Silvia came in to check on me and braid my hair, and though I had been beyond nervous, for the twenty minutes I had seen her and chatted with her, I’d kept my skin clear of all traces of magic. It wasn’t that it truly mattered because she already knew I had magic, but it was a nice trial run of being around someone and containing my magic. It was almost as if my magic was beginning to know the rules of this little game too. The need to stay hidden for a while.
I turned the corner after chatting with Silvia to find Owen’s sound barrier up around the room next door. Assuming he was just ranting away like the night before, I stepped into his barrier, making it fall.
My palms burned only slightly. I had half a mind to put a barrier up to replace it myself. But I didn’t want to break something. So I willed the magic down and let Owen replace it.
Keir was there too, as were Krew and Renna.
“How are you feeling?” Keir asked.
It was nice of him to ask, I just wasn’t sure they wanted my actual answer. “Fine.”
How are you really feeling?
My eyes went to Krew’s as I sent him the truthful answer.Like there is barely enough room in this body for me anymore.
He stood and walked over to me, brushing a kiss to my temple. “Sit in my seat?”
I gave him a nod as he headed over to the bar area, pouring himself a drink and me a hot tea. “What’d I miss?”
The table was quiet, all of them looking to someone else, all eyes avoiding me.
I snorted. “If you were talking about me, that’s fine. I’m used to it at this point.”
Renna shook her head. “No, Jorah. We weren’t talking about you. We were...” She took a deep breath. “We were talking about the fact that the princes have bribed the king’s mistress to get the king extremely drunk and then take the ring off his dumb thumb.”
“When?” I snapped. “When is this happening?”
“Soon,” Keir offered with an apologetic smile. “We figure the more he’s distracted this week and next, the better.”
I vaguely remembered Owen saying something about the princes bribing his mistress, but I had naively assumed it was related to the stronger sleeping tonic he’d been receiving this week.
I stood without another thought, my eyes going directly to Krew’s. “So let me get this straight. While you are possibly about to lose all but a drop of your magic, you are going to bribe someone we do not trust, to get an object that may or may not hold your mother’s magic?”
“It has to be the ring,” Keir argued. “It has to be. It’s the only object which never leaves his side.”
Krew handed me the tea, but I was too busy glaring at him to thank him. I switched my attention back to Keir. “I don’t doubt that it could be the ring. I doubt the timing of doing this now, when Krew’s magic is supposed to be weakened. I don’t trust her, whoever she is. And I do not think this is a wise move. Not now.”
Keir gave me a shrug. “But if it works....”
I felt the hum of magic at my palms and took a deep breath. “If it works? If it works what? You’re going to take down the king yourself? Because Krew can’t. His magic is trapped in me.”
“Jorah,” Krew warned.
“I know, I know. You don’t like me calling ityourmagic anymore.”
“No,” Renna said calmly. “You’re glowing.”
“Rather aggressively,” Owen added.
I looked down to see they were right. “Dammit.” I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, willing the magic to subside. I opened my eyes, looking at Owen. “There. Happy?”
“Uhh, no,” he answered.
I rolled my eyes. “Go figure.”
“You’re going to need to use a little to get through the rest of the day,” Owen told me.
“I’ll be fine,” I snapped. “Let’s get back to this reckless plan of the ring. Which apparently is going to happen soon.”
