“Shouldn’t do that,” said one of the soldiers blandly.
Tes groaned and sat up. The two men were now feeding Vares bites of sweetcake.
“Are you hungry, little Kell?” cooed one as the owl clacked its beak, and the crumbs tumbled through.
Her stomach growled.
“Excuse me,” she called out to the soldiers. “Could the human get something to eat?”
They ignored her.
“Assholes,” muttered Tes.
She sagged, letting her head rest on her folded arms as she wracked her mind, trying to think of a way out. She was still trying when a pair of boots echoed on the prison stairs.
Tes looked up, expecting to find Lila Bard, come to continue her interrogation. But when the woman stepped out of the shadows, the lanterns caught on a different face.
The two soldiers shot to their feet.
“Mas res,” they said, and Tes realized she was staring at the queen.
VI
Kell lay on the sofa, his coat cast off, and a cold cloth over his eyes.
The pain was receding like a tide, leaving only a weary ache in its wake. He didn’t need to see the king’s chamber to paint the picture in his mind. The slosh of spirits and scrape of glass as Rhy poured a drink from a decanter. Lila’s irritated steps as she paced the floor, each clipped stride a rebuke, the brief muffling of her boots when they crossed from stone to silk and back again.
“Judging by the soreness in my jaw,” said Rhy, “I’m guessing you’ve had a busy day.”
“Indeed,” said Kell. “There’s an inn that will need some reconstruction.”
The doors swung open, and Alucard swept in. “You left me waiting in that ruined shop,” he said. “Gone to fetch something, you said. If a crow hadn’t told me you were here, I’d still be standing around, kicking stones.”
“Apologies,” said Lila blandly. “I was busy getting my hands on the apprentice from Haskin’s. And the persalis, too.”
Alucard’s boots stopped abruptly. “You succeeded?”
“Don’t sound so surprised.”
“Where are they, then?”
“Lila threw the apprentice in a prison cell,” offered Kell.
“For safekeeping,” she cut in. “As for the persalis, it was, regrettably, destroyed.”
“Are you sure?” asked Rhy.
“I watched it burn,” said Lila.
“A decoy?” asked Alucard.
Kell could practically hear Lila grind her teeth. “Apparently not. I searched her, to be sure. Found nothing but a dead owl.”
“Excuse me?” said Rhy and Alucard at the same time.
“Apparently it’s a pet. It has a blue eye and a black eye and she calls it Vares.”
“I can’t decide,” said Rhy, “whether that’s charming or creepy.”
“Both,” said Kell and Lila at the same time.
“There’s more,” she went on. “She’s like you, Alucard.”
“Devastatingly handsome?” he asked, pouring a drink. “Utterly charming?”
“Humble?” added Rhy.
“She can see magic.”
Kell heard the glass stop halfway to Alucard’s mouth. “Really?”
“And unlike you,” he added, “she can touch it.”
Kell didn’t need to see Alucard’s face, but he found he wanted to. He dragged the cold cloth from his eyes, and flinched. The sun was sinking beyond the windows, shards of light knifing through the room.
“How does it feel?” he asked. “To know you’re not the best at something? That there’s someone out there who can actually put that power to good use?”
Alucard glared at Kell. It was worth opening his eyes for that. It made him feel just the slightest bit better. Until Lila ruined it by saying, “She can heal Kell’s magic.”
Rhy’s head jerked up.
Kell sighed, running a hand through his hair. “She didn’t say that.”
“She didn’t have to. She’s a fixer. She can fix this.” Lila gestured at Kell. “Fix you.”
“Let it go,” he said wearily.
“No. You may be content to live like this, but I won’t watch you—”
“You think I relish my condition?”
“I think you are resigned to it,” said Lila. “I think you have been burned by magic so badly that now you shy away from any source of heat.”
“It is not the magic that stops me.” He felt his throat tighten around the words. “I would give anything to be severed from this pain, one way or another. Every day, I pray it will hurt less, that there will come a day when I no longer reach for magic, even though the thought of living without it makes me wish that I were dead.”