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“I’ll have your son,” Gabriel countered. “I wonder which of us cares most about the hostage in the other’s keeping.”
She smiled coldly. “I wonder.”
The chill of that smile gave Gabriel pause. Jadren appeared not to hear.
“Don’t cross House El-Adrel.” Lady El-Adrel plucked the blade from her familiar’s uplifted palms and slipped it back into a pocket. The warning, and searing magic, was clear in her tone. Her gaze lingered on Nic. “You will need allies, not enemies, and HouseFellhas a sorry history of choosing unwisely. Learn from the mistakes of your ancestors, Lord Phel.”
Gabriel didn’t bother to acknowledge that.
After a moment, Lady El-Adrel shrugged. “No kiss goodbye for your maman, Jadren?”
“Goodbye, Maman,” Jadren replied like one of his mother’s automatons, not moving to kiss her.
Her lips firmed with annoyance, but she did nothing more than flick her fingers at her familiar. Released, the man gave Jadren a hug. Jadren returned the embrace as the man who was no doubt his father whispered something in his ear before returning to Lady El-Adrel’s side, a subservient one step behind her and to the side. She turned back to the carriage.
As she climbed in, she paused with one foot on the step. “Oh, Lady Phel, I nearly forgot. Your papa gave me a message for you.” She smiled. “He asked me to tell you to drink water. I don’t know what that means, but it seems you have plenty of it here.” With a sunny smile so false Gabriel half expected it to crack her face in half, Lady El-Adrel ascended into the carriage. Her familiar bowed to them, waved to his son, and followed after, the guards joining them.
Jadren watched them leave, expression as blank as one of his mother’s creations.
Drink water.Thoughit was hardly the most important aspect of the alarming meeting with Lady El-Adrel, Nic fumed over that message to the point of being unable to process anything else.Drink water.Papa wasn’t sending her grapes to make wine was the clear message. The other, subtler message was that she’d chosen Gabriel and Meresin over her birth house, so she could live on that. Papa wasn’t honoring the dowry agreement either. They would get nothing from House Elal.
If she hadn’t been holding onto Gabriel’s arm, she might’ve crumpled to the ground.
“I await your instructions, Lord Phel,” Jadren said tonelessly.
Gabriel didn’t look to her for guidance, but she could sense he wanted to. “Of course,” she replied smoothly, pulling herself together and assuming the role of Lady Phel. “There are any number of suites for you to choose from. Allow me to show you the selection available. As we are in early days of the manse renovation, you’ll be able to furnish them according to your taste.”
Jadren snorted, not looking at her or otherwise acknowledging Nic’s words. He glared at Gabriel. “A nice way of saying I’ll be sleeping on the floor tonight.”
Tempting. Oh, so tempting to blithely agree, but that would only put Jadren’s nose even farther out of joint. And Gabriel seethed with fury beneath her hand. They didn’t need to make this already difficult beginning any worse. So, she smiled, adding a breathless laugh as if he’d made a joke. “I think we can drum up a straw pallet,” she replied lightly, letting him wonder ifshewas joking or not.
He paused. Then deliberately kept his gaze on Gabriel. “I’m grateful for whatever accommodations you can spare, Lord Phel.” He didn’t sound grateful, and his jaw was clenched, but he seemed to be sincere. “I will be a willing student, especially if you can teach me this.” He gestured at the rain shield.
Gabriel studied him, magic questing cool past her. “Have you water magic, then?”
Jadren grimaced. “I… cannot say.”
How interesting.
“Are you a spy?” Gabriel asked bluntly.
For the first time, Jadren smiled. “Of course.”
“And you can make enchanted artifacts,” Gabriel continued, as if that revelation hadn’t been noteworthy.
“That, at least, I can do.”
“Hmm.” Gabriel grunted noncommittally. He covered Nic’s hand with his. “Escort Jadren to the north wing, but find someone else to handle assigning our new minion a room and attend me. I have need of you.”
“Of course,” Nic replied, not meeting Gabriel’s searching gaze. He’d have sensed her distress. Likely he’d understood her papa’s coded message as well as she did. “Wizard Jadren, will you come with me?”
Jadren, clearly annoyed at being referred to as a minion, strode up the porch steps beside her, just enough ahead to demonstrate that he refused to follow her anywhere. The new arrivals were keeping either to the living spaces in the north wing or carving out office spaces in the south wing, so this main section was quiet enough that the pattering of rain on the roof sounded steadily from above. It made Nic realize that the rain had made no sound as it deflected off Gabriel’s magic overhead. Same as when he’d held the water back in the arcade. It appeared to be some kind of field of force, but that was an illusion. His magic lay in manipulating water, so it was more that he’d been bending the water away. Something to remember.
“This is the main section of the house,” Nic said, the tour already becoming rote. “The library is through there, which you may access with Lord Phel’s permission, and through here is—”
“Cease your chatter, familiar,” Jadren snapped. “If I want information I’ll inform you.”
Nic shut her mouth, stung. How quickly she’d become used to being treated as an equal human being.
