My legs were weak as porridge, my body shaking from fear,from relief, the pain still pounding in my chest. But I was alive. I was safe. I was protected, so I let myself stay in his arms.
“Aetheric?”
“Yes.”
“It was bad?”
“Very bad.”
When the pain in my chest began to ebb, and my heart to slow, I couldn’t think of an excuse to stay in his embrace any longer. So I stepped back, putting space between our bodies.
I glanced over at the railing. A stride’s worth had simply disappeared, leaving a gap like a broken tooth. “How did it break?” I asked quietly, my voice still shaking more than I wanted it to. “Did someone hope you’d fall?”
“That’s quite a chance to take—loosening a railing in case the prince comes up and stands in that exact spot.”
“You came up. And you might have stood there. I was too happy.”
“Too happy?” His words were so quiet. So soft.
“There was warm sunlight and a breeze and a view and I’m not hungry and I was happy. I tempted the gods.”
“Nonsense. The gods don’t begrudge us true happiness, least of all a person who’s already endured so much. But since it may be the work of a human, I’ll check it.”
“Take care.”
There was amusement in his face. “You’re telling me, a damned Lys’Careth, to take care?”
I growled.
A moment passed, and he still hadn’t moved. “You’re going to need to let go.”
I blinked, and realized one of my hands was still fisted in his jacket. I unclenched my fingers. “Sorry.”
He moved carefully to the gap in the railing. He crouched, examined the edges, then poked one of the remaining balusters. It wobbled in the frame. “It wasn’t cut. It’s rotted through. Looks like it’s needed repair for a long time.”
“Your brother had other concerns.”
“Yes. Himself.” Carefully, he rose. “I’ve seen enough. Let’s go in.”
“Not yet. I felt the magic.” The pain was easing now, less a stab through the heart than an enthusiastic kicking. “I have to look. Maybe I’ll see a trail, and we can find him. Stop him.”
“Or the balcony collapses beneath us.”
“I can’t stop him unless I can find him. Is there anywhere else with a view like this?”
“No,” he said after a moment, then took my hand. “Slowly and carefully.”
“It’s too dangerous for you—” I began, but he shook his head.
“It’s dangerous because of me.”
“At some point you’re going to need to stop using that to get me to agree to things.”
“But not right now,” he said in a tone that did not invite argument.
So we made our way slowly around the balcony, our hands linked and my gaze on the horizon. We circled the entire dome, saw Carethia from horizon to horizon, and I saw no magic.
“Nothing,” I said.
