Reign of Mist: Book of Sindal Book Two

by D. G. Swank

  “Why don’t you take a couple objects with you to study,” he said. “Perhaps you’ll feel less pressure when you’re on your own.” He waved his hand toward the table. “Choose.”

  “Won’t the glamour dissolve in Logan’s room?” I asked.

  “Yes, but you won’t be going back there,” he said. “Not tonight.” He sounded a bit too satisfied to suit me.

  I could argue and protest, but it wouldn’t do any good. I’d only be playing into their hands, providing further evidence that they possessed the perfect motivational tool to get me to comply. Swallowing my disappointment, I grabbed the high heel and the keys. Maybe I could use them for my own purposes.

  He laughed. “I’m not sure why you chose the shoe, but I can guess why you wanted the keys. I can assure you that they are spelled not to fit in any lock.”

  Of course they were. But I gave him a haughty grin. “I actually chose them because it’s the most complex glamour. So many parts that have to work together.”

  I jingled the key chain, feeling a small satisfaction that my answer sounded believable.

  The twinkle in his eyes suggested he didn’t completely believe me, but he didn’t call me out on it either. “The guards will take you to your room, and we’ll start again tomorrow. Be prepared to work, because I’ll be pushing you harder than I have to this point.”

  “And will Donall be joining us?” I asked, hoping he’d let some information spill.

  “Donall is still gone and not expected to return for at least another day.”

  I didn’t hide my relief and he gave me a sympathetic smile. “I know he’s intimidating, so let’s make as much progress as possible tomorrow.”

  Arthur was much more confident in my talents than I was, but either way I was screwed. Whether I could read the spell or not, there was no way in hell I’d share it with Donall.

  Chapter Seventeen

  The next morning, I woke with a start when the door opened and a guard appeared carrying a bundle of clothes. “You have fifteen minutes to shower and dress to meet Mr. Potter.”

  So that was supposedly Arthur’s last name. Arthur Potter. Was that their idea of a joke?

  “Fifteen minutes,” I said, feeling cranky after only a few hours of sleep. “That’s barely enough time to apply my makeup.”

  He stared at me in disbelief for a moment, then scowled when he realized I was just being a smart-ass. I was lucky to have a toothbrush and toothpaste. I sure didn’t have makeup. He tossed the clothes on the bed and left, slamming the door shut behind him and leaving me to my worries.

  I’d spent a good portion of the night trying to see the magic. I’d closed my eyes and examined the heel and the keys with my fingers, trying to feel the objects beneath them, but once seen, the glamours couldn’t be unseen. I’d tried to trick my mind, squinting and looking at the objects sideways out of the corner of my eyes, but I never saw anything but a heel and a set of keys. I’d even tried glamouring my own shoe, making it semitransparent like Arthur had asked me to do the previous morning. I’d studied the mirage of the glamour and tried to see the magic fueling it, but nothing worked.

  Arthur was wrong. There was nothing special about me.

  As I took a quick shower and washed and conditioned my hair with the little hotel-sized bottles Lisa had given me the day before, I finally let myself think about Logan. Was he worried something had happened to me? Had he gotten upset and done something stupid to get himself hurt?

  I had to figure out a way to pacify Arthur so he’d bring me back to Logan’s room tonight. Although I was no closer to having a plan today, we needed to get out of here before Donall got back. Maybe Brandon really was planning to rescue us, but I couldn’t rely on it.

  Brandon Cassidy hadn’t earned my trust.

  I’d barely finished dressing when the guard returned, followed by two more. The high heel and the keys still lay on the bed. I considered taking them with me, but decided I might want to study them later if they brought me back here.

  The guards took me back to the fourth-floor room. Arthur was sitting at the table with a plate of food in front of him and a coffee cup in his hand. He set the cup down and waved the guards away. “You may leave us for now.”

  The guards walked out and shut the door behind them, leaving me standing next to the table, staring at Arthur.

  “How did you do with your homework assignment?” he asked.

  I tried not to look around to see if there was food for me, instead forcing myself to maintain eye contact. “If you’re asking if I can suddenly see through glamours, you’re going to be disappointed.”

