“Come along? Are you out of your mind? Absolutely not!”
Darian just pushes himself off the wall. “Oh, I really don’t think ‘refuse’ is on your list of available options tonight, little wolf.”
Little wolf?Where didthatcome from? Because wolf is the sigil of Firelands? I let out a sigh that feels like it deflates my entire ribcage, desperately trying to wrestle some calm into my mind, trying to conjureanyplan to get rid of him. I aim for reasonable, “Look. My plan is designed for one person. Not two, especially not when one of them is a man of your size.”
He just cocks his head. “Then, by all means, share this meticulously crafted solo plan with me. Maybe I can help expand it to accommodate for two.”
I sigh again, fighting the overwhelming urge to grab handfuls of my own hair and justpull. “Fine. I’m planning to create a distraction over there,” I gesture vaguely toward the southern ward, “and when they’re all looking the other way, I use an invisibility spell to slip through the door.”
Darian’s smile is annoyingly approving. “Clever plan. Very neat. Now, you just have to work your magic and makemeinvisible, too.”He holds up a hand before I can even open my mouth. “And don’t bother trying to fib your way out of it. I know you can extend your sorcery through skin-to-skin contact.”
My teeth ground together so hard I am surprised they didn’t shatter. How does he know that? “That would drain me half to death. An invisibility spell is hard enough on its own. I can’t hold it for long, and the more…mass,” I say, pointedly looking him up and down, “the harder it is, and the quicker it will drain me.”
“Then we’ll just have to be exceptionally quick about it, won’t we?” he counters, utterly unfazed.
He isn’t going to budge. The realization settles in my mind. “Look, I’ll go in. Alone. And I swear I’ll tell you everything I find. Every scrap. Promise.”
He takes a step forward, and his mesmerizing dark blue eyes seem to sparkle with an unholy light as he closes the distance between us. I take an instinctive step back, a reflexive flinch, but we are wedged in this narrow alleyway. There isn’t much space to begin with. My back hits the cold wall, and suddenly, there is nowhere left to retreat. His face gets so close,tooclose, that I can see the darker rings etched around the deep sapphire of his irises.
My whole body goes rigid, every muscle tensing and my breath hitches, trapped somewhere in my chest. I hate, absolutelyhate, how stunningly beautiful he is, this close. How surprisingly soft-looking those lips are when he opens them to murmur with a voice that sends a shiver through me. “As much as I implicitly trust every word that comes out of your mouth, little wolf, I’m not really the kind of man who outsources his pleasures.”
We stay like that, almost nose to nose, for what feels like a decade, locked in a silent, crackling stare-down. I am pouring all my will into just holding my ground, intonotsquirming, into not letting him see how that charming face so close to mine is making my insides do a series of very complicated, unwanted flips.
But Darian looks like a man forged in confidence, a man who knows, with absolute, unshakable certainty, the effect he has on people. And worse, he knows, with that same damned certainty, that he can usually get away withwhatever he wants. And right now, it seems, he wants in on my suicidal, ill-advised, probably-going-to-get-us-both-caught plan. And I have no choice but to let him.
##################
“Darian,” I hiss, trying to sound calm despite already mentally writing my last will. “You must hold fast. A single moment’s lapse could mean our doom.”
He rolls his eyes, clearly not grasping the gravity of the situation. “Oh, do tell, wise sorceress. Remind me again of this vital instruction, for I surely haven’t heard it a thousand times already.”
“I’m serious!” I whisper-shout. “I’m making you an extension of myself. If you break the connection, the spell is doomed, and you’ll be visible.”
“Fear not, little wolf. Your hand is quite safe with me.” And then, the absolute nerve of the man, he winks! At a time like this!
I take a deep breath, and the cold night air makes me shiver. As I reach out, my hand shakes a little. He ignores my offered forearm entirely—so much for following instructions—and holds onto my hand with his much larger one.
“You said hold tight,” he teases as his fingers lace through mine.
His hand is warm and large. I thank the gods it’s dark, and he can’t see me turning into a tomato. This is, embarrassingly, the first time I’ve ever held hands with a man. Trying to ignore my traitorous body, I quickly mutter a spell, and instantly, my body feels lighter, as if I could float away. Darian’s grip tightens, and I can sense a silent question in his touch.
“Gods,” he breathes.
He has never felt the magic of invisibility before. It’s a strange trick of light and life elements that allows light to pass through life, like wind through leaves. It makes one feel shallow and weightless as if about to fade out of existence.
Once I am confident we are fully invisible, I glance up at the battlement. It is blessedly, wonderfully empty. My little strategically-placed bauble, designed to emit an irresistibly eerie glow, is clearly doing its job. The guards must have spotted it and trundled off to investigate, little knowingit would vanish once they got close. A few moments of guard-less-ness on the battlement directly in front of the Martyshyar wing is all I need.
I take another breath, nod at Darian, and we begin our ghostly glide toward the Martyshyar wing. We tiptoe around the three guards with the silence of forgotten secrets. I extend a hand towards the smaller stables on the other side of the southern ward, where they house the pampered, high-breed horses, away from the rough-and-tumble war steeds of the main stables.
Suddenly, under the subtle nudge of my spell, a magnificent black horse, previously engrossed in a hay bag buffet, rears, and bucks with such a force that it snaps its tether. Then, it launches towards the guards at the Maryshyar wings’s door with the speed of an arrow.
Predictably, panic erupts among the three Martyshgards. They scatter like startled pigeons, trying to move out of the way of the charging horse. The horse, following my spell, aims at the smallest guard, who promptly initiates a high-speed retreat, running away from the massive beast of an animal. The other two guards give chase, hoping to prevent the frail Martyshgard from being kicked into the heavens.
Seizing our moment amidst the chaos, I fling a spell at the door and haul Darian inside just as it whispers shut behind us!
Once inside, we freeze, holding our breaths and straining to hear the diminishing commotion. The horse’s dramatic aria fades as abruptly as its magical cue—me—is out of sight. We remain rooted to the spot, wondering if any of the guards, in a moment of what must have been profound existential terror, had spotted the door opening and closing. I’d cast a sound-dampening charm so the hinges wouldn’t groan like a gate to the underworld, but the movement of the door could have been easily spotted.
I carefully listen to the faint, argumentative tones of the guards, sounding more confused than alarmed, which suggests that our entrance had gone unobserved. I let out a sigh of relief that I think I’ve been holding since evening and finally allow myself to take a good look around.
