He knew she could feel the rapid beat of his heart as her hands snaked their way up his chest, and there was no way she hadn’t heard his sharp intake of breath when she pressed her body more firmly against his. His arms tightened around her, and the feline smile she gave him when he pulled her even closer would no doubt be playing a leading role in his dreams for many nights to come.
He let her take the lead—trying to be patient as her fingers traced his jaw, then his lips, her eyes trailing every movement as though she wanted to memorize him. And when she finally—finally—pulled his head down and pressed her mouth to his, he realized for not the first time that this woman was going to get him into trouble. Because even though she was still shy and tentative and just a little clumsy, that simple, chaste kiss sparked a wave of desire so vicious, it made him dizzy. It made his blood sizzle, sent icy shivers down his spine. It left him starving and yet somehow sated.
She pulled away far too quickly for Skye’s liking, her cheeks flushed. “Sorry,” she said, a hint of melancholy coloring her words. “You can tell Eula it’s my fault you’re late. I just really wanted to do that one more time.”
If Skye had been thinking clearly as he slowly backed away, reluctantly making his way back towards the door, he might have noticed the way she gripped the edge of the desk a little too tightly.
If he had been able to tear his thoughts away from the fact that he could still taste her on his lips, he might have seen that the smile she gave him didn’t quite reach her eyes.
And maybe something inside him did. But during that moment, he pushed that little voice to the back of his mind as his attention was once again pulled back to the never-ending list of tasks still waiting for him. They would talk later that night when he’d finally managed to satisfy the horde of people chasing after him, each one needing something different.
“Hey,” Taly called out to him just as he was about to turn the knob.
“Yeah?” Skye asked, turning slightly.
She was still leaning against the desk, still smiling that heartbreakingly beautiful smile. “Bye, Em.”
Giving her what he hoped was only a somewhat lovestruck grin, Skye turned the knob, opening the door before he was tempted to blow off Eula in favor of crawling into bed with Taly for some much-needed rest.
“Bye, Tink,” he said as he closed the door behind him.
“Where the hell have you been?” Kato exploded as soon as Skye walked through the door of Commander Enix’s office. “You were supposed to be here almost half an hour ago.”
Skye eyed his brother in irritation as he strode across the long expanse of the tower office. Floor-to-ceiling rows of books lined the walls of the airy space, and the peaked ceiling had been foiled with artfully embossed tiles—something Enix had seen in the mortal realm and then insisted on installing in every suite and office in the compound.
With an irritated sigh, Skye flung the stack of books and ledgers some Ensign had thrust into his hands on top of the cluttered desk—a great massive thing that had been forged from a single living tree coaxed into growing into something vaguely desk-shaped. Spiraling wooden tendrils coiled up the legs and sides, and tiny white blooms dotted each vine, their petals glimmering like pearls. Shrugging out of his coat, he stared out the circular window that dominated most of the back wall. The rain was finally starting to let up, and he could just see the dome of the library peeking through the clouds across the skyway.
That library held some very good memories for him now.
“I got held up,” Skye finally said when Kato started tapping his toe impatiently. “Now what was it that was so important I had to push back my meeting with Sorin?”
Stiff-backed and tense, Kato checked the door, his hands pressing into the gnarled wood as he activated the wards that protected the room from other shadow senses, as Taly liked to call them. “I thought it was only right to tell you first, before… well.” Kato sighed as he trudged back across the room, coming to a stop in front of the desk where he shifted restlessly. “It’s about Taly.”
“What did you do?” Skye growled, his voice low as he recalled the troubled look in Taly’s eyes. He knew Kato had done something to upset her.
“What?” Kato exclaimed. “I didn’t do anything.” He held up a hand before Skye could reply. “Just listen. This isn’t easy for me either. I… I know I always gave you shit about her because she was a mortal, but I can see now why you like her so much. She’s easy to like. But… damn it, there’s no easy way to say this. She’s part of it, Skye. Taly’s a part of this—the attacks, the crystals in the gate. She’s not who you think she is. She’s a traitor.”
