Page 15 of Stranger's Choice
Chapter 6
The metal glinted, a pure silver suddenly drenched in red. Over and over, the images swirled. In every image, dark ruby drenched the bright silver. Once it happened as the sword sliced through her neck. Several had the sword skating across her stomach, her chest. In one, the tip thrust between her ribs and emerged from her back.
Auraelie gasped and sat up, the visions that had pulled her into unconsciousness still echoing within as her power held fast to the futures it had last seen. She took several deep breaths, pushing the images away. When in contact with someone, she couldn’t do that, was forced to see whatever her power wanted to show her, but once free, she could distance herself.
Auraelie needed that distance more than ever. The woman who had grabbed her had not escaped in any future she had seen. She either died—the most common and most probable futures—or was captured and tortured. Auraelie knew with utter certainty what had happened after she fell to the ground and lost consciousness. Qilar had sliced the woman’s throat. It didn’t matter that she had seen multiple futures; she knew which outcome would have prevailed.
What she didn’t know was what had happened to her in the interim. She should still be lying on the floor in front of the Emperor’s throne. The Emperor, Qilar, Lhashiki—none of them would have let anyone touch her while she recovered from the power drain. Even without direct skin contact, any connection would have activated her power—less severely than when the woman had pressed against her entire back and let her hand brush against Auraelie’s neck—but any further use of power could have been deadly at that point.
But she wasn’t on the hard floor. She was on a soft pile of sleeping cushions, a silky sheet bunched at her waist from when she had sat up. She still wore her now wrinkled and blood-spattered tunic and trousers, and she didn’t think too much time had passed. She still felt drained, both physically and magically. Fear, more than anything, had given her the energy to sit up.
She looked around the room, finally seeing something other than blood on metal. The chamber was lushly appointed. It must have overlooked the gardens, based on the air coming through the window.
The beaded curtain between inner and outer chambers rattled, and Auraelie was not surprised when the foreign prince stepped through. Worried. Terrified. But not surprised.
“I thought I heard you. How are you feeling? Should I call for the physician again?”
“You can’t.” Auraelie was too rattled to think about her words or choose them with any sort of care. “Touch only makes things worse.”
“So I’ve been told, but the physician doesn’t need to touch you.”
Sebin knew her weakness. That woman had grabbed her in front of dozens of people. They probably all knew that contact rendered her unconscious in short order. And the Emperor . . . she looked around the room. She was in Sebin’sbed; the Emperor knew.
She still had to confirm. “How did I get here?”
“I carried you.”
“The Emperor let you?”
“There was a slight misunderstanding involving a sword and my neck, but we got it all worked out in the end.”
Auraelie fought off a wave of despair. She would not give in to it. Better to be angry. She crossed her arms, though the gesture was probably not that intimidating considering she was still sitting on the bed cushions. Sebin’s bed cushions.
“You told the Emperor about your immunity,” Auraelie said with all the anger she could muster.
“Would you have preferred I let you crack your head against the floor?”
“Yes!”
“I don’t know why you care. It was my secret, not yours. Not that I knew it was a secret. How was I supposed to guess you hadn’t told the Emperor?”
“Why do you think I’ve been stuck following you around every day?”
“I assumed it had something to do with the Emperor wanting to find a way around my immunity.”
Auraelie shoved the sheet off herself. She judged her strength and figured anger would carry her through just as fear had roused her. “You ruin everything.”
Sebin rolled his eyes at her. “Sorry for not keeping a secret I didn’t even know about. If it makes you feel any better, you finally succeeded in making me betray my ability to speak Imperial.”
Auraelie stood up and brushed at her tunic and trousers, trying to make it look less like she had slept in them. Trying to hide the way her legs shook. How long had she been unconscious? Her hand flew to her face in sudden realization. “Where is my veil?”
“I used it to deal with the cut on your throat.” Sebin frowned and turned away. “I apologize. Women don’t wear veils in my homeland, and I forgot you might be uncomfortable without it.”
He walked over to a table in the corner and lifted a pile of black fabric. “Someone dropped a change of clothes off for you. Maybe there is a new veil in there.”
He walked back to the bed, carefully not looking directly at her. He placed the clothes on the cushion closest to her, then turned and walked back to the far wall.
“It doesn’t bother me that you can see my face. Not in the way you are thinking,” Auraelie said. She wasn’t sure why she was admitting this, but something in her rebelled at letting him feel a false guilt.
