I didn’t want to humor her, but my hand moved on its own accord, reaching for the deck and selecting the first card. I flipped it over, sucking in a breath.
An obsidian dragon with its wings spread, poised for flight.
Leave! Jaegger shouted, his words a deafening roar in my mind.
I stood so fast my chair toppled over, hitting the floor with a crack. Through my panic, I heard Leonid call my name.
“Tell him you’re fine,” Aeonia said, her eyes blazing. “You’d do well to listen to me, Irina.”
“I-I’m fine,” I called out. Gripping the table, I stared at the card, breathing hard. “What do you want from me?” I would not give her the Essence. I wouldn’t. She’d have to cut my hand off if she wanted the shard for herself.
She will not harm you, little bird, Jaegger promised. I will not let her.
Jae… I didn’t know where the nickname for him came from, but somehow it felt right. As right as him calling me “little bird.”
In that moment, we bonded. We were no longer a girl with a piece of a dragon’s Essence trapped under her skin. We were a girl and her dragon, and we wouldn’t let this woman, no matter how strong and intimidating she was, threaten us.
“I don’t want the Essence,” Aeonia said, surprising both me and Jaegger. “No, I want something much, much better than that.”
How dare she insult me like that! Jaegger was back to roaring.
Shh, I scolded. To Aeonia, I asked, “And what’s that? Is it the thing you and your sister are searching for?”
Aeonia’s gray eyes gleamed. “You heard what I said about Parnaby, correct? How he’s using his magic on all these people, and yet he’s still alive?” She shook her head. “No single person can use that much magic and last a week, and yet, how long has Parnaby been the president?”
I had no idea. Parnaby was in his late thirties, so he couldn’t have been president for more than fifteen years, I would imagine. His spell had always prevented me from questioning that, but asking questions now would arouse Parnaby’s suspicions. He’d realize he wasn’t manipulating me.
“He’s using something to help him,” Aeonia said.
Like an amplifier, Jaegger snarled.
What’s that?
During the old wars, when my side was winning, the magicians were desperate for a chance to pull ahead, Jaegger explained. Hundreds of them would pour their power into an object, sacrificing their own lives to create something capable of destroying a dragon in a single blow.
That’s horrible, I thought.
I told you they were desperate.
Does Parnaby have an amplifier? I asked.
I haven’t sensed one, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have one. It would be cloaked heavily in magic to prevent someone like Aeonia from discovering it.
That’s what this is about, I realized, horrified.
Aeonia wanted Parnaby’s amplifier.
And she wanted me to steal it for her.
“AH, I SEE YOU’VE FIGURED it out,” Aeonia said, smiling again.
“You’re insane.” I backed away from the table. “I won’t help you.”
“Are you so sure about that?” She picked up the dragon card, waving it back and forth slowly. “Parnaby isn’t the only one with secrets. What would he say if he found out what you’ve been hiding from him?” Her smile grew. “What would your dear captain say? I don’t think he’d enjoy finding out you’ve been lying to him all this time.”
Fear froze me in place. “You wouldn’t.”
“You’d be surprised at what I would do to get what I want,” Aeonia said. “I want that amplifier, Irina.”
“No. Find someone else. I won’t do it.” I tried to sound brave, but my voice was shaking, betraying me.
Little bird, Jaegger cautioned softly. Don’t forget there are others who would suffer if you angered her.
All at once, I knew who he meant:
Vernen.
I was the only one who could protect him. If Aeonia told them the truth about Jaegger and the Essence, Parnaby would find a way to remove my link to the dragon. Then, he’d be able to use whatever spell he wanted on me—if he didn’t kill me for disobeying him first.
And with me gone, nothing would stop Parnaby from killing Vernen if he showed even the smallest hint of magic.
I shut my eyes, thinking of Leonid that day when he saw Vernen’s lifeless body. And later when I’d walked in on him crying. Then the joy when he saw his friend alive once more. I wasn’t certain Leonid would be able to handle Vernen dying another horrible death.
That’s what Jaegger meant by more than one person suffering. If I refused Aeonia’s request, I would shatter so many lives in the process.