Placing both hands on the desk, Skye glared at Kato through narrowed eyes, just barely suppressing the urge to bare his teeth. “Kato, you are on very dangerous ground right now.”
“Think about it!” Kato pounded his fists on the desktop. “None of this started happening until she got here.”
“If that’s your only proof, then I’m just as culpable,” Skye countered, crossing his arms as he turned to look out the window. “And so are half the people down in that courtyard.”
“It’s not,” Kato whispered sadly. “I wish it was. Believe me, I do. But it’s not. There’s magic on her—layer upon layer of enchantments.”
Skye forcibly pushed down the bile that burned his throat. It was a trick. If there were magic on her, he would’ve noticed. “And how exactly would you know that?” was all he said in reply.
Kato ducked his head, a sweep of auburn hair falling across his eyes. “This morning in the library, my magic sparked when I touched her. I thought I was just tired at the time, but something didn’t feel right. So when I took her downstairs after the meeting, I did a little more prodding and… I’ve never seen anything like it. Just on the surface, she’s drenched in water magic. The subtlety, the grace, the detail... I’ve never seen a water glamour like that, Skye. I almost gave up, thinking that I was wrong, but then I found a tear in the spell. I was able to weave my way through the overlay.”
Skye swallowed convulsively. No, he thought, shaking his head. Kato was lying. He had to be.
“And underneath?” Kato continued, either unaware or uncaring of Skye’s inner turmoil. “Shadow magic—a… a web of shadow magic. I didn’t have much time, so I wasn’t able to get a good look at it all. I saw a few aether suppression spells, memory alteration…” Kato’s voice trailed off. “I’m sorry, brother,” he said with genuine sympathy, “but I think it’s safe to say that she was involved with the incident at the Seren Gate.”
“Even if what you said was true,” Skye choked out, “I was with her all last night. There’s no way she could have had anything to do with the crystals going missing from the Seren Gate."
“You never went to sleep?” Kato pressed. “Never left her alone, even for a few moments?”
Skye pretended to study something off in the distance. They had parted ways, he realized, dread snaking its way around his heart. He and Taly. After the attack, after she had found him in the courtyard—he had sent her upstairs to clean up while he saw to his duties. And then later that night, after they had fallen asleep, he hadn’t woken up to her soft crying until well after the guards reported being knocked out.
No! his mind howled. It was impossible. This attack had taken an inordinate amount of planning and coordination. There would’ve been some sign, some clue before today that Taly had been working with them. As it was, she had been with someone almost every moment of every day since the harpy. If not him, then Sarina or Ivain or Aiden. Even Aimee had come up and played a few hands of cards when everyone else had been busy. And the few rare moments that she had been alone—when Sarina had been out of the house, and he had been chained to his desk—he had heard her at the piano, practicing scales, playing her favorite pieces, or just picking out a tune that she had been humming to herself since she was a child. There wasn’t a single second in the days leading up to the attacks that he couldn’t account for.
Except for that night in Della. Skye’s stomach sank. They had parted ways on the eve of the first attack when he’d so stupidly thought that sleeping with Adalet would somehow slake his growing thirst for the girl he’d known since he was ten—his friend. His match. Taly would’ve had more than enough time to send a message on the scrying relay while he had been sitting at the bar, desperately trying to figure out how to weasel his way back into her good graces.
And if Kato had sensed magic clinging to her… “Say nothing of this to anyone until I have a chance to talk to her,” Skye finally said, a dark, gaping hole opening up in his chest.
Kato raked his fingers through his hair. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea. I may have overplayed my hand earlier—tipped her off. I think we need to move on this as—”
“No!” Skye snarled. Kato gaped at him, stunned. Taking a deep breath, swallowing back his anger and fear, his voice was remarkably steady when he said, “I will not allow you to start a witch hunt until I can verify your claims. There are perhaps… other elements at work here.” Like memory alteration, compulsion, or any of a hundred other ways someone could’ve forced their will on her. “Factors that we haven’t considered. Let me speak to her.”
