“He’s kept at the castle in Fate Hearth.” Kaelis slides his hands off his face. “Since the Hierophant’s card can give a non-Major the ability to use a Major card, Father keeps him close. I haven’t heard any word of him being moved…but I’m not exactly in my father’s good graces. They’d move him with a Chariot, so I might not even know until he’s here. He could well be already.”
“The enforcers were talking like he hadn’t arrived yet,” I muse. “We can get him at Fate Hearth if we go now.”
“It’s three days to Fate Hearth. Unless…”
“Unless you have a Chariot.” I reach into my pocket and show him the silver cards Silas left for me. Kaelis sits back up again, eyes widening slightly. “And since I’m a Major, I can use other Majors at will.”
Kaelis throws off the covers and moves for his closet in a blur. For a second, I am distracted by the two divots at the bottom of his back and the perfect curve of his ass. He catches me staring as he turns, a dark brow arched.
“Really?” he says flatly. “Shouldn’t you be more focused on what we have to do?”
“I’m perfectly capable of both scheming and admiring.” I continue to watch as he dresses himself.
His hands pause on the button of his trousers. “Did you sleep?”
I shake my head.
“Rest.” Kaelis points at the bed.
“We don’t have time.”
“Clara—”
“I’ll rest when I get back, before we remake my face,” I say. Kaelis’s eyes widen a fraction. I never expected to find the courage to take the leap to remake myself from a dead man, but Silas put his faith in me—gave me this opportunity. I’m not going to waste it. I’m going to dowhatever it takes to keep myself and Arina safe. “This will be the last thing I do as Clara Graysword.”
“Very well, but you will not be doing it alone,” he says.
“Kaelis—”
“Spare me the ‘I can’t bring you.’ ” He rolls his eyes and puts on his shirt. “Unless you happen to know the layout of Fate Hearth castle and know precisely where my father keeps his Majors locked up, you need me to come.”
“You could explain it to me.”
“This will be faster,andsafer.”
“All right.” I nod and stand. There’s no time for arguing, and he does make a good point.
His eyes drop to the weight in my pocket; my thinning deck is still partly Glavstone’s, partly his. “Follow me.” He strides past, and I oblige.
We head for my previous room, and he retrieves a leather deck holster from a drawer of the dresser. It’s dyed black as night. Wordlessly he kneels and slips the bands around my thigh. Him in front of me, kneeling, his long fingers gently tightening the buckles, sends small shivers across my skin.
“Is there anything you don’t think of?” I ask as he stands.
“When it comes to you? Nothing. You are my favorite obsession.”
My fingertips linger on the holster as I move my hodgepodge deck into it. There are already cards inside. More gifts, handcrafted by him.
“Are you ready?” He doesn’t let me linger on the sentimentality behind the gesture. Doesn’t even give me an opportunity to properly thank him.
“Yes. Are you?” I hold out my hand.
His fingers glide against mine, clutching them tightly, as though he knows the streak of nerves that is beginning to thread through me. “Take us to the same room we arrived in the last time we went there.”
I nod, the Chariot summoned with a thought. The card bursts into fragments of light. In an instant, the world falls out from under our feet before rushing to meet us once more. Except this time, we’restanding in a room I’ve been to only once. As the distant whinny of a horse fades from the recesses of our minds, Kaelis moves for the door.
“It’s early still. The staff is preparing for morning protocol. You’ll need to get to the Majors before anyone else will be buzzing about. Father orders them to ink daily so he can stockpile their cards, just in case something happens to one of them.” Locked up. Monitored. Ordered…Truths that, while not surprising, fill my mouth with a sour taste. It’s not much different from what Glavstone had me doing the first time I was in Halazar. “I’ll show you part of the way, tell you the rest, and then I’ll head for the royal chambers.”
“You’re not going to take me to the Majors yourself?”
