AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She’d allow the power to destroyherbefore she inflicted even a fraction of the damage she’s capable of on this world, wouldn’t she? Curse it all, seeing her like this, I can’t imagine her doing anything other than falling on one of her own knives if she thought she’d truly lost control.
And I just egged on the magic I’ve hated so much. I made it bring her to her knees.
I’ve encouraged it to torment this woman who’s shown more honor than I can imagine ever achieving myself, despite all my doubts.
In that moment, I want to stab myself, but that won’t help either of us. Instead, I hug Ivy closer, swallowing the lump in my throat.
From what she’s been saying to me, she probably doesn’t find my embrace all that comforting, but I don’t know how else to show how sorry I am.
I knew how resilient she is. I knew how far she’s gone to help the people who needed it most.
I let the fact of her magic blind me to everything else she’d already shown me.
I’d tell me to fuck off too.
My voice comes out hoarse. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize it would do this to you. I shouldn’t have been such an ass about it anyway. Is there anything I can do to help you through the pain?”
Ivy expels a rough breath. “It’s starting to… ease up.”
I rest my right hand against her cheek, resisting the urge to bury my face in her hair. To soak up everything I’ve found wondrous about this woman that I buried under anger and fear.
“I can get by in my afternoon classes on my own. I’ll help you to the infirmary, and then you should go back to my quarters. You might need all the rest you can get before tonight.”
Ivy peers at me. “You’re not going to order me to stay out of the woods? Claim I’m too much of a liability?”
My shamed laugh sears up my throat. “Ivy, if it’s possible to stop those fiends, I wouldn’t put my money on anyone but you.”
Twenty-Two
Ivy
When Stavros returns to his quarters just after the tenth bell, it’s with a plate holding three of the flaky, custard-filled pastries the nobles call “moon rolls.” I glance up from the sofa and have to pretend my mouth doesn’t water at the sight of them.
As he stops across from the sofa, looking at me, my silence starts to feel awkward. “Needed a late-night snack?” I ask.
His gaze drops to the plate. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen the former general act hesitant before.
It’s a little unnerving.
“They’re meant to be for you,” he says, in the careful, faintly beseeching tone he’s taken with me ever since he sicced one of his students on me this afternoon.
Oh. I stare at him. “I was just in the dining hall a couple of hours ago. I ate plenty of food.”
“I’m sure. But you like these, don’t you? I saw there were a few left and thought you might want to fortify yourself for whatever’s coming tonight.”
Julita shifts within my skull.Did youbreakStavros? This morning he couldn’t glower at you enough, now he’s tripping over his feet to cater to you. I’ve never seen him so rattled.
So it’s not just me unnerved by the change.
Of course, if Stavros is broken, I don’t know what she’d call what’s happened to me. He rushed me to the infirmary as soon as my magic had finished lashing out at me and claimed the red mark around my neck was the result of a training mishap, but my throat still stings faintly when I swallow.
The medic repaired the encroaching bruise, but the damage went deeper than that. Possibly not just in my neck but various internal organs as well, thanks to my magic’s frustration.
I take the plate and simply hold it, not sure what to do with it. My taste buds might be eager, but my stomach is clenched tight both in anticipation of yet another trial with the scourge sorcerers tonight… and however the former general might react to me next.
Will he take a rejection of his generosity as a sign of malicious intent? Should I choke down one of the rolls to prove I appreciate the gesture?
His mood has shifted so much in the course of the day that I have no idea what to expect.