  “But you practiced?”

  “For longer than you might expect,” I said, trying to hide my disappointment over my lack of results and opting for belligerence instead. “I’m telling you, I don’t have this super magical power you think I have.”

  He frowned as he picked up his fork. “Let’s hope you’re wrong, Rowan.”

  He took a leisurely bite of scrambled eggs, then continued to eat the rest of his breakfast while I watched, my stomach rumbling in protest. The hunger was bad, but the caffeine withdrawal was even worse, and I was dying to snatch the coffee out of his hand.

  The longer Arthur let me stand there and watch him leisurely enjoy his breakfast, the more it became apparent he was playing some new game. Finally, he took his last bite, then stood and moved toward the door and knocked. “I have a new exercise for you today.”

  A guard opened the door, and Arthur said, “Send in Marni with the tray.”

  So I was getting to eat. Thank the gods. But guilt quickly followed the thought. Had Logan been given breakfast? Had he even had dinner?

  The door opened about a minute later and Marni entered, carrying a tray with two bagels and a bottle of water.

  Arthur backed out of the way. “You can set the tray on the table.”

  Marni obeyed, shooting me a dark glare before she started to leave.

  “Marni,” Arthur said, “I’m not finished with you yet.”

  Her glare turned ugly, but she kept silent as she waited.

  Arthur turned to me. “I’m sure you’re hungry, Rowan. I hope you like bagels.”

  I tried to look nonchalant as I lifted my shoulder in a half shrug. “They’re okay.”

  “You may choose one to eat.”

  “What’s the catch?” I asked, but the answer came to me as I asked the question. “One of them is glamoured.”

  “Correct, which means you have a fifty-fifty chance of choosing correctly, although my hope is that you don’t need to play the odds.”

  I pushed out a frustrated sigh. “If I couldn’t do it last night, I doubt I’ll be able to do it now.”

  He waved a hand toward the tray. “Then take a chance, but you only get one shot. As soon as you choose, the tray will be removed.”

  I moved closer, pissed that my growling stomach’s needs were at odds with my pride. I’d love nothing more than to walk away.

  I didn’t see any point in studying the bagels. The glamour wouldn’t be flawed—he’d made it clear he expected me to distinguish between them without looking for inconsistencies or weaknesses. So I just reached out and grabbed one and took a bite, wondering what a glamoured bagel would taste like. I didn’t get a chance to find out since the one I’d chosen was real.

  Arthur gave me an odd look, then gestured to Marni. She waved her hand and the bagel on the tray disappeared.

  They watched me eat the bagel, which was all kinds of awkward, but I refused to let them think they intimidated me. Even if they did.

  When I was halfway done, Arthur moved toward the door and said, “Let’s get to work, shall we? Marni, you can accompany us.”

  While his phrasing made it sound like she had a choice, we all knew better. She and I followed him out the door, walking side by side toward the staircase. The guards followed closely behind.

  As we went down, passing floor after floor, I wondered if he was taking us outside ag
ain, but he continued on past the first floor landing. We were going back down to the basement. I nearly stumbled on the steps, and Marni gave me a tiny shove since I was in front of her now.

  “Keep going,” one of the guards barked, causing Arthur to turn around and glance back at me.

  For a moment, he looked like he was about to say something, but he turned around and continued down the stairs. At the bottom, he led us through the door to the basement hallway.

  The smell of death hit me before I’d even walked through the door, and I wondered why I hadn’t smelled it before. They must have found some magical way to slow the mage’s decomposition.

  “I’m sure as hell not going anywhere near that dead mage,” Marni spat with plenty of venom. Obviously, she didn’t fear Arthur like most people feared his boss.

  Arthur ignored her and kept walking until he reached a door I remembered all too well. He pulled out a key and unlocked it.

  The smell was ten times worse when he opened the door.

  “No!” Marni shouted, taking a step back. “I refuse to go in there.”

  One of the guards grabbed her arm, holding her in place, and gave Arthur a questioning glance.

