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“For a while, yes. But that’s useless if they’re going to turn, don’t you think?”
“I think you can’t just open a passage to creatures without first having clear rules, a clear deal. That was your mistake.”
“It was.” Then something hit her. “I have a question. You’ve been here for twenty years. Maybe it felt like less for you.” Leah knew that time passed differently in different realms. “You don’t even have proper utensils, meaning that you had to improvise. It means you can’t leave this place. Why are you truly offering to help me? To return to Aluria?”
Iona closed her eyes. “That was my deal with the ones who found me. To free them. And I can’t move on my own. Not from here.”
“What if I freed just you?”
“It wouldn’t be right. And they want to fight.”
“How did you get here?”
She sighed, visibly displeased, but Leah’s previous deal about revealing everything was working. “I foolishly tried to get into the Iron Citadel, and my magic went berserk. As I was trying to run away, I got lost and ended up here. What about you? Why did the voice scare you so much? I mean, it seems you were friends with it before, using it to give you power to kill, to win a battle… Then all of a sudden you ran away, realizing the dragon lord was in danger. What happened?” Her eyes were hard. Right. She was making Leah reveal her secrets as a punishment for having been obliged to say that much.
As her throat started constricting, Leah looked outside and saw that it was completely black. Night. She had already learned about the Breaker and even about some of her magic. Fel was tugging her harder than ever. With a lot more confidence that the voice wouldn’t find her, Leah decided not to resist the pull, and disappeared into an ocean of darkness. She did feel bad for leaving the lonely, malnourished, sad fae behind, but perhaps she could come back some other time, with a clear mind.
Finally she was going where she most wanted, which was to meet Fel again.
16
The Ancient Library
River had put on a shirt, and watched as Naia came out of the room wearing one of her linen dresses. It was simple, and yet looked so elegant and even regal on her, the white fabric contrasting with her magnificent dark hair and skin. He wished she still had that nightgown, though. No, he wished he had taken it off, then lay her on the bed and kissed her, touched her. They could still wait, while at the same time not waiting that much. But then, the world was falling apart and there was so much that couldnotwait.
He wiped his hand on his shirt before taking Naia’s hand, as he didn’t want her to notice his cold sweat. His body was telling him that it refused to go to the Ancient City, refused to talk to his father. Perhaps he should just turn away, tell Naia they were going to do something else, but he knew that the city was isolated and wouldn’t last much longer without help. He couldn’t let his foolish fear of confronting his father ruin it all. And then there were all of Naia’s questions… They had to go.
Her eyes were wide as she took his hand. “Something wrong?”
He scoffed. “Everythingis wrong where my father’s concerned. It doesn’t end there. Lots of wrong things in Aluria.”
She squeezed his hand. “We’ll find a solution. Let’s trust our magic.” That lovely smile of hers was sweet and brave and could set his heart on fire.
Stepping into the hollow was a lot more difficult than usual, even if he wasn’t feeling particularly weakened. It was as if even his magic didn’t want to go to the Ancient City, but he decided not to listen to it. River squashed by irrational fear, that was a sight nobody should ever see, not even himself. He held Naia close, and this time, it wasn’t so much to protect her as it was for him to feel safer.
Everything about this was putting him on edge, but he wouldn’t be able to postpone going to his city forever. Perhaps he should have tried to convince Naia to stay in the house, at least wait until he negotiated with his father, but leaving her behind also filled him with dread. It made no sense. He’d been going into Ironhold and had never felt that way. Perhaps it had been his encounter with the queen and being imprisoned, perhaps having his confidence shaken once had been enough to turn his insides into jam. Ridiculous. He was many things—many, many things, some of them rather shameful—but he’d stopped being a coward a long time ago.
His circle surrounded the entire city and the castle, and then there were smaller circles within the circle. The one calling to him the most was the library, which made sense, but he chose to go somewhere else, and then stood inside Anelise’s antechamber.
Naia looked around, her eyes curious, even if they also had a tiny hint of fear. “Where are we?”
Just hearing her voice was enough to put him at ease. “My sister’s quarters. She should hear us soon. We’d better wait.”
“You’re worried,” she whispered.
“A little.” He didn’t want to knock on Anelise’s room yet, so he wanted to find something to distract him while he waited. “Do you know how to get into the hollow?”
“I don’t know anything.”
“Can’t you feel it? It’s a different type of magic. It’s like when you perceive a scent coming from one specific direction, or a brief gust of wind. It’s there and not there, not all the time, but it’s the kind of magic you can sense if you open up.”
Naia closed her eyes.
He said, “Nuh-uh. Eyes open. You need to see yourself going into the empty realm, the space in-between things.”
“We’ll have to practice it.”
“I know.”
