Page 38 of The Fifth Heir

“You left the sleeping chamber without waking anyone,” I said.

She looked over her shoulder but did not startle. “I went to the study.”

“I see that.”

“The wing showed us where it was yesterday.”

“I remember.”

She waited.

I waited longer.

Finally, she set down her pen. “Was I supposed to ask permission?”

“No.”

“Then what did I do wrong?”

“You disappeared from a room containing four people who are supposed to notice if something happens to you.”

Her eyebrows drew together. “Nothing happened to me.”

“You didn’t know that when you left.”

“I walked through two rooms.”

“Inside a magical wing that sealed us in yesterday.”

“The doors were open.”

“That isn’t the point.”

“What is the point?”

I had commanded soldiers who argued less before breakfast.

I reminded myself that she was not one of my soldiers. She had not accepted my command, and I had no authority over her.

The knowledge did nothing to quiet the instinct that had driven me out of bed the moment I saw hers empty.

“The point is that none of us knows what this place can do,” I said. “Torcs, beds, and entire corridors appeared because you touched them. Until we understand why, no one should be alone when testing something new.”

“I wasn’t testing anything new. We examined this room together.”

She was right.

The fact annoyed me more than it should have.

“You opened the cabinets.”

“Sebastian unlocked them when I put on the torc.”

“That doesn’t make their contents safe.”

She glanced at the orderly rows covering the desks. “Nothing reacted.”

“Something could have.”