  Arthur’s gaze landed on me, and I stared back, refusing to shrink with fear or disgust, both of which were very much simmering below the surface. A small grin tipped up the corners of his lips before he gave a sharp nod toward the guard.

  The man holding Marni pushed open the door and dragged her in. I was no fan of hers, but I understood her horror and revulsion. She screamed and fought, finally kicking the guard’s leg. Her shouts stopped when he fisted his hand and punched her hard in the side of her head. Her body collapsed, held up only by his grip on her bicep.

  I sucked in a deep breath of horror, instantly regretting it when I drew in a lungful of the putrid stench and started to cough. The room was unnaturally warm. Lester’s body lay decomposing on the table, covered in a stained sheet that looked even gunkier than the last time I’d seen it.

  Eww.

  “Really, girls,” Arthur said, his voice heavy with disappointment. “Surely the two of you can mask the smell.”

  He was right. I instantly worked on covering the smell. The stench faded significantly but traces of it lingered, and I realized I’d need to cast more than a camouflage to get rid of it all. The scent had already permeated our hair and clothing.

  “Why are we here?” I asked, not bothering to hide my irritation. “Surely you didn’t need one of us to cover up the scent.”

  “And yet it needed to be done.”

  “Only because someone released the spell that was keeping him from decomposing. Are you trying to free the orb by letting his flesh rot off him, leaving the orb behind?”

  He beamed. “So smart, Rowan. And so right.”

  I cast a worried glance to Marni, concerned that she still seemed out of it, dangling from the guard’s grip.

  “Shouldn’t we have Lisa come look at Marni?” Only after making the suggestion did I realize it might be a good way for me to get an update on Logan.

  “I’m sure she’ll come around. Especially since the smell is all but gone.” He moved closer to the body and pulled down the sheet, and I reflexively reinforced the glamour I’d created to cover the stench.

  Arthur obviously wanted me to look at the body. I had no desire for one of the guards to force me, so I kept my gaze on the wall, slightly over the mage’s chest. A quick glance down proved the orb was still inside him, still glowing. The body was in bad shape, and I nearly wretched when I saw how bloated he was. Brown liquid seeped from his chest and nose. But it was the maggots crawling over his naked chest and abdomen that nearly did me in.

  “We need the orb removed, Rowan. I’m certain you’re the one who can do it.”

  “Even if you’re right about my skill set, why would I be able to free some magic-stealing orb? This isn’t a glamour thing. It’s not even glamour-adjacent.” When I could see him starting to get mad, I added, “It stole my sister’s power. Don’t you think I’d want to retrieve it for her?”

  “Would you?” he asked, sounding surprised. “Would you be so willing to restore your sister’s dominance over you?” He paused. “Wouldn’t you be tempted to keep some of the power for yourself?”

  My eyebrows nearly shot to the roof. “Why would I need to? According to you, I’m powerful enough in my own right.”

  He smiled at that and covered the body with the nasty sheet. “When you find the spell in the book and help Donall free the orb, you’ll prove yourself one of the most powerful Valerians in the world.”

  “And why would I share it with Donall?” I asked in a haughty tone. “Why not just keep it for myself?”

  His face fell and he walked toward me, stopping only a couple of feet away. “I know that’s not your plan. For one, it would be extremely stupid to share it with me and the guards, and you are far from stupid, Rowan.”

  “And what’s the other reason?” I asked, realizing it would have been a great plan had I not blurted it out.

  “I still hope you’ll choose to join us. That you’ll see the rightness of our movement.” He leaned closer, his mouth next to my ear. “That you’ll see the influence you could have on Donall when you govern with him. As his partner.”

  I leaned back, my eyes widening in shock.

  “He wants a Whelan for his wife, Rowan. Please him and he’ll pick you.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  I didn’t even try to hide my horror at the thought of marrying Donall the Douche.

  “Don’t be so quick to dismiss it, Ro,” Arthur said, giving me a pointed look. “You could save your lover.” Then he walked past me toward the door. “We have a lot to do and little time to do it.”