Kato looked like he wanted to argue, but thinking better of it, he stepped to the side in reluctant surrender. “I’ll wait here.”
Skye nodded shakily, ignoring the pitying look he could feel boring into his back as he quickly exited the office. He counted his breaths as he marched across the courtyard. The rain had tapered off to a fine drizzle, but he was oblivious to the mist that clung to his skin and the mud that sloshed beneath his boots.
Too soon, he found himself standing in front of the door to their shared room. For the second time that day, he stared at the carved surface, and his heart pounded out a deafening rhythm in his ears. This time, however, the pulsating beat threatening to tear a hole in his chest was for an entirely different reason. Dread—thick and oily and all-consuming—clawed its way into his body, constricting his throat and making his stomach churn.
Please, he pleaded with whoever might be listening, not her. Let it be a lie. Let this be just one more of Kato’s tricks. Like the time his brother had dumped him out at the northern edge of their family’s territory during the dead of winter, luring him out there with the promise of teaching him how to hunt. Only five years old, and Skye had almost lost a toe to frostbite.
Before he could empty the contents of his stomach across the carpet, Skye forcefully shoved open the door, the thick slab of wood creaking on its hinges as it slammed against the wall.
One step, then another, through the antechamber and then Skye stood in the middle of the main room. Alone. Taly’s pack was gone. Her weapons, which had been strewn across the entryway table the last time he entered, were gone. Her maps, the clothes she had hung to dry in the closet, her journal that he had previously spied on the foot of the bed—all gone.
She was gone.
“No,” he whispered.
In a flurry of movement, Skye tore through the room, searching for any sign that his eyes might be lying to him. He ripped the blankets off the bed, his panicked mind thinking that she could be hiding there, and the door to the washroom groaned as he flung it open. His eyes took in the white marble walls and gilded furnishings, but it was empty. Her side of the sink had been wiped clean.
Nowhere. Nothing. Gone.
“No,” he mumbled, his hands tearing at his hair. Although her scent still lingered in the air, there was no trace of her to be seen. She had even put out the fire. “No, no, please… Shards, no…”
Stumbling over to the desk where she had been standing not even an hour ago, Skye’s eyes landed on the single snowdrop that had been laid to rest on a folded slip of paper. With shaking hands, he unfolded the note, that rift in his chest cleaving open even further when he saw her neat, loopy handwriting.
I’m sorry, Em, but I have to make this right. Don’t come looking for me.
-Tink
Skye’s shoulders started to shake, and it took him a moment to realize that there were tears welling in his eyes as he sunk to the floor. The note slipped from his fingers, and her words from that morning replayed in his head.
There’s one more thing, Em. One more thing that might change the calculus.
It has to do with why I left last year.
That’s when it started.
Shards, she had tried to tell him. When they were in the library, she had tried to tell him. But he hadn’t been listening. He hadn’t taken her seriously when she said that her reasons for leaving were important, a small part of him still thinking that her departure was the result of some childish tantrum. But what if it wasn’t? Would Taly still be here if he’d given her the priority that morning—pushed the meeting back so he could hear what she had to say? Would he have been able to head this off if he had read the signs better?
Skye felt numb, his body moving of its own accord as he raced down the stairs and back through the massive archway of the main building. He could just detect her scent clinging to the carpets, and he followed it, thinking that maybe, just maybe, he might still be able to catch her. She had taken the servants’ stairs, but, just as he feared, the trail ended in the courtyard, the rain having already washed it away. He questioned the guards at the main gate, but neither could recall having seen her leaving the keep. As it was, she could have easily slipped past with one of the teams that had been sent out to salvage scrap.
Skye skipped the aether lift, choosing instead to take the stairs back to the commander’s tower office—to Kato, who was still waiting.
“Well?” Kato asked before Skye had even managed to close the door and rearm the wards.
