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“Is this another of those proprietary things?” Now that the confrontation was over, he wanted a drink. He picked up the bottle of wine, noting the Elal crest on the label. Excellent. If he couldn’t drink up Nic, he could approximate her flavor, if not the heady buzz of her magic. “Don’t tell me: House Better Than You holds the license for manufacturing silver spikes.” The bottle seemed to be magically sealed. “How do you open this?”
With a huff of exasperation, Nic took the bottle from him. “We’d should leave it sealed. It’ll travel better.”
He gave her a knowing smile. “You say that as if we won’t polish it off between the two of us. I’m surprised you didn’t order two.”
“Gabriel.” She pointed the bottle at him. “You were right to begin with. We can’t stay here. We have to leave, as soon as possible. I hope it’s not too late to change our lunch order.” She went for the button that would magically summon an inn worker.
“No.”
She stopped, gave him a puzzled look. “No, you don’t want our meals packed up?”
“No, we’re not leaving.” He examined the bottle. There must be a simple way to open it. Aha—there was the trigger, woven into the Elal crest. He pressed his thumb to the center of the circling spirits. A small bubble of magic burst under his skin, and the cork eased out of the neck.
“Clever,” he commented, and poured them both glasses. He carried them to Nic, who stared at him like she thought he might be crazy, and handed one to her. He clinked his to hers and sipped. “Not the family reserve, but very good.”
She didn’t drink. “Gabriel. Jan doesn’t need magic to hire a Ratsiel courier to send a message to Papa. He’ll know where I am.”
He nodded. “Yes. And that you’re with me.”
“You don’t understand.” She wrapped her hands around the glass as if to take comfort from it. “I escaped from my family, as well as from you. Papa didn’t know anything about it. You have no idea how angry he’ll be with me.” She looked very young at that moment, fragile with the threat of her father’s displeasure.
“I do have some idea,” he replied, watching her closely. He hadn’t really wanted to broach this with her yet, as she seemed to have a complicated relationship with her father, but he was also determined not to treat her like an ignorant accessory. Or an animal.Bad dog!Jan’s snarling voice still echoed in his head. “When I met with your parents and the Convocation proctor, your father was—yes—very upset that you were gone.”
At last, she sipped her wine. She looked too tense still, like she might shatter. “You mean that he was furious.”
“Furious is a good descriptor. He vowed to send spirits after you, to bring you back to House Elal. The proctor forbade it, but I got the impression that…”
“That Papa wouldn’t listen.” She let out a huff of sound, too bitter to be a laugh. “No, of course he wouldn’t. He’d want to reclaim me if possible.”
“From what Jan said, it didn’t sound to me like his intention is to protect you from the Convocation.”
Nic cocked her head, considering. “Jan is a bully, so we can’t judge from that. He’d say whatever he thinks would upset me the most. I truly don’t know what Papa is thinking, except that I’ve betrayed him—shamed him—and he’ll want to deal with me personally. That’s one of his principles.No one else cares about your interests as much as you do, so handle them yourself.” She mimicked her father’s voice quite well.
He nodded to himself. “I could see you were afraid of Jan, and the way he treated his familiar is abominable, so that’s why I was happy to run him off, but…” He focused on her lovely face, wondering if he could really make himself give her up. He would have to because he could never make himself treat her like property. No matter how much he needed her, he wouldn’t become like his enemies in order to destroy them. He’d find another way. “Nic, if you want me to take you home instead of to Meresin, I will.”
She considered him for a long moment, then went to sit on the window seat, curling her stocking-clad legs under her. Watching him with wide green eyes over the rim, she drank down the glass of wine, then held it out in mute request. He crossed to her and refilled the glass generously. No matter what, they were staying the night. She was right—he was exhausted. Even more so now after the confrontation with the Elal wizard.
It was also his last opportunity to attempt to court her.
“Back to House Elal,” Nic said reflectively, eyes downcast so her lashes fanned luxuriantly against her cheeks. He curled his fingers around the wineglass to keep from touching her. She glanced up just then, catching some expression on his face. “What about the baby?”
He edged a hip onto the window seat beside her. “You said you didn’t want to talk about that.”
She laughed softly. “Whoareyou? You pull steel out of thin air—”
“Silver,” he corrected. When she frowned, he clarified. “Moonlight solidifies into silver. I don’t know why, but it does.”
“Well, of course it does,” she replied, voice heavy with irony. “If you can do that, why didn’t you use it against the hunters?”
“I hadn’t thought of it yet,” he admitted.
“Whendidyou think of it?”
“Last night. I needed to stay awake to keep the barge moving, and I was thinking about what you said, how I needed to use my magic more. You’re right, obviously, especially given what happened just now, as I doubt the innkeeper would’ve appreciated bloodshed from a more violent clash.”
“Nor would House Elal,” she murmured, “which is a real problem despite your cavalier threats of war.”
“Not threats and not cavalier, but solemn promises,” he corrected, his resolve to make Elal pay stronger than ever. But Nic looked alarmed at the thought, so he dropped it. “Regardless, I spent the time walking around the barge and kept myself awake by testing what I could make out of moonlight that could be useful in a fight.”
