“I didn’t rescue her,” Penn said, voice quiet.
Well, at least we agreed on one thing. I stopped outside a corner of the tent, as close as I dared, but still couldn’t see anything but their shadows from my vantage point.
“How did you steal the mirror from the queen, anyway?” Wayfinder asked. “You never did tell me.”
My breath caught in my throat.
Mirror.
He stole that from my stepmother? Everyone knew about her mirror, some piece of dark magic she’d acquired after she betrayed my father. Betrayed me. No one was sure what the mirror did, exactly. Just that she kept it in her chambers, talking to it at all hours of the day. Rumors had swirled about what she might be using it for.
Driscoll, Jillian, and I had theorized for hours.
Maybe she just really loves looking at herself,Driscoll had said.
Jillian and I had both groaned at that, and the memory made me smile, then want to cry. I missed them so, so much.
In truth, other than idle gossip and using it as a topic to wile away the hours, I’d never cared much about the mirror. It didn’t affect me, didn’t matter in the scheme of things.
But if Penn stole it from her, it must be important. I couldn’t imagine what he’d want with her mirror. Maybe he thought he could sell it. My anger flared. It was one thing to steal jewels and sell them. But to steal a piece of dark magic for coin, to be willing to make profit off something that could cause harm, that was just vile.
Dark magic was illegal, not just in Elwen, but in all five courts of Arathia. It was also dangerous, and in the wrong hands could spell disaster. My stepmother was a perfect example of that. I didn’t know what kind of dark magic she’d dabbled in, but it was clear she’d used something sinister to aid her in usurping my father.
“Do you really think this is what’s going to bring you happiness? You’ve been obsessing over this for years now.” Wayfinder’s voice interrupted my thoughts. “Come on, Boss. I know you’re not that naive. You need to let this go.”
“Enough.” Penn’s voice held a finality to it.
Happiness? I wasn’t sure how that mirror could bring Penn happiness, or what he had planned for it. He’d gone to so much trouble to steal it—and me. Which meant it had to be important, somehow connected to whatever he wanted with me—and I needed to find out what.
Chapter Ten
Unable to sleep after that revelation, I wandered through the forest, finding that I didn’t even need my lantern with the moon so bright and big in the sky.
My thoughts raced after everything I’d heard in that tent. Penn needed the mirror for something, something that Wayfinder sounded like he was against. Perhaps not everyone in the academy was just a blind follower like I’d thought. It’s not like Penn listened, though. Not surprising, from what I knew about him.
I wondered if he knew the true power behind the mirror, knew what magic it held. He must have, to have gone to such great lengths to steal it. It couldn’t have been easy to take the mirror, especially after he’d just rescued me.
Then I remembered the other part of what Wayfinder had said: that’s why Penn rescued me and then handed me off, because he had to go back and steal that mirror.
None of this made sense, more questions arising and not enough answers to satisfy them. Maybe Shadow would knowmore about all of this. Even if she did, she probably wouldn’t tell me.
“Didn’t anyone ever teach you that it’s rude to eavesdrop?”
I yelped and jumped about three feet off the forest floor. Heart hammering, I turned to see Penn leaning against a tree, holding the lantern I’d left behind.
He strode forward, stopping right in front of me, and I had to arch my neck to look up at him. Moonlight sliced across his face, illuminating the line of his strong jaw, the sharp angles of his cheekbones.
“What do you want?” I asked, a bite to my voice.
“I think the better question is what do you want?”
I glared at him, keeping my mouth closed.
“You’re the one sneaking through my forest in the middle of the night, lurking outside my tent.”
I raised my nose. “Your forest? I didn’t realize you owned it. And if I had a proper bed to sleep in, I wouldn’t have had to get up and go for a walk.”
He raised the lantern, and its warm light washed across my face. “If you knew how to climb a rope, you’d have a bed to sleep in.”