Hunted: Alba's Story (Destined Book 5)

by Kaylin Lee

  Lady Galanos followed my gaze then clenched her fists. “Get out!” she shrieked. “Or I’ll call the guards!”

  I stumbled out of the room, my steps wild and shaky.

  A male servant appeared in the hallway, grabbed me by the elbow, and hauled me to the front door with a grip that would leave a bruise, but I barely noticed the pain.

  A mirror. Lady Galanos had been sitting on a closed, compact mirror.

  Chapter 3

  Outside the villa, it was raining again. I pulled up the hood of my jacket and let the downpour drown out the guards’ mocking laughter at the Galanos gate behind me.

  At some point, I’d have to face how much Alaric Galanos and his mother had humiliated me, but for the moment, all I could think about was the mirror protruding from between the couch cushions.

  She’d hidden the mirror. She’d deliberately hidden it. No doubt she’d had time to do so when Alaric’s noisy greeting alerted her to my presence in the hall.

  Which meant she wasn’t supposed to have that mirror.

  The implications chilled me worse than the coldest spring rain.

  Treason.

  Everyone in Asylia knew about Ruby Contos’s adventures in Draicia and the Badlands, immortalized in the Herald and every other newspaper in the city. There’d been at least six variations of the tale rehashed in the new fabulator crystals that came out later—and those were just the ones I’d personally purchased and listened to.

  The fabulator crystals tended to prefer drama over fact, but they’d all shared one detail with the newspaper version of Ruby’s story—the mysterious mages in the Badlands, the so-called Masters, used a silver mirror to communicate with their puppet, the leader of the Draician Wolf clan. Only ancient Kireth alchemy could give a mirror such power.

  I bent and peeled a wet, browning goldblossom petal off my boot and flung it aside. I couldn’t get out of the Procus Quarter fast enough. I brushed my wet hair out of my eyes and scanned the street for a demicoach or fomecoach for hire but found none. Of course. Why would a resident of the Procus Quarter need to hire transport like the rest of us?

  By the time I got to the Mage Academy, my boots were soaked, and the ends of my hair resembled limp, wet washrags. I let my feet carry me up the central staircase, barely noticing the younger, uniformed students who greeted me by name as I climbed.

  Lady Galanos wouldn’t commit treason. She was one of the most powerful Procus ladies in the city. She had no reason to cooperate with our enemies, did she?

  And yet, it had happened before. Lord Argentarius had been second only to Prince Estevan, but he’d introduced aurae to the city, addicting thousands of citizens to the horrible substance and sending them into unknowing enslavement to the Masters. It was only thanks to Ruby Contos’s undercover work with the Wolf clan that we’d discovered how to break the curse before the Masters invaded.

  I sped down a side hallway and found the nondescript staircase that led to the Office of Ancient Kireth Research. Three flights of stairs later, I knocked on the locked office door.

  “Who is it?” The muffled voice sounded like my stepsister Ella’s.

  “It’s me, El. Let me in.”

  The lock clicked. Ella opened the door and reached for me. “Albs, what’s wrong?”

  “Ugh.” I leaned away from her hug and removed my wet coat. “Don’t call me that. You know I don’t like that nickname.” I hung my jacket on the neat row of coat hooks by the door.

  Ella folded her arms, making the rounded bump of her belly stand out against her dress. “What’s wrong with you?”

  “I’m cold and wet,” I grumbled. And Lady Galanos despises me. And Alaric ended our courtship like a coward. And I think his mother might be a traitor. “I’m having a terrible day.”

  Ella sighed. “Well, come in and find a seat. Weslan was just making another pot of coffee.”

  Ella’s tall, blond husband waved to me from the other side of the office. “Sorry about your bad day, Albs.”

  That nickname again! I stuck out my tongue at him. “Isn’t it a little late in the day for coffee?”

  “For me, yes.” Ella sent Weslan a fond look. “For that man, it never seems to be.” She glanced at my feet. “You’re leaving a puddle on the floor. Best get those boots off.”

  She was right. I bent and unlaced my boots, kicked them off, and padded across their warm, cozy office to the overstuffed sofa beside the bookshelves and the suffio hearth.

