Page 7

“It’s over there.” Aster’s voice was so close to my ear that a shiver tunnelled down my spine, and I spun around.

“Where?” I asked, craning my neck to look up into the tawny fabric. If I could just see your face…

He didn’t reply. Instead, he walked around me and strode down the slim corridor made of bookcases with ladders at each end. The glass chandeliers hung from the tall ceiling and flickered with magical fire as he walked by; the flames bent downwards as if they were reaching for him.

Fire magic.

I ran to catch up with him, and the light caught his back, making the thin caramel-coloured shirt almost see-through. On his shoulder, I could just make out the tip of a large black wing tattoo. WingMark. Why was he covering his face when his clothing was so see-through he could be easily identified by his mark?

As if he had seen me looking, he halted, and I crashed into him. Instinctively, I raised my hand, and it thumped down on his shoulder blade, right below the top of the tattoo. He flinched and then spun around, grabbing my wrist in a fluid motion and pressing me back into the bookcase.

“Don’t…” His voice was a low warning. The danger was clear, but it was still Aster’s voice, and my thoughts fractured.

“Killing me won’t save your mission.”

So that’s what he thought I was trying to do: kill him. I mean, I would have if I’d been thinking fast enough and not brain-scrambled with Aster’s voice echoing in my ears. But this arrogant Rider thought he was the only way I was going to get the book.

“And what, you will?” I tried to sound confident, but my heart hammered and my throat dried.

Perhaps now he would do what they all did and take off his glove to allow his Skyworld magic to touch an Earthworlder. Like lightning hitting a tree in a storm. He laughed, and the floating fabric of his veil puffed out towards me until it almost touched my nose. I couldn’t move, even though I should have. Fear had frozen me.

“Touch me again, and you’ll die,” he murmured.

“I wasn’t…” I tugged at my wrist. “Let me go.”

With a shake of his head, he relaxed his grip and stepped back, but didn’t let go.

I shot my leg out towards his to twist it around and throw him off balance, but he dodged me with a sidestep. Clearly, winning against a Rider with phoenix magic was not going to be that easy.

“You’re wasting time.”

I glared at him, and then he paused… and we both waited, but I had no idea what for. Until he shifted away and then shook his head slightly as if he had caught himself unawares. His light brown gloves heated my skin, and for the smallest second, I wondered what they looked like. Instead of using a different move to free myself, I pulled my mask back on, becoming what all these men wanted—a malleable woman—and waited for him to make his mistake.

He spun and released one wrist while still gripping the other. “Move,” he said, and pulled me down the corridor.

Fighting the urge to rip myself out of his hold and fight him, I took a long breath.

Breathe. Just act like the good little apprentice until you have the book.

But the memory of his tattoo wouldn’t leave me.

“You have the…” WingMark. I was hesitating, which wasn’t like me, but hearing Aster’s voice on a six-foot-four, broad-shouldered Phoenix Rider made me want to talk or understand… or…

“The what?” Aster’s silky voice wrapped around my senses.

All the longing I had held for too many years made me shift a fraction toward the unknown rider. But the smell of worn leather swept over me and snapped me out of my delusion.

Not Aster.

I straightened. It was a trick, and I needed to know why this Nomad had chosen Aster’s voice for this mission. Was it for manipulation or by coincidence?

“How does a Rider know a rebel well enough to spell his voice?” I murmured, his hand around my wrist flexing.

Even though our kingdom had been betrayed by the Barren and Northern Riders, I had been brought up to revere Riders. We didn’t fear them as the Ruckus lands did. We had worshipped them and everything about the Skyworld. The Annatalian Riders were our kingdom’s protectors, and my brother Lex had been one… once.

My mind was constantly pulling me back to a time long ago when I was safe.

“If we don’t move, we’ll be trapped.” This time Aster’s voice was low and enticing, much like the tone he had used when we had stolen moments hidden in this very room.