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The man steps toward us, ignoring me. “But that’s what we do here,” he says. “We find humans with certain… inclinations. And we turn them into something that’s so much more.”
“We just want the tour,” Alindra says. Her voice pinches at the end, turning her words into a sort of cry.
The man turns toward Alindra with a smile that’s as cold as the darkness beneath the ceiling of the world. “Oh, my dear,” the man says. “Did you think I was asking? You see, in the Towers, we don’t have to ask.”
His arm flashes out from beneath his cloak, faster than I would have imagined possible for a human. Alindra twists out of his way, her feet spinning on the stone floor. The man’s lip pulls back in a snarl. Something silver flashes between his white-clad fingers as he turns toward her.
And then my fist connects with his temple, and he sprawls across the floor like a pile of empty grain sacks.
Alindra looks up at me. She’s panting, with her lips parted and a fierce glint in her eyes that somehow burns through all her layers of illusions, and for a moment I want to kiss her so badly it hurts. Then she glances down at the human in his white robes and wipes her hand across her mouth.
“Did you kill him?” she whispers.
I shrug. I didn’t mean to kill him, but voids, it’s not like I have much experience punching humans. I don’t know how fragile their little brains are.
Alindra nudges the man’s outstretched hand with her boot, and I see a thread of silver dancing across the white fabric of his gloves.
“That smells like magic,” Alindra whispers.
I bend down. The man has a thin silver chain wrapped around his fingers. That’s his weapon? That’s what he was going to use to attack Alindra? I reach for it.
“Don’t!” Alindra snaps.
I meet her gaze, then bend back over the human. His eyes twitch beneath his paper-thin lids. I take one slow breath, waiting to see if he’s going to reach for me, and then I grab his wrist like pulling a trout from the river. Quickly, I twist his arm and bring the silver chain up to press against his own face.
His entire body jerks, then falls flat. There’s a strange smell in the air, like burned citrus, and the man’s breath hisses slowly out of his chest. I wait another heartbeat to see if I’ve killed him this time, but no, eventually he inhales.
Not dead, then. Sedated. My eyes fall back to that thin silver chain in his gloved hand, something so small and innocuous it would be overlooked in almost any situation. Something that would destroy your enemies without spilling a drop of blood.
“Phaedron!” Alindra whispers.
I tear my eyes away from the vicious little weapon in the unconscious man’s hand and come to my feet. Alindra’s eyes are wide beneath her illusion. I reach for her without thinking, then run my fingers down the cheek of her illusion. She shivers at my touch, and her illusion dissipates like smoke. It’s like waking from a nightmare, watching Alindra’s features emerge from the thick gauze of magic. Something inside me twists and pulls tight as my eyes trace the curve of her cheek, the full softness of her lips.
Voids help me, I didn’t think it would happen again. This feeling, like I’m dying of thirst and she’s cool, clear water, like I need her in the same way I need air to breathe. I thought I’d had my bout with madness, that my maimed heart would never have to worry about this deep ache ever again. I felt that part of me had died.
I want to kiss her. Spinning voids below, I need to kiss her, need it more desperately than I’ve ever needed anything in my very long life. But we’re deep in enemy territory with an unconscious human of questionable magical abilities at our feet. We have magic to steal, a portal to rip into existence, and Rowan’s damned life to save.
I take a deep breath, step back, and try to give Alindra a reassuring smile.
“I’ll follow you,” I say, with a little bow.
Screaming voids below, I don’t know how we’re going to pull any of this off.
And, even if we do somehow manage to steal the magic hidden in this tower and use it to rip a hole between our worlds, I don’t know how I’m going to step through that hole and leave Alindra behind.
Chapter19
Alindra
WHAT HAVE I DONE?
The air in here is so thick with magic it makes me dizzy. I feel like I’ve had too much wine, like my head is swimming and my thoughts are fluttering apart into clouds of butterflies. I hoped I’d feel better without the human illusion, but no, my skin is still warm and prickly, pulsing with the call of something that’s just out of reach.
I sink my teeth into my lower lip and try to focus. There’s magic everywhere, of course, but that’s not why we’re here. We’re here for the source of all this magical energy, the rumored magic reserves of the Towers. Wherever that power is, whatever that power is, it’s what I need to find.
And to steal. I frown as fear gurgles in my chest, a slow, steady stream that could easily turn into screaming panic.
No. I can’t panic. I twist my hands together, then glance at Phaedron. He’s frowning at the door the humans vanished behind. Without his illusion, the hilt of his sword rises above his head. He told me keeping the sheath strapped to his back would be easier to disguise. I cup my hands around my abdomen and feel my stomach expand as I inhale. Stars, it shouldn’t comfort me to know I’ve dragged someone else into this mess, but just looking at Phaedron is like wrapping my fingers around a mug of hot tea on a cold night.