  Professor Kristof, the elderly scholar who’d come from the University of Draicia to establish the research team, sent me a distracted nod from his desk. His research partner, Chloe, ignored me, too involved in her writing to bother looking up.

  I didn’t mind. Chloe was a powerful mage who had grown up in the bloodthirsty Wolf clan before it was disbanded, back in the days when Draicia was truly lawless. She seemed to have laid aside her violent past and thrown herself into research with the professor, but she still made me nervous.

  When my knees were tucked under my chin and my hands were wrapped around a hot mug of coffee, I worked up the courage to speak. “El…”

  Ella paused where she stood with Weslan at a worktable beside my chair. Her sweet expression of concern soothed me slightly. “What is it, Sis?”

  “Are there any ancient Kireth mirrors left?”

  The office went quiet.

  “What do you mean?” Weslan set his coffee mug and pencil down on the worktable.

  “The mirrors!” I waved my hand. “You know. Like the one the Masters used to talk to the old Praetor of Draicia. Or the one Princess Belle used to discover Prince Estevan had been poisoned with aurae. Are there any mirrors like that left?”

  “Oh, sweetie…” Ella left the work table and settled on the sofa beside me, her hand resting gently on my shoulder. She shifted slightly, grimacing as her back rested against the sofa cushions. “You’re not having nightmares again, are you? I heard Darien left again today for another mission …”

  “No!” Ella released me, but I grabbed her hand, pulled it back to my shoulder, and sent her an apologetic burst of healing magic to ease the ache lurking in her lower back. For good measure, I added a second burst to strengthen the nourishment going to the little one in her womb. “Sorry. It’s just … I just wanted to be sure. Is everyone certain? There are no more mirrors like that?”

  Ella gave me a grateful smile. “None.”

  “Tracker mages swept the city years ago, you know.” Weslan stood before us, his hands in his pockets and his expression sober. “We destroyed everything the Masters might use against us, including the mirrors in the royal treasury.”

  “But what about new mirrors? I mean, could someone have brought one into the city after that?”

  “Impossible.” Ella squeezed my shoulder. “Trackers inspect every bit of cargo that enters the city, no matter how trivial.”

  “But the guards and the trackers—”

  “Cannot be cursed or controlled. Albs, think. The city is impenetrable. Every tracker at the gate carries at least two obcillo crystals on their person at all times. Each crystal can break ten curses in a row in a matter of seconds before it runs out of magic. And on top of that, most Asylians carry an obcillo crystal wherever they go, no matter their profession. I’ll bet you have at least one on you right now.”

  I fingered my dress’s hem, feeling sheepish. “I have four today, actually. Mom made me sew the crystals into the lining of each of my dresses, so I’d always be prepared.”

  Weslan laughed. “Sounds like your mom.”

  Ella stood, rubbing the underside of her pregnant belly. “Trust the work we do here, Sis. We’ve tested everything. We personally oversaw the destruction of those old mirrors. Nothing will get to you in this city, got it? And Ruby and Lucien Patra helped Chloe do the same thing in Draicia. All the ancient Kireth mirrors have been destroyed, and both cities are too well guarded to let a new one through the gates. You’re safe here.”

  The tension in my shou
lders eased. I’d been wrong. Lady Althea was angry because I’d offended her with my unwanted Kireth presence, not because I’d caught her with a magic mirror. I didn’t like either scenario, but I had to admit the former was preferable.

  “You’re in greater danger from those wonky, new mage-craft inventions,” Chloe grumbled from her desk as she flipped to a new page.

  Ella shushed her. “The merchants are innovating! The quality will improve with time, I’m sure of it.”

  I nudged Ella. “Mom almost burned down the kitchen with a new mage-craft coffee pot this morning.”

  “Oh, dear.” Ella rubbed her temples. “Tell her to report it to the Mage Division. They’re supposed to be enforcing standards of some kind, at least.”

  Weslan rested a hand on Ella’s back. “We should show her the new project.” He winked, and for some reason, Ella blushed. “It’d cheer your sister right up. You know she’d love it.”

  Ella bit her lip and leaned against Weslan, inspiring an envious ache in my chest. “She definitely would.”

  I untucked my feet and stood, my legs stiff. “Well? What would I love?”

