“Never mind that, are you alright?”
I reached for her, but she grabbed my hand midway and squeezed it urgently.
“Roz, I’m fine. He’s a pig, but –” She shook her head, and fixed me with her troubled blue stare. “Whathappenedto you?”
“Nothing, I just –”
I rubbed at my sternum, and Sorcha did not miss the unconscious gesture.
“Your Flame?”
“It… reacts,” I admitted reluctantly. “Around the Captain.”
Sorcha’s eyes blew wide as saucers, her sweet voice dropping to a stage whisper.
“The Soul Song?”
“What?” I screeched, and we both jolted at the sudden volume of my voice.
Sorcha gripped my wrist tight, head whipping around toward the dining hall. My heart was pounding as I followed her gaze, though it had little to do with the fear that someone would come investigate my outburst.
The mere suggestion that my magic might sing for a Captain of the Kingsguard was laughable. Impossible, in fact. My parents were the only true soulmates I had ever known; the mating of two souls wasthatrare.Rare as a toad’s fangs, myfather had always said. Rare among the covens, and unheard of among humans as far as I knew – how could they be mated, when they had no magic to complete the duet?
Sorcha’s raised brow, an odd mix of hope and fear, snatched me from my racing thoughts.
“No,gods, nothing like that! No, it – I don’t know. It seems to sort of… panic. If he gets too close.”
Sorcha considered me, brows knitted.
“You talk about it as though it’s alive.”
This, from an earthwitch, might have surprised me once upon a time. Their power was life itself, so for a long time I couldn’t understand why they held such distaste for our relationship with magic; mine, my father’s and Mag’s. But over time, as our tenuous ties with her coven eroded, I came to understand that my mother’s people saw magic differently – a function of the living witch, like breath or digestion, rather than a symbiotic entity.
Their contempt and mistrust for us ran so deep, I had to admit I’d been shocked that my aunt sent her daughter to aid me when I reached out in those desperate days after Magnus left. I supposed Ishouldn’tbe shocked to hear how little Sorcha understood of my magic – though I knew her well enough now to realise it was innocence rather than ignorance.
“Of course not,” I said quickly. The lie tasted sour on my tongue, but I couldn’t stand to see her worry about our status as magic users. Couldn’t stand to see those worries feed into the insidious fear I knew had taken root in her as it had in me.Bloody Tanner and his big mouth.“Fire magic is just a little… wilder. Harder to control.”
“But you’re worried,” she whispered. “They’re hunting a magic user, and you think –”
“No,” I said firmly. “I’ve done nothing wrong, and neither have you.”
Sorcha dropped my gaze, her hand going limp in mine. She drew in a breath, and for a strange moment I thought she might contradict me. But then the moment passed, and she squeezedmy hand tighter, lips pursing.
“Alright,” she agreed, still looking at her feet.
“We just – we won’tflauntour magic either, right? We’ll be as cautious as we always are.”
She finally met my eye and nodded. “Yes. Alright.”
“Alright,” I echoed, forcing a smile. “Why don’t you go have some breakfast? I’ll call you if we’re suddenly swarmed with patrons.”
I gestured around the empty tavern, where even Roy and Tanner’s favourite seats remained unoccupied.
She laughed shakily, but nodded before disappearing through the bar and into the kitchen. I was glad for the timing of her departure when the first of the Kingsmen left the breakfast hall just a few minutes later, the rest following in a slow stream thereafter. Fischer was one of the last to emerge, a scowl etched deep into the sharp features of his face. He glanced around and when his gaze snagged on mine, the razor-sharp smile that bared my teeth came unbidden.
I fluttered my fingers at him for good measure.
Fischer stalked off without a backward glance, and I grinned at his hulking back. But the Captain followed closely on his heels, and when he paused in the breakfast hall doorway to look at me, my grin stuttered. I snatched up the closest rag and turned to the shelves, grabbing a bottle at random and wiping off the dust in hurried, clumsy strokes.
