AllFreeNovel
Share Us
~7~
She was goingto kill him.
No, death was too easy for naïve and idealistic Gabriel.He wanted to be a hero?Then Nic was going to tear him into tiny pieces and leave him in a suffering heap of pointless nobility.Something for the storybooks.
Nic held on to her temper—and the vertiginous sense of everything they’d worked for dropping away beneath her feet—with all the tenacity of her exquisitely polite upbringing.She refused to show their guests just how upset she was.She revealed none of her inner turmoil, even though, from the moment she’d realized their surprise visitor must be Alise, Nic had been a mess of emotion.
What in the dark arts had possessed Alise to go truant from Convocation Academy?And on top of that exceptionally questionable decision, to help two rogue familiars escape?Inviting the retribution of House Sammael!Sure, Nic had always liked Iliana, who possessed a sweet and sunny nature that had led her to be kind to Nic when few others were after Nic’s fall from grace.She knew Han less well, but he always seemed all right, as far as the golden chosen who seemed destined to be powerful wizards ever were.
She sympathized with Han, freshly bruised from losing the dream of being a wizard and relegated to familiar status instead.Convocation knew, she felt for both Han and Iliana with their shitty futures and no power to change that.But those two should’ve known better than to dream of some kind of true-love outcome where they’d be partnered together.Theydidknow better.Even if Hanhadmanifested as a wizard, the Convocation likely wouldn’t have matched them.Every student at Convocation Academy was aware of that very simple truth.
But Alise… She was Papa’s heir.His perfect wizard daughter, gone and absconding from Convocation Academy and fled directly to the black-sheep daughter, already such a disappointment to him.Just contemplating Papa’s rage had her feeling sick and sorry.
It made her teeth ache that they’d all been so foolish.Or maybe that was from biting down so hard on the words she wanted to unleash on the lot of them, including her idealistic idiot of a husband, who was enabling them in this doomed escapade.Nic’s own foolishness at least had been confined to her fortunes only—well, and Maman’s, and look how that had turned out—but it was as if her impulsive flight were a virus.It had sickened her, tainted the lives of many people who were still recovering from that contamination.And now it was spreading.
The Convocation wouldn’t fail to notice.And their reprisal would be dire.That wasn’t even considering what House Sammael, well known for their brutal vengeance, would do.They’d all come after her, after Alise and her numbskull friends, after everyone in House Phel, and worst of all: they’d destroy Gabriel for this.
Her heart hurt so hard contemplating it that she couldn’t seem to take a full breath.
“What have we here?”Asa said, entering the room alone, without Laryn, as Nic had hoped when she’d specified the injury was minor.Even with the NDAs, the fewer people who knew about thecriminalsHouse Phel was currently harboring, the better.Not that it would save them, but maybe the measures would give her time to think… of something.
Somehow, Nic managed to make the appropriate introductions without sounding crazed, and also discreetly omitted the more dangerous details.Though Asa was no fool.The appearance of an academy-age wizard—no one graduated at Alise’s age—in the company of two unbonded familiars was highly suspicious.
But Asa only set to work on Iliana’s injured ankle, cheerfully inquiring about how it had happened.She described the treacherous path through the swamps, at least clever enough not to say why the three of them had been trekking through a trackless land far from where they were supposed to be.Han and Alise jumped in to aid in telling the tale, all of them laughing in camaraderie, which made Nic feel small and mean.
She didn’t want to hear the story of their adventures.She wanted them out of her home, far away from this fragile thing she and Gabriel had barely started building.Every once in a while, Alise caught Nic watching, her good humor fading as she gave Nic an assessing glance, reminding her painfully of all the unspoken words that crowded between them.Worst of all, Gabriel stood on the other side of the little group, studying her with wary black eyes, a tinge of damp disappointment to his magic.
Well, fine, then.Let him be disappointed!He was the noble fool here, with hisideasabout familiars being equal.First trying to court Nic and make her into a partner, then liberating the aged familiar Narlis from the Iblis wizard—an offense that still hadn’t been fully settled with House Iblis—and nowthis.This final doom that would put an end to the hope she’d begun to nourish like a tender seedling in an early spring, pretending to herself that the winter storms were over when the worst was yet to come.She couldn’t bear it.
“I have things to take care of,” Nic declared, drumming up a warm smile that painfully cracked her dry lips.“I’ll see to it that you three are given rooms.”
“Iliana and I will share, Lady Phel,” Han said, politely but firmly.“It will spare you a room for someone else,” he added, as ifhewere doingthema favor.
Nic inclined her head as graciously as possible, though it felt like her skull might break off at the top of her spine.
“Nic?”Alise said, taking a step toward her, then stopping and wringing her fingers together.“I’d like to have a conversation with you, in private, if possible.”
“Of course,” Nic replied, head pounding, though she resisted rubbing at the spike that threatened to drive through her temple.“I’ll have my secretary add it to my schedule.”
Alise nodded in response, biting her lip against something else she clearly wanted to say—which was hopefully not a comment on the absurdity of Nic having a secretary or a schedule.Well, she did have a busy schedule, but hardly a formal or organized one.Or a secretary, for that matter.She turned to go.
Unfortunately, Gabriel came with her, taking her arm in an apparently casual clasp that went straight to the bone.“I wasn’t aware you’d engaged a secretary,” he said in a quiet and mild tone that didn’t fool her for a moment.
Well aware she’d said those words entirely because that was what Maman would’ve said as Lady Elal, Nic tried to tug her arm away.To no avail.“Don’t test me, Gabriel,” she hissed under her breath.“I amnotin the mood.”
“No, I can see that.”He steered her away from the stairs that led to their suite, where she’d had some idea of collecting herself in peace, and toward the back door instead.They stepped out into the misty landscape, and Gabriel began walking toward the stables.
“Where are we going?”she gritted out.“I have things to do.”
“Have your secretary clear your schedule,” he suggested.
She growled in frustration, the sound rising to an incoherent shriek inside her head that felt as if it might blast off the top of her skull.
“You need to blow off steam,” he replied calmly.Usually his cool silvery magic felt like a balm to her, but it was the last thing she wanted right then.
“I am so…” She had to take a deep breath.“Angrywith you.”
“I noticed.Saddle Vale, please,” he called to one of the grooms.Startled, the girl leapt to obey, turned back to bow, then thought better of it halfway as she caught a glimpse of Nic’s expression.Her eyes widened, and she dashed off again.“Vale could use some exercise,” Gabriel explained.“Though I’m still getting used to having someone saddle him for me instead of doing it myself.”
