She distantly absorbed his answer, hating the thought of being away from him again despite her fury. Her mind was already on his form in her arms and the words he’d croaked before collapsing. His mother had workedatThe Fool's Folly. She had healed people in town and in the war, but she supposed that didn’t mean Aimee couldn’t have also served as a courtesan.
She considered the possibility void of judgment, only clutching him tighter, willing her body heat into him as if it would help. Lilac bent and swooped her arm under the crook of his legs, cradling him.
“The queen. Enthralled. Fully thralled to Garin,” Bastion was groaning, his face craning to the sky in realization. “We’re all fucked.Fucked. When he wakes, he’s going to kill us all. He’s going to get Myrddin, then me.” He sighed, oblivious to the ash raining down on them. “Do you think if I stand beneath the balcony just here, then it will collapse on me?”
“I never thought I’d see the day I appreciated my immortality,” Myrddin said, side-eying Bastion. “Casmir was the one who directed me to stake him.”
“Better you than me.” Casmir dusted his hands off, which had already healed from the sores the hawthorn dust had brought. “It’ll keep him down until you’re ready for him to wake. Unstake him when it’s time, not a moment before, but I suggest you don’t delay it. The longer you wait might worsen his reaction in realizing Lilac is not present. It is only what I predict. I won’t be around to know.”
Lilac raised a finger to stop him. “You are mistaken. I intend to be present when he wakes.”
“No,” both Casmir and Bastion said together.
Myrddin cleared his throat at the irate annoyance that had flashed across her face at the vampires’ response. “Although I can understand your now natural urge to want to protect him, Your Majesty, it is my strong recommendation you are not around for the moment he comes to. Not when the last thing he remembers is us ambushing him with a stake. He will be safest back at the inn.”
“Indeed.” Casmir gave Myrddin a nod of agreement, and without warning, began to retreat into the alley.
Lilac quickly cleared her throat. “Casmir?”
He looked over his shoulder.
The flames hadn’t wholly reached the balcony yet, but black smoke belched from the opening and rose high, disappearing into the night. “Help them. Ensure everyone’s been evacuated. Especially the courtesans.”
“You’re asking me to help these mortals?”
“I’m not asking.”
Bastion and Myrddin snorted, but they were silenced as Casmir glared. But he pivoted and stalked past, toward the light this time and into the street beyond.
Myrddin’s face had broken into a concentrated smile that faded as soon as he caught Lilac staring him down. “Is there anything you can do to put the fire out?”
“If I were able, I would have by now.”
“What do you mean?” Lilac frowned, what little tact she’d held exhausted by the eventful night. “They said you were all-powerful.”
He blinked, as if offended by her question. “I’d need to access a body of water nearby to draw from to deposit on the fire.”
Irritation grated her. Surely he was joking. “You summoned those flames, but you can’t extinguish them?”
Myrddin’s nervous, polite disposition, which she was beginning to feel might be a facade, disappeared. “Summoned? I cannot simply draw the elements out of thin air. Only mages can do that, and I am not one of them. Even those who practice in the School of Conjuration call items—and gods forbid, creatures—from a known place.”
“But there was a hearth there,” she argued, confused, knowing she would lose but doing it anyway.
“I did not summon those flames,” Myrddin insisted. “We thought it might be your—your lovemaking. Or your grappling.”
“Shut up, the both of you.” Bastion’s head swiveled, listening. Voices could be heard shouting in the room above now. “There’s no need. They’ve brought buckets of water up.”
“Fine.” She’d lost track of what happened when she was in the vision, witnessing her own attempted murder of the emissary. This only partially relieved the many questions overwhelming her. “Could you at least teleport us home?”
The warlock looked down his nose at her, then pointed his chin at Bastion. “Your horse is still out front, is it not?”
He strode toward the street in the direction Casmir had gone, but Bastion moved, blocking his way. “You can’t leave. We need your help.”
“Do you? It seems your queen feels my benevolence was not enough.”
“Benevolence?Youstarted their bet. You dumped me in that room without protection or advice,” she snarled, remembering the powerful pull against her throat and how she wouldn’t have been able to fight him off unless she’d known about the strength she’d come to acquire. Even then, she hadn’t known for sure. “You helped Garin wipe away my memory of that emissary.”
“Here we go,” muttered Bastion.