“Damn you,” I swore, glaring at her, knowing my hands were tied and there was nothing I could do. Doom my friends or doom Dusk. Which was the worse evil?
I already knew what my choice would be.
I would never hurt my friends.
I couldn’t.
“I take it you’ve changed your mind?” she asked, not sounding surprised at all.
“FINALLY,” LEONID SAID MINUTES LATER when I emerged from the backroom, the playing card with the dragon in my pocket and the cloth bag clutched tightly in my fist. I shoved the bag at Leonid, making my exit the moment he took it from me. “Lark! Wait! Wait!” He followed me outside, grabbing me by the arm. “Did she hurt you?” His face was dark with anger. “So help me, if she hurt you—”
“No, it’s fine. She just read my fortune and made me remember things about Bantheir and my mother,” I said, the lies spilling easily from my tongue. I winced inwardly. Is this how it would start? With a few lies here and there that quickly escalated into betrayal as I destroyed the entire city by stealing from Parnaby?
The city will not fall, Jaegger said.
You don’t know that!
Leonid’s face softened. “I’m sorry. She had no right. Do you want me to go back in there and yell at her?”
I shook my head. “Let’s just go home. Or the prison?” The sun was lowering in the sky, and I wondered how many hours we’d already wasted. Parnaby had to have known we were missing by now. And yet I couldn’t seem to find it in me to care.
“Not yet.” Leonid opened the cloth bag, checking the contents inside. When he saw me watching, he raised a brow. “Did you peek?”
“No.” It was amazing; I hadn’t even thought to. At one point I had been curious about the contents inside, but Aeonia had ruined that for me.
“Good.” Leonid allowed himself a smile as he offered me his arm. “Come on.”
“Where are we going?” I asked as he led us north.
“I was supposed to give this to you after the performance. We would have had a nice meal, and then I would have launched into this speech I practiced a few times in front of my mirror.” Leonid paused to chuckle. “Vern walked in on me and asked who I was talking to. Then I practiced the speech on him and he said it was awful.”
“He did?” I couldn’t help but laugh at that. “It really must have been, for him to say something!” The old Vernen would definitely have told Leonid it was bad, but not the new one.
“I know,” he groaned. “He told me to speak from the heart, which was pretty good advice. But then it didn’t matter, anyway, when this got stolen.” Leonid looked at the bag. “I didn’t think I’d ever get it back. I’m sorry you had to relive some painful things from your past in order to retrieve it, though.”
“I’ll be fine.” Another lie. I felt sick. Would I ever be able to tell Leonid the truth again?
“Here we are,” Leonid said, steering me up the steps to a bakery. “It may not be a fancy meal, but they make a delicious apple pie that I’ve been meaning to have you try.”
The bakery was small and deserted, and the air smelled of butter and chocolate. While Leonid went up to the counter to order our food, I sat down at a table by the window, recalling the end of my conversation with Aeonia. She hadn’t demanded th
e amplifier by a certain date, which surprised me. “I know you’ll find it, and when you do, you’ll do the right thing and bring it to me,” she’d said.
The right thing. As if I had any choice in the matter. Rubbing my temples, I asked, Jae, what are we going to do?
We’ll figure this out, little bird. Now eat your pie and enjoy your lover’s company. You deserve some happiness today.
Leonid walked over with a tray, smiling as he first set down two plates with generous slices of pie on them, followed by two steaming cups of tea. My heart tugged at the sight of him in such a good mood. I wouldn’t ruin this moment for him.
“Try it,” he said, handing me a fork.
I took a small bite, my eyes widening as the flavor of sweet apples burst on my tongue. “Oh, this is delicious!”
“I told you.” He looked supremely pleased with himself as he dug in. For a few minutes it was quiet as we tucked into our desserts. Leonid finished first, washing the pie down with his tea before he began nervously fidgeting with his fork, running the tines back and forth across his empty plate.
“Leonid.” I decided to take pity on him. Laying my hand on his to still his movements, I said, “I don’t need a speech that you practiced in front of the mirror. Whatever it is you want to say, tell me.”