  Little time, indeed. Donall would return soon, and I was more certain than ever that Logan and I needed to be gone before that happened.

  Arthur led the way to a huge first-floor room that looked like it had been a cafeteria, although most of the tables and chairs were missing. Marni was still out of it and collapsed to the floor when the guard dropped his hold, so Arthur finally took my advice and had one of the guards fetch Lisa.

  She frowned when she saw the knot on Marni’s cheek and checked her pupils.

  “What exactly do you want her to do after I heal her?” she asked in a worried tone.

  “I need her at the top of her game to perform magic,” Arthur said.

  Lisa glanced up at him, irritation in her eyes. “Then perhaps you shouldn’t have beaten her so hard. She has a concussion.”

  Arthur shot a look of displeasure at the guard who’d hit her. “Sometimes the guards are a little overzealous.”

  “Seems to me the Dark Set is full of impulse-control-deficient imbeciles,” I said in a dry tone. “I can see why you think I’d want to sign up. I love the idea of being a punching bag for misogynists.”

  One of the guards started to stomp toward me, his face red with anger, but Arthur lifted his hand and barked, “Enough!”

  The guard froze in his tracks, and I realized he hadn’t stopped of his own volition. Arthur had stopped him with magic. It occurred to me that this was the first time Arthur had ever used his magic in front of me before. Something about it felt strangely familiar.

  But I didn’t have time to dwell on it, because Arthur had grabbed the guard by the front of his shirt and hurtled him across the room, farther than should have been possible. Which meant he’d used magic again, but what talent did he possess? Kinetic power was the obvious answer, yet somehow that didn’t feel right.

  The guard hit the concrete wall, then slumped to the floor, his eyes wide with fright.

  “I told you not to touch her,” Arthur snarled as he charged across the room toward him. He grabbed the guard’s shirt, then tossed him against the wall again. His head hit with a sick thud, the impact harder than it should have been.

  Arthur started to toss him again, but I called out, “Stop. You’ll kill him!”

&nb
sp; “If he hasn’t already,” Lisa said to herself, staring at them in horror as she squatted next to Marni on the floor.

  Arthur turned to me with a murderous look in his eyes. “He was warned that you are not to be hurt, and I have no doubt that he would have killed you.”

  I suspected he was right.

  He left the guard’s body on the floor as he turned his attention to Lisa. “Is she healed enough to work?”

  Lisa hesitated, clearly not wanting to give Arthur an answer he didn’t want to hear. “Some injuries need time as much as healing magic.”

  Arthur’s eyes narrowed. “I’ll take that as a no.”

  I quickly moved in front of her to shield her from his fury. “She’s doing the best she can, Arthur.”

  “And how would you know?” he asked in a dry tone. “Did you two chat about it when she snuck you into your lover’s room two nights ago?”

  My blood turned to ice. I considered trying to deny it, but it was pointless.

  “Arthur,” Lisa said breathlessly from behind me. “I can explain.”

  “You won’t explain a thing,” I said, my anger building in my gut. “You shouldn’t have kept me from Logan in the first place. Lisa knew how helpless I felt after being locked in that closet, and she knew I needed something to give me hope. You should be thanking her.”

  “Whether it helped you or not, she was still disobedient,” Arthur said, seething. “She still broke the rules.”

  “Disobedient,” I repeated with disgust. “That’s a word you use for a child, Arthur. Why would I want to help a group that treats their adult members as children?”

  “People often need guidance. We provide it.” His anger seemed to be fading. “No one likes to give up their independence, but relinquishing it for the greater good will bring you unimaginable rewards. You have so much promise, Rowan. So much potential. What has the Valerian Small Council done for you other than ridicule you and treat you like you were worthless?”

  Tears stung my eyes. His words were arrows that had all found their target. The Small Council did view me with contempt, never more so than now. Which pointed to a massive hole in his attempt at rationalization. “The new acting president insulted me at every turn, much worse than the Small Council ever did before. The Dark Set broke my coven bond with my sisters. The Dark Set took the book I’ve spent my life guarding. They took my purpose.”