  “Oh, not that nonsense again.” Chloe shuffled her notes and refused to look up. “It’s ridiculous!”

  Ella and Weslan exchanged knowing smiles. “We’ll do it on the other side of the room, Chloe,” Ella said sweetly. “You can just ignore us.”

  “I will.” Chloe lifted a book, so it obscured her vision. “Trust me, I will.”

  Ella laughed under her breath as she pulled me across the room to the big worktable by the door where I’d entered. She held up a cheap-looking, heart-shaped, silver locket on a thin chain. “Doesn’t look like much, does it?”

  “You should go first.” Weslan grinned as Ella blushed again. “C’mon, wife. What will it be this time?”

  She yanked a decorative tassel off the green shawl draped over her shoulders. “But this is the last time! My poor shawl has given too much to this experiment.”

  Weslan opened the locket with a quiet click, and Ella placed the tassel inside then shut it. Weslan held the locket out by the chain.

  He’d been right. Despite my bad mood, I was intrigued. “So what is the experiment?”

  “A few of the ancient Kireth legends Professor Kristof has compiled claim that alchemical curses can be broken by true love’s kiss.” He wiggled his eyebrows. Chloe snorted loudly from behind her book, but Weslan continued, undeterred. “Even if it were certain to work, we knew it would have limited real-world utility. After all, not everyone has a true love at their beck and call.”

  I felt my cheeks heat. “Of course. Not everyone.” Now was not the time to bring up the disastrous coffee at the Galanos compound.

  Ella eyed me knowingly but didn’t press. “But we’re leaving no stone unturned. Right, Professor?”

  Professor Kristof winked at us from his desk. “Just so, my dear. You never know where the next breakthrough will appear.”

  “So we formulated a hypothesis based on what we’ve learned from the old legends and what we’ve observed about magic and alchemy in our research lab.” She gestured to the large, cluttered worktable. “Our research has uncovered one primary rule in Kireth alchemy that dominates every other aspect—the power of alchemy is fueled by the human will. The aurists provided fuel for the Masters’ alchemy by partaking of aurae. In so doing, they unknowingly surrendered their will to the magic. If the accidental surrender of the will is that powerful, don’t you think the determined channeling of the will could be even more powerful?”

  Welslan’s eyes brightened with excitement. “Genuine, lasting, romantic love requires a level of choice and determination that isn’t found anywhere else in the human heart. Hence, the power of true love’s kiss. In the ancient Kireth legends, at any rate.”

  “And remember,” Ella interjected, “we’re talking about true love, here—the choice to love another with unwavering loyalty, no matter the cost and without keeping score. Not the passing interest of lust or selfish affection based on what someone else can give us. We think the strength of will and self-sacrifice in true love is so intense, it can overwhelm the effect of a curse and free its object.”

  All this talk about love was making the ache in my chest worse. I remembered Alaric’s words. You’d better go. He’d let his mother kick me out without a protest, too embarrassed to stick up for me. Which kind of love did we have? The passing interest of lust or the selfish affection of personal gain? I felt sick. Bringing a pale-skinned, chubby mage into my home—

  “But how can you know if love is genuine and lasting?” I cleared my throat. “I mean, doesn’t everyone think their love is true at some point in the courtship? Yet eventually most couples learn that they’re wrong. Not every flirtation leads to happily ever after.”

  Weslan swung the locket and grinned. “Exactly, Albs! We needed a way to test if the love was genuine. Or, rather, if it was strong enough to break an actual curse. That’s why we made the locket.”

  I peered at the flimsy pendant. “What does it do?”

  Ella took the necklace from Weslan, holding the chain gingerly and avoiding the silver heart that held her shawl’s tassel. “It’s a mage-craft necklace. We’ve made it mildly absorbent—just enough to detect the presence of true love’s power. And to make sure it’s matched to a specific person, it only gives off its signal if the true love in the vicinity is directed toward the owner of whatever is in the locket.”

  “May I?” I lifted the chain out of Ella’s hands and inspected the locket. “So … if Weslan truly loves you, it will give off a signal when he’s near?”

  Weslan sent me a mock scowl. “If? Truly? You wound me, Albs.”

  “How do I know it’s working? There’s no signal. You might be in trouble.”

