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They stepped into the hall and almost immediately the low-flickering flame in the wall-mounted sconces seemed to extinguish themselves. Aric, she presumed, snuffing out the final traces of their presence. Then he took her hand and she felt his magic lift around them a heartbeat before their surroundings shifted once more.
The cave settled around them, or they materialized inside the cave, and Aric merely extended his free hand toward the firepit-like portal. Another wave of energy pulsed from him, encircling the entire back section of cave like a barricade. As his arm lowered, he gave her hand a squeeze and met her gaze. “When we get home, there’s something else I need to test you on. I can’t explain it without compromising the test, so I’m going to have to ask that you trust me.”
Rochelle felt her eyes widen at his unexpected words. The only thing she could possibly think of was that her teleportation training was still incomplete, but what he’d said didn’t add up for that. “Did I do something wrong?”
His expression softened. “No.” He leaned forward and pressed his lips to her forehead. “I’ll explain after, I promise.” He didn’t give her time to question further before transporting them again, and she wasn’t surprised when the cave around them was replaced with more familiar walls and smoother flooring.
“Welcome home,” Tinsley said seconds later. Rochelle barely had time to turn her attention to him before he was holding something out to her. “I’ve acquired your new Connector Stone, Miss Rochelle. My apologies for the delay.”
She blew out a breath of relief and scooped the stone from his palm. “Thank you, Tinsley.” She’d forgotten entirely that her stone had been lost when she was kidnapped. Denham had taken it off her while she’d been unconscious and done who-knew-what with it.
“Tinsley,” Aric said, “make arrangements with the rest of the team to have them over for dinner tonight. I expect Cecilia and Viveca will be exhausted after all their traveling.”
Tinsley inclined his head, vocalized his agreement, and swept from the room.
Rochelle frowned again and shifted her attention back to Aric. “You really think they’ll be back in time for dinner?”
“Of course.” He faced her with a smirk that sent nerves skittering through her. “Because we’re going to speed them up a little.”
She didn’t know what to say that and her mouth opened before her brain engaged. “Wh-what?” He’d very specifically used the plural. “Is this my test?”
“I distinctly recall telling you I can’t explain that.”
Frustration surged and she drew a breath. He’d never blind-tested her before and she didn’t know how to handle it. “How do we speed them up? I don’t understand.” To the best of her knowledge, there was no such thing as time-based magic. But his words made her wonder if he’d somehow discovered a combination that worked similarly. He was the one who’d invented teleportation magic, after all.Or at least we thought he had.
Aric’s expression remained almost perfectly unchanging as he said, “I’ll find their current location, take us to them, and we’ll bring them here. To the main courtyard, specifically. I’m not suggesting we abandon the hovair or the horses.”
She nodded, a sense of relief easing her nerves as she processed his words. Though, in this case, she wondered if it wouldn’t be easier on him if she stayed behind. She opened her mouth with the intent to suggest as much, but Aric continued speaking.
“We’ll divide the load. I’ll bring back the hovair, horses, and hired driver. That will leave you with Cecilia and Viveca.”
The air rushed from Rochelle’s lungs and the room spun around her for a moment as she grappled with his words. “You want me to what?” She shook her head, inadvertently making herself wobble in place. “No way. I haven’t even teleported myself yet. That’s not safe!” Which he should know. For as hard as he tended to push her in training, he’d never advocated for endangering anyone’s life before. Was he just reprioritizing since he intended to be around?
“What happened to your confidence?”
She frowned up at him. “I am confident in my ability to master the technique.” She made a point of pausing there. “But I haven’t yet. I haven’t even totally screwed it up yet. All I’ve done is focused meditation. We both know I’m not ready to transportother people, even if you’re right there to heal them up when I inevitably turn them inside out or something horrendous like that. Which I do not want to do, to anyone, let alone friends. If it’s that important that everyone gets home by tonight, you have to do it yourself. All I can do is be there for backup, which you definitely don’t need, let alone with Viv and Cecilia around.”
Aric stared at her for a long second, his expression unreadable.
Rochelle fought against the instinct to duck her head and mumble an apology. The old her would have cut herself off long before she’d finished such a strong declaration. The old her would never have had the strength to hold his intense gaze in an increasingly heavy silence. That was the pseudo-invisible woman she’d grown into in that non-magical world. She wasn’t that woman any longer. Largely thanks to Aric.
Then Aric’s expression fell with something like resigned disappointment and he let out a nearly soundless sigh.
She’d disappointed him. The realization stabbed through her and tears rushed her eyes. “I’m sor—”
He cupped her cheek, a gentle smile tipping his lips, and shushed her with the light touch of his thumb. “The apology is mine,” he said. “That was your test. Two, you could say, and I do appreciate your resolve. Never apologize for that. You were absolutely right.”
Rochelle could only blink, even as his hand fell away. That had been the test.Which part?Confusion filled her, confusion she didn’t know how to articulate.
Aric tilted his head in the direction of the hall that would take them to his office and started walking. Not a word was said until the door shut again behind him. Despite what had happened between them the last time they’d been in his office, a sense of seriousness filled her that had her sitting quietly in her usual spot on the sofa. He moved to the chair he preferred, taking the object they’d pilfered from Denham’s house out of his pocket as he sat. “The test I couldn’t tell you about,” he said, meeting her gaze again, “was my attempt to deduce whether or not your eyes could somehow tell the difference in a direct verbal lie.”
She gaped. “A … lie?”
He nodded. “It was a longshot. I had hoped perhaps you could pick up on some reliable tell, some … wavelength in the air, perhaps.” Aric sighed and leaned back in the chair. For once, he looked genuinely stressed, and the sight was immensely concerning. “I don’t know the connection, or if there’s a strange but innocent explanation, but I fear we may have a much larger problem.”
Rochelle curled her hands in her lap. “You mean bigger than having the Elder Prince as our enemy?” She wanted to also point out that they didn’t even know if King Jensen was involved, but Aric’s visible distress unsettled her. She didn’t want to add to it.
Something like a bitter half-chuckle escaped him. “Arguably no,” he said. He straightened. “But for me, for us, yes.” He lifted the cracked brooch, deliberately drawing her attention to it. “This symbol was the family crest of a lower ranked noble family, the last daughter of which I was very close to in the Academy. Her name was Trisha. This brooch belonged to her.”
