“I think I can come up with a plan to sway Farras.” Samira gives me a curious look, but I hold up a hand. “I’ll say more when I have a better idea. But let’s just say Farras’ eldest owes me a debt.”
Samira leans back on her hands, a smirk playing across her lips. “Feisal? Nowthatsounds like a tale.”
I snort. “And a long one, too. One that will require at least a bottle of wine and a couple of hours.”
“I think I can arrange that,” Samira says, amused, but her smile fades. “And what about Ada? I need his endorsement, too.”
“And let me guess,” I mutter. “He’s been uncooperative?”
“He won’t even hear me,” Samira scoffs. “Every time I so much as mention it, he says it’snot my place. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s been acting behind closed doors to try and get my endorsers to change their minds. Now that you’re back, I’m sure that convincing them will be much easier.”
I scowl at that as I look at her.Reallylook at her. She’s aged, just as I have, but there’s a sharpness in her that I don’t remember. As if being here has worn her down, changed her to fit their shape.
“When I was planning on leaving, do you remember what I told you? The reason for it?” I ask.
She’d been the only person I’d told in advance. The only one I’d trusted to keep it a secret from our father.
“You said this place would destroy you,” she says quietly.
“And I’m afraid it will do the same toyou,” I say. “Do youreallywant this?”
She gives me a wary look, that sharpness dissecting me as if trying to find an ulterior motive for asking the question. Finally, she sighs, her shoulders relaxing. And in that moment, I see the same sister I left behind.
“More than anything.” She gives me a small smile that’s so familiar it makes me ache. It brings up so many memories ofnobeing shot at her. So many things I was allowed to do that she wasn’t just because of her sex. “I’m tired, Olbric. Tired of being silenced. Cashira are so often used as an excuse, and I amtiredof their lives being dictated without their voices being heard. I don’t know if I can do this, if I can even get the endorsements. But I know one thing for certain. If there’s one way I can make us heard, it will be from a Shykh’s seat.”
I let out a long breath, my chest filling with pride. If she hadn’t been behind every step of me leaving, I’m not sure I could have done it. I see that same conviction in her now. That same dogged determination and confidence brought such change to my life, and I can only imagine what it could do in a Shykh’s seat.
“I will doeverythingin my power to get you in it.” I reach across the space between us to grab her hands. “You will do great things, Samira.”
She gives a small laugh, her eyes suddenly glossy. Without warning, her arms circle me. “God, I’ve missed you.”
I let out a shuddering breath as I return the embrace. “I’ve missed you, too.”
When she finally releases me, she takes a seat on the bed beside me, her shoulder pressed against mine. “Speaking of great things,” she says, giving me a sidelong grin. “O mighty wizard, have you accomplished what you set out to do?”
I laugh, my hand automatically rubbing my chest in search of my confiscated spells. “Travel the world? Learn magic? Become a powerful wizard? I’m happy to say that I have.”
“I’m glad.” She considers me for a moment before she asks, “Have you ever wanted to come home before now? Because I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t hoped for it.”
I swallow the lump that’s suddenly formed in my throat. “More times than you can imagine,” I say. “Straetham is so... cold and dreary. Coming from here, it was like moving to a world without color. I was glad to leave the Eastern Tower, which is all of that ontopof being in the middle of fucking nowhere, but the Crux... the Crux is a bright spot.”
Samira hums thoughtfully. “You must really love it there.”
I chuckle and say, “Don’t get me wrong, the Crux itself is... incredible, but it has nothing on the people in it.”
“Oh, really?” Samira asks, mischief coloring her tone. “Let me guess, you’re carrying a torch for someone there, aren’t you?”
I laugh, heat rushing to my face. “Bold of you to assume that it’s just one person.”
Samira’s smile grows. “Oh! How scandalous.”
“Not at the Crux, it isn’t,” I chuckle. Samira looks at me expectantly, and after so many years of wishing I could, it’s a joy to finally be able to tell her about it. “Love comes in so many shades at the Crux. There’s camaraderie, there’s casting, there’s friendship, there’s romance...” I think of the sending spell in my pocket, just waiting for me to talk to Dom again. “Sometimes all of that at once.”
Samira lets out a wistful sigh. “That sounds wonderful.”
“It really is,” I say, homesick already. I look down at where Samira’s head is resting against my shoulder. “Do you ever wish you had inherited Ama’s magic?”
I’d found out after a desperate tryst with a man in one of the illicit pleasure dens in town. I’ll never forget the first time I felt that thrum of magic, but when Samira visited that same man at her insistence a week later, she hadn’t felt the telltale resonance.
