hardly dared touch him. His perfectly tousledbrown hair wasn’t even wet. He didn’t get anything to eat, but sat down across from me with a scowl on his face.
“What now?” he demanded. “I thought we were done.”
I raised an eyebrow and got right to the point. “I know you know something you’re not telling me. What has Lux told you?”
Eli’s square jaw tightened. He was the kind of handsome that the Authority loved. Clean cut, dependable. Even his grumpy demeanor was something they ate up. He was what humans considered “classically handsome”—and when we were young, he used that advantage to protect both Lux and I when he could. It’s what had bonded us as children.
And he was the reason, I was certain of it, that Roman Necroline had found Eryx and I in the nick of time, though Eli had never admitted to performing a miracle for us. I kept eating my mac’n’cheese while Eli decided what to tell me and what to keep back. I hated asking him for this information now. But after having been to the island—after understanding more about who we were,whatwe were… I was more determined than ever to help Orphium’s Maere regain their swords and their power.
Too many forces were coalescing against us. It felt as though a storm was coming for this city. We needed our protectors to do what they did best, with all the tools at their disposal. Eli and I always seemed to follow the same train of thought. He leaned back in his chair, folding his arms over his chest.
“There’s other players on the board,” he said, finally. “Lux can’t see who, but they are connected somehow. Standing between you and what you want.”
“The swords?” I asked point blank. There was no need to dance around things. Eli wouldn’t rat me out.
He shrugged. “It’s more than that, but yeah.”
“What’s that mean?” I snapped back.
He shrugged. “If you wanted to know what Lux knows, you should’ve talked to her.”
I sighed. That much was true. But if the Maere were beingset up, the Cognoscenti were being watched. There was no doubt in my mind about that. “Thanks, anyway… it was worth the ask.”
I went back to my food. There was more. I knew there was more. Lux wouldn’t have sent him without what I needed. Whether Eli was being difficult for a reason, or because he was an insufferable crosspatch, I’d never know.
