I block another blow from Javien and twist my sword with a hooking motion, snapping the weapon out of his hand.
“What is the meaning of this?” a steely voice asks.
The taller man has loosed another knife. I drop out of its path as the men turn.
Torain, the silver-haired witch from the coven, fills the doorway behind them. I rise slowly back to my feet, sword gripped tight. I have no doubt Torain has strong magic, given that he’s part of the same coven as Roiven and Avreen.
If I have to take all three of them at once, I can’t make a single mistake. I raise my sword into a guard position.
“He can’t have married a knight,” Javien says defensively.
Torain’s yellow-green eyes slide over to look at me. The witch’s expression is bored, his lips curled slightly down. He steps all the way inside the room and sighs.
“Go, you fools,” Torain tells them flatly, “before I tell the King what you were about to do to his wife.”
33
As the two other witches glower at me and pass Torain, the silver-haired man turns to look at the plant next to him. I don’t think Torain wants to kill me. I sheathe my sword so I’ll look less like a troublemaker.
With a crackling noise, a flame licks up one of the green leaves, making it shrivel and darken. The fire spreads back down the branch, making its way towards the body of the plant. My breath catches. This has to be the work of one of the two men who left.
As Torain stares, the whole burning branch goes gray, taking the fire with it. He reaches forward to snap it off the plant with a cracking noise.
…Did he just turn that branch into stone? Torain drops it into the pot and turns to look at me.
“Knight,” he says, carefully enunciating the word like it’s a curse.
“Witch.”
“Causing trouble?”
“I was just goingdownstairs.”
“Why?”
I hesitate, ready to tell him a lie, or to say it’s none of his business. But Torain doesn’t seem to like me, and the news ought to make him happy enough.
“The ocean. I need one of your rowboats.”
“Back to your Hellions?” he practically spits, lip curling.
“I don’t fight for them anymore,” I say stiffly, because Iamtrying to go back, just not for the reason he thinks. He narrows his eyes, and I sigh. “Look. I know you think I've got him Enchanted, but I’ve got no interest in being Roiven’sanything, and I doubt you like the idea either. I don’t belong here.”
He slowly raises a single eyebrow. I sigh and shift my weight, hoping I haven’t made a mistake in telling him I’m leaving.
“By the gods. Will you escort me to a boat? If I go alone, I fear I’ll be forced to gut one of your men.”
He tilts his head slightly to the side.
“You aren’t what I expected.”
“Good,” I mutter sourly. “I’d hate to be predictable. Well?”
“This way.” Torain turns on his heel. He heads up the stairs instead of down, and I freeze on the landing.
“I’m not going back to my room.”
“Good for you,” Torain says airily.