“I just… I…” He made a face, frowning. “I’m off to a great start already.”
“Leonid, relax.” It was so unusual seeing him like this. “It’s just me.”
“That’s why I’m nervous,” Leonid said. “I don’t want to mess things up with you. I meant what I said that night before we faced Bantheir. I’m falling in love with you, Lark.” He entwined our fingers, holding my gaze steady with his intense one. My heart started pounding out a steady rhythm. “Before we met, I thought I had everything I would ever need. A good job, a best friend, loyal soldiers… But then I met you, and you proved me wrong.”
I smiled shyly. “Was that before or after I drove you crazy?”
“You still drive me crazy,” he corrected. “And I mean that in the best way possible.” He pushed the bag across the table. “You lost so much during that ordeal. I know you looked up to Bantheir, cared for him. His betrayal hurt you. Deeply. Not only that, but he broke your necklace…” Pain flittered in my heart as I remembered how easily Bantheir had stomped on the lark, breaking my last connection with my mother. “Fixing it was impossible, and this isn’t meant as a replacement, but I thought this could help with the pain of losing it. Go ahead, Lark. Open it.”
Releasing my hand from his, I opened the bag with shaking fingers and pulled out a hairpin decorated in tiny, dazzling diamonds that glinted softly in the fading sunlight.
Gasping, I almost dropped it. “Leonid, I can’t— This is too much—”
“No, it’s not,” he said firmly. “You may have been born in the slums, Lark, but that doesn’t mean you have to spend your entire life denying yourself a better existence. You deserve something beautiful in your life.”
My eyes were wet with tears as I stared at him across the table. “I already have something beautiful in my life.”
He was out of his seat and kissing me hard on my lips before I even realized he had moved. “Leonid,” I murmured as he cupped the side of my face with his hand. He tasted like pie and tea, and that combined with the intensity of his kisses made me dizzy.
He pulled away only long enough to slide the hairpin in my curls. After he was done, his hand hovered there. “This belonged to my mother.”
“What?” I reached up for the hairpin, determined to remove it from my hair and force Leonid to take it back. It was his mother’s! I’d thought he had nothing left of her, like I had nothing left of mine. “You should keep it then, Leonid!”
Leonid pulled my frantic hands away from my hair and entwined our fingers. “I spent the last month tracking this down. Remember what I told you? How my father used to give my mother jewelry, and she sold them after my stepmother banned her from the manor? How she planned on using the money to see me again?” Pain flittered across his face. “I never tried to track down the jewels before because I always associated them with her death. But I was in a jewelry shop, looking for something for you, when I saw this.” He let go of my hand to tap the hairpin. “I knew, instantly, that it was hers. I remember how she used to wear it to hold up her hair, and how the diamonds would catch the light. Back then, when I was boy, I swore my mother was a princess.”
I smiled at his memory, even as my eyes welled with tears. I remembered thinking the same of my mother when I was a child. I was certain a prince would appear one day, see my mother’s true beauty underneath the dirt and the rags she wore, and marry her on the spot before taking the two of us back to his castle.
“It took some… convincing on my part to get the shop owner to confess where he’d gotten the pin from,” Leonid continued. “He thought I was going to arrest him, so imagine his surprise when I told him I wanted to buy it!” He chuckled, but when I didn’t join in, he frowned. “Lark, I want you to have this. And she would have wanted you to have it, too. Please.”
How could I say no? Even if I still believed I didn’t deserve something this precious—especially after lying to him—I nodded. The relief on his face nearly took my breath away. “Thank you,” I said, burying my face in his neck. “I love it, Leonid.”
“I’m glad.”
Over his shoulder, I saw some of the workers staring openly at us, and I felt a blush creep across my cheeks. “Leonid.”
“Mmm?” he said as he kissed a line down my neck.
“We have an audience.”
He paused to look over his shoulder. A scowl settled in place on his face as the workers scurried away, pretending to be busy. “We should go.”
“Let’s go home. No one will be there,” I said, blinking in surprise at my forwardness. But I meant it, I realized. I wanted—
No, I needed this, especially after everything I’d been through today. Leonid was right. I deserved something beautiful in my life.