Skye stood there for a long moment, taking in his brother’s slightly flushed appearance, the tense set of his shoulders. Kato knew he was right. Although Skye beat him in terms of sheer amount of power, Kato was by no means weak. If there was magic clinging to Taly, he was more than capable of sniffing it out.
The words were out of Skye’s mouth before he’d even managed to process the response. “It’s nothing. You were wrong.”
“What?” A sharp retort. Kato’s eyes widened, shock distorting his features.
“You were wrong,” Skye repeated, louder this time. More confident. “About Taly. She’s not a part of this.”
“But I felt magic,” Kato burst out. “Shadow and water and—”
“I’m aware.” Skye strode across the room, pretending to study something on the desktop. Breathing deeply, he made a conscious attempt to slow his heart, to school his features into dismissive boredom. “But I already knew about the spells.”
Kato followed him, refusing to back down. “Why would she have had spells cast on her?”
Clasping his hands behind his back, Skye turned to meet Kato’s questioning stare, hoping that his brother couldn’t see the desperation in his eyes as he searched for a plausible excuse. “Taly had a run-in with a harpy several weeks ago. She lost a lot of blood, which exacerbated what the healer said was an allergic reaction to the harpy venom. In the three weeks leading up to today, she’s had countless healing spells cast on her. That’s most likely what you felt.”
“I felt shadow magic, Skylen. And water. Not earth,” Kato snapped, a dangerous edge to his voice.
Skye nodded. “The beasts on the island get a little out-of-hand this close to the Aion Gate connection. It can make traveling with active enchantments a little tricky, but Taly was getting so stir-crazy, I told her I’d figure something out.”
“Really?” Kato asked dubiously. “And this solution of yours involved both a high-level water glamour and aether suppression spells? All to mask the scent of a few healing spells?”
Skye shrugged. “As you well know, earth magic is much more pungent than any other school of magic, so we had to get creative. I cast a few aether suppression spells, but that didn’t fully mask the scent. Not naturally. So, I enlisted the help of Ivain’
s niece. She’s a water mage and very talented when it comes to glamours, so that’s probably why you had such a difficult time getting beneath the overlaying enchantment to see the spell matrix underneath.”
“And the memory alteration spells?” Kato made no effort to mask the suspicion behind his words.
“Nightmares,” Skye replied automatically, the story coming to him much more easily than he expected. “Taly was having nightmares about the harpy attack, and she would wake up thrashing. Her wounds kept reopening, so Ivain cast a memory alteration enchantment to help her sleep at night.”
A neat, airtight explanation—everything in its place.
Kato looked at him pointedly, his lips curling into a sneer. “And you didn’t mention this before because…”
“Because we can’t be too careful.” Skye turned to look out the window. As he channeled just a little more aether, the shapes of the people milling about below came into focus. Even though he knew she wouldn’t be down there, he still searched for Taly among the nameless faces in the crowd. “Someone in this compound is working against us. If it was Taly, then we needed to know, my personal feelings aside. But it’s not. I sat down with her, examined the spells—there’s nothing out of place.”
Finally, a flicker of doubt, perhaps even relief, flashed in Kato’s eyes. “Where is she now? I’d like to speak to her.”
“That’s not possible.”
Kato raised a single brow, his face becoming impassive. Unreadable. “And why is that?”
“Because she’s gone,” Skye replied, allowing just a small amount of his own worry to surface. Kato would no doubt hear the spike in his heart rate, the slight elevation in his breathing. “She volunteered to go to the relay in Plum.”
Taking careful, slow steps, Kato rounded the desk, coming to stand next to Skye. “That’s suicide. You said it yourself.”
“And that’s what I told her,” Skye replied with a sigh. At least that part was true. True enough that he hoped Kato wouldn’t see the lie behind what he said next. “But her reasoning was valid. She’s quick, she knows the way, and since she’s coated in several layers of concealment magic, she doesn’t smell like aether. She won’t attract beasts or shades. All in all, she’s the perfect candidate.”
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