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Quickly Kalen bathed and returned to get me settled into the master suite. He didn’t even gripe when I asked him a few times more if we were truly safe. Each anxiety was answered with reassurance, only a slight retort here or there about my ridiculousness as if to maintain his reputation.
When the door to my room was finally closed, I was completely alone. My only company was the moon hanging heavy in the left corner of the window. I looked out toward it, hoping one of my rituals from the Binding might ease me into a dreamless sleep. But as I stared into the bleak night sky, all I could focus on was how full it was, how round. Too round. The thick drifts of snow that had brightened the night sky were now lying flat against the mountain. There were no stars, no light from anywhere but the porous face of an alabaster moon, too reminiscent of another face I wished desperately to forget. Quietly, I rose from my bed and drew the curtains shut.
Nuzzled in my protective little alcove of blankets and down, I closed my eyes and thought only of the Auriel, a swathe of color above my grove, and the warmth of Kalen’s thumb against my cheek.
Now, in the harsh light cast against the frozen caps of Cypra, I could no longer feel the heat of it. Kalen barely looked at me as I rolled out of my bed, balking at the feeling of winter stone on my feet. The Light Sage could have at least opted for a few fur rugs.
I looked behind me for something to cover my bare shoulders and made a face as I surveyed my options. Three quilts, handmade from an eclectic-looking muddle of patterns messilystrewn together with yellow-looking thread. Considering the extravagance of each of her homes, one would never guess that the Light Sage had such antiquated tastes when it came to her personal effects. She did quite literally have an old soul, I guess.
I picked at the corner of one, where bits of it had unraveled into tattered strips of cloth, and sighed into a now empty room.
Kalen had already whisked himself away into the kitchen by the time I shuffled out into the hall, a dark midnight shag with tiny little stars embroidered all over bundled up around my neck.
He had an intense look on his face as he sliced through an array of delectable looking fruits. I nearly had to wipe the drool from my chin at the sight of them; bright red apples, small round berries in all of the deepest shades of purple and blue, iridescently neon citruses. I slid onto the stool at the edge of the granite across from him and leaned onto my blanketed elbows.
“Good morning,” I said, feeling oddly cheery. We had survived the night despite all odds, which had been my hope as I chased Kalen through those desolate halls in the Well. I’d just figured we would die anyway. Though my time in this world was not considerable, I had already learned from it that hope rarely breeds actual triumph.
Kalen only nodded in acknowledgment. He balled an orange into his fist, gave it one lethal swipe with a blade, and chucked it, now halved, onto a tray. The sound of metal clattering against stone was loathsome.
“What has you in a mood?” I asked, not bothering to be wary of his temper.
Kalen’s face broke into a devilish smile. He had set a trap and I’d walked right into it. He set the knife gingerly onto the countertop.
“Do you remember,” he said, shifting his hips into an arrogant stance, “all of those sharp, pointy arrows flying at us? Death,destruction—oh! A very large and terrifying Beerwolv ripping my entire faction to shreds last night?”
My chest caved.
Stupid, stupid, girl,I chided myself.
“Or was that just some crazy dream I had?” His voice had lost its humor, his stare frigid. There was no way to crawl out of the hole I’d dug for myself.
“Have you heard anything?” It was all I could think to say.
“Not yet. I sent for word last night while you were drowning yourself in our tub. No one has replied.” I watched another fruit meet the cleaving edge of his knife and saw the anger I hadn’t noticed moments before. I should have seen it. It was clear as day in the punch of his wrist, swinging through the flesh.
“I don’t know how many we lost or if that was even the only legion she sent. As far as I know, it could have been raining down arrows long into the morning.”
“I’m sorry,” I offered weakly. For all of it, I was sorry. For every ounce of trouble my reentry into this world had stirred up. For the trivial way I had acted this morning. I hoped he knew what I meant, and I thought maybe he did when his chin dipped down in affirmation.
“Me too,” he said. The words hung in the air between us like an invisible stench.
“Well, what can we do?” I jumped up from my stool and marched to the corner where he stood. “While we wait for word to return from Leoth?”
He looked at me and my newly found seriousness with wide unsettled eyes but did not hesitate to reply. “We will do what we should have been doing since you first set foot back into this world. Train.”
The half-healed, gruesome looking wound on his side was still wet with toxin around the edges. I stared at it, then at Kalen.
He quickly added, “The intellectual sort, for now, of course.”
“Of course.”
“You don’t have a clue what I mean.”
I shrugged. “Not at all, no.”
“Follow me.” Grabbing the tray of cut fruits, he sauntered down the long hall opposite our rooms.
His callous demeanor had stung this morning, but I was surprised at how easily we slid back into this snippy banter of ours. It was almost comforting to pretend like last night was a dream brought on by a hot, maddening fever. Like he hadn’t looked into the only parts of my soul I had left and marked a spot for himself.