We both did.
Realizing that, I swallowed hard.
Leonid looked nervous again, although his eyes were dark with desire. “Lark, are you sure? We don’t have to—”
I kissed him, silencing his doubts.
We rushed out of the bakery, unable to keep from touching one another. I wasn’t sure if we’d make it back to the house in time. The alleyways were starting to look particularly inviting.
“No,” Leonid said against my lips. I was pushed up against a brick wall, his body crushing mine, not at all certain how I’d ended up there. “Home. Now.”
“Too far.” I reached for him again.
“Lark, please.”
I should’ve been embarrassed that he had more self-control than I did, but at the moment, I didn’t care. We stumbled through the streets of Dusk, looking like a pair of drunks as we stopped every few feet to laugh and kiss. Leonid kept throwing me smoldering gazes, and I wondered if I looked as wild as I felt in that moment.
We turned the corner, and I sighed in relief when our home came into view.
“There you are!” West called from where he waited in front of the house. His face was pinched and pale as he took us in, clinging to one another and still laughing. “Are you drunk?”
“No,” Leonid said. “What are you doing here? No, I changed my mind. I don’t care. Go home.”
“Leonid,” I said, dissolving into giggles.
West stared at us. “Are you sure you’re not drunk?”
“Not yet, anyway,” Leonid said, hooking an arm around my waist and yanking me closer to his side so he could nuzzle my neck once more. I squealed, trying half-heartedly to push him away.
“Wow,” West said. “All right, then. Normally I’d do as you asked, Captain, and be on my merry way so you and Irina can…” He gestured vaguely. “I went to the prison to give you an update on my results, but instead I found Parnaby. He discovered you left the prison in the middle of the investig
ation, and he’s furious.” West’s eyes were troubled as he pointed to my house. “And now he’s inside, waiting to speak to both of you.”
West’s words popped our happy, delirious bubble, and Leonid and I froze in horror. This was my fault, I realized. I’d been selfish and wanted a little bit of happiness after what had happened with Aeonia. But now I’d gone and gotten Leonid in trouble too. Of course Parnaby would come looking for us, Leonid in particular, when he hadn’t received any updates.
I muttered a curse, and West raised his brows in surprise.
“It’s fine,” Leonid said, letting go of me to brush down the front of his coat. “I’ll just explain that we got sidetracked. He’ll understand.”
West sent us a sympathetic look. “Sure, he’ll understand.” Under his breath he added, “Good luck with that.”
WHEN WE ENTERED THE FOYER we found Vernen sitting on the steps, a miserable look on his face. My heart skipped a beat. Had Parnaby done something to him?
“He’s mad,” Vernen said.
“And he’s been taking it out on us,” West added. He pointed to the kitchen. “He’s in there.”
Leonid took a moment to compose himself. I did the same, although it was pointless. Nothing could quell the butterflies that had taken flight in my stomach. “Stay with Vernen,” I told West. “If it… If it gets loud in there, leave.”
West’s eyes were troubled, but he nodded.
I followed Leonid into the kitchen. Parnaby was sitting at the table, an untouched cup of tea in front of him and a murderous look on his face.
I swallowed hard.
Elyse was sitting in the chair adjacent to his. When we entered the room, she jumped up. “Oh, good, you’re here. See, Parn, I told you they’d be back soon!”
“Elyse, please leave.” Even though he was speaking to her, Parnaby stared at me. Face falling, Elyse left the room, shooting me a sympathetic look as she passed. The moment she was gone, Parnaby raised his left hand and drew a circle in the air with his pointer finger. I wondered if he was casting a spell, but when I asked Jaegger, the dragon didn’t answer. “Sit down,” Parnaby ordered, his brown eyes glittering dangerously. Silence descended on the room, and Parnaby let it drag out long enough that it became uncomfortable. “I had my reservations when you asked to bring her on board, Leonid. I asked if she would be a distraction, and you swore to me that she wouldn’t be. And yet today you vanished in the middle of your investigation.”
The Burning Chaos (Smoke and Mirrors Book 2) Page 8