They’re glowing like a beacon, brilliant and white, yet even as I watch, the light starts to fade back to its usual shine, pulsing like a heartbeat.
And Lucien is laughing.
“Luc, what did youdo?” The words emerge from my mouth, but it’s not my voice, not my body. It’s one I almost recognize though, the same man who Lucien called out to in the snow. Tevares.
Lucien doesn’t turn around, too focused on the crossed pillars. “Finding us a way forward.”
“A way forward?! You just killed that man!” Tevares snaps.
“Are you so certain? I’m not,” Lucien says, and there’s something familiar yet out of place in his voice. A cruelty I don’t remember being there in the scant times I crossed paths with him. “Call it a necessary sacrifice.”
Lucien lifts his hand to the pillar, and I can see that frostbite has taken the tips of two of his fingers. Light skitters across the stone at his touch, and he looks up at the pillars in something like awe.
“A necessary sacrifice?” Tevares scoffs. “Gods, Luc, you’re even starting to sound like him.”
Only then does Lucien turn, head rolling on his shoulders as he grins at Tevares. It’s a cold, mirthless thing that makes Tevares’ dark brow pinch with worry. “I am what the Crux made me.”
“No, you are worse,” Tevares snaps back. “You willnotattempt that again.”
Lucien’s anger shifts abruptly. His smile turns light, teasing. “What do you care? You’re leaving.”
“I’m leaving you withorders,” Tevares says, authority ringing in his voice. “I don’t care if they’re traitors. I don’tcarewhat my fathersaid. I won’t have you senselessly throwing their lives away,Grandmaster.You will wait for further orders before you lay a finger on them, do you understand me?”
A focused kind of rage boils behind Lucien’s eyes, and for some reason, I’m reminded of what it had been like when Virico found me in the silver.
Then, a smile snaps onto his face before he gives a careless shrug. “Your father will give them. He’ll give the orders the moment you show your face.”
Tevares whirls before storming off. He calls for someone, but he starts to fade. No matter how hard I try to cling to the sight of him, how hard I try to glean just one more second out of the vision, it breaks apart. The sky comes into focus overhead, and that rainbow cloud is gone, replaced by budding stars.
For a moment, all I can do is stare. Slowly, I ground myself back in my own body, feel my sleeping pad under me, hear the sound of Mo munching on dry grass a few feet away. It’s warmer tonight than it has been, but I’mfreezing. I can’t stop myself from shuddering with cold.
I pull my cloak tighter around me, toss another log on the fire. My teeth chatter as I sit up, pull my journal into my lap, and write down every detail I can remember.
The Ball
Having boundaries with casting and conduiting is important. Never let anyone convince you to do something that you aren’t comfortable with.
Fundamentals of Magic by Eroland Lockhart
THE SENDING WITH GALIVAand Garrett breaks apart with an abruptness I should be used to, yet it never gets easier.
I miss Galiva, miss Cancassi, miss Dom, miss theCrux.Yet as Arlon and I make our way to the main ballroom, Arlon speaks up. “I’m glad you talked to him.”
His eyes are resolutely ahead, but there’s something I can’t quite read in his expression.
“Thank you for giving me the sending,” I say. “You don’t happen to have another, do you?”
“Not that we can spare, I’m afraid,” he says through a huff of amusement. His grin fades before he says, “Dom wouldn’t talk to me about what’s going on with him. When he left his collar and that note behind, I was -”
He cuts himself short as he adjusts the neat cuff of his tunic, but I think I know what he was going to say. It hurt him when Dom left.
Arlon seems to push those feelings away, the Grandmaster taking their place. “It doesn’t matter. I’m just glad he’s been able to talk to you.”
I grab his hand without thought, squeezing gently. “And he’ll talk to you when he’s ready. Just... know that he didn’t leave because of something you did. It had nothing to do with anything or anyone inside of the Crux.”
Arlon is quiet for a moment before he lifts our joined hands, brushing a quick kiss against my knuckles. “Thank you for telling me.”
We fall into the first comfortable silence we’ve shared since arriving. Some of the weight that settled between us has lifted tonight, and I think we’re both grateful for it. Yet as we approach the main ballroom, Arlon lets out a weary sigh.