  Ella’s eyes crinkled. “Just touch it. You’ll see.”

  I brushed my fingers against the heart-shaped locket then yanked my hand back at the sudden, searing heat. “Oh! That’s— Oh, my.”

  Weslan tucked Ella in at his side, his expression obnoxiously satisfied. “What did I tell you?”

  “I’ll just be sure …” I touched the locket again, but the heat was so intense, it burned my finger. I dropped the locket on the table and blew on my singed finger. “Fine, fine. I believe you. Wow.” A sudden heat rushed into my eyes. I stared down at the locket on the table and willed my vision to clear. “I’m jealous, El. Can I say that?”

  Ella wrapped her arms around my waist, turning to the side so her belly wasn’t in the way. “Yes. You can say that.” I leaned my head on her shoulder, and she sighed. “You’re lovely, little sis. And very worthy of love. You just need to wait for the right man. There’s no rush, got it?”

  Weslan raised an eyebrow, looking confused. “But what about that Procus fellow? Galanos, right? Wasn’t he—”

  Ella kicked his leg. “A little clueless. Right?” She patted my back. “And not worthy of our beautiful Alba.”

  “Right.” Weslan coughed. “Completely unworthy.” He rubbed his jaw. “And aren’t you a little young for this true love talk? What would Darien say?”

  “I’m eighteen,” I grumbled. “I’m an adult, Wes. C’mon.” But at the moment, still reeling from my mistaken flirtation with Alaric, I felt like the city’s silliest child.

  A brusque knock at the office door startled me. “Chloe!” A man called from the other side of the door. “Stop working!” He knocked again. “You can save the continent tomorrow. I’m taking you to dinner.”

  Chloe dropped her book with a thump, her lips twisting into a rare smile before she banished it. “Oh, someone let him in. He’ll knock all night if you don’t. Trust me. He’s done it before.”

  Ella turned the lock in the door and opened it, allowing a tall, tattooed man in a sentinel uniform to stride into the office.

  Erik. I recognized him immediately. He was the dreamy, ink-covered man from Draicia the Sentinels had recently hired as a trainer. Rumor had it that he’d been court
ing Chloe since he’d arrived, but from the hunger on his face, it seemed his interest went far deeper than I’d realized.

  “Hello, everyone.” He gave a general nod to the room, but his gaze locked on Chloe. “Time to go.” He put his hands in his pockets and gave the distinct impression he was nervous about something.

  Chloe made a show of organizing her notes and books before she slowly stood, stretched, and picked up her coat.

  “Torture,” Erik mumbled under his breath. “She’s a master of it.” He marched across the room, took her coat, and helped her into it. “You look beautiful. As usual.”

  Chloe tucked her dark hair behind her ears and looked away. “Words, words, words.” Her whisper was almost too quiet to hear.

  Erik tightened his jaw but didn’t reply. He simply took her hand and pulled her toward the door. When they passed the worktable where I stood with Ella and Weslan, Chloe paused. “You know, El, all you’ve done with that silly locket is proven Weslan adores you. Anyone with eyes can see it, plain as day, no magic required. The real question is whether his love can break a curse.”

  Ella nudged Weslan. “Only one way to find out.”

  Weslan shook his head. “Not going to happen. Pregnant ladies and curses don’t mix. Not in this office.”

  Ella laughed. “You’re probably right.”

  Erik’s hand was on the door handle. He looked annoyed. “Ready, Chloe?”

  She looked from Erik to the locket, and her dark eyes narrowed. “Not quite yet. Give me your knife.”

  Erik released the door. “I’ve heard that before. And I distinctly remember regretting my agreement.”

  Chloe shrugged. “If you’d rather play it safe …”

  “Never.” He placed a sheathed knife into her waiting palm. “Do your worst, woman.”

  She pulled a lacy handkerchief from her coat pocket, unsheathed the knife, and cut a scrap off the edge. “You’re helping advance our research. It’s a good cause.” She clicked open the locket, replaced the tassel with the handkerchief scrap, and closed the locket.

  “So …” The locket sat innocently on the table, its chain crumpled from how she’d dropped it, but Chloe regarded it like she expected it to jump out and bite her. “If Erik really loves me, the locket will be warm to the touch since he’s standing right beside me?”