Page 9 of Omen of ice
“You two have met?” I toe off my ridiculous shoes.
“He was my childhood tutor…” Valen’s eyes are wide, but there’s no hurt there. I see only anger.
“Seems like you made quite an impression,” I tell him as I circle the assailant. “Misbehave during lessons?”
Fleeting mumbles something and prepares for another attack. As he lunges, I twist and grab his shoulders, bringing my head forward. The resoundingcrackas our skulls collide sends a wave of vertigo through me and topples him off-balance. He stumbles back, grabbing the wall so he doesn’t crumple to the ground.
Valen smirks. “Maybe he heard about the things I did with his daughter—”
With a roar, the elder Fae launches himself at Valen. It’s a foolish move; if he’d had any sense, he would have aimed for me. Given the angle he charges in at, I simply have to pivot and kick. The blow nails its mark. He flies backward, then drops like a sack of grain.
“Are there othertutorsI should know about?”
“Everyone here loves me,” Valen says, narrowing his eyes. He’s leaning back on his elbows, casual as can be, like he hasn’t a care in the world.
“Apparently not.” I bend down and extend my hand to help him up.
He grumbles something, then reaches for it, stopping just shy of touching me. His expression morphs from annoyed to horrified, and he throws both hands out to stop me from coming closer. “No!”
I resist the urge to flip my pinkie at him, an insult among polite Fae society and something I never would have entertained doing until tonight. Kopic is right. Heisa pain in the ass.
But I realize it isn’t me he’s shouting at. His eyes are focused on something over my shoulder.
Fleeting.Goddess.
Turning my back on the enemy, even when victory appears inevitable, is a rookie move. I’ve been in the same scenario during training a hundred times back home. My first time out in the world, and I blow it?
The hairs on my arms and neck jump to attention, and a curse lodges in my throat as I whirl to find the blade hurtling straight toward my head.
No, not toward my head.Atmy head. Directly in front of my left eye. But it isn’t moving. It’s frozen—in every sense of the word. The blade is encased in ice and suspended a mere inch from impaling me. It hovers there for a moment before falling to the floor and shattering into a thousand small pieces, and behind me, Valen lets out a wheezing breath.
He didn’t just—
Instinct kicks in, and I lunge for Fleeting. He’s produced another weapon, this one a smaller blade with the subtlest gleam of green. Poison. I catch his hand as he pounces, pivoting and twisting the knife inward. It pierces his shoulder, and he screams and hits the ground. It only takes seconds for the poison to kick in, and he begins to convulse.
I sink to the floor in front of Valen, knowing what I’ve seen, knowing it’s impossible. This kind of magic doesn’t exist in the world anymore. Druid power is rooted in life, in nature, and because of that, it couldn’t be drained completely. But Fae enchantment over the elements? That’s been gone for millennia, drained during the war. Yet…
“You have magic,” I whisper.Goddess. A Fae exists with magic.
He glances around the courtyard and, satisfied no one has seen him, nods. He watches me for a moment, then sighs and says, “Aye, I have magic.”
4
Valen
After the Aphelian alerts the Winter Guard and they promptly take the dying Fleeting away, I try to give her the slip, to gain some kind of distance. I fail.
I’m almost back to my bedroom, and she’s right on my heels.Slap, slap, slap. Her footsteps have now replaced Kopic’s irritatedcluckas my least favorite sound.
“Who else knows about the magic?” she asks.
She’s the strangest human I’ve ever met. They come from Lunal to barter occasionally. Trade their wares for threads and pelts of native wildlife. They’re always treated with kindness, offered fair deals, and given gifts of friendship. In return, they share their stories and their passion for life. The rumor is that’s what made Servis fall so deeply in love with Aphelian in the first place. Humans are short-lived. When you survive as long as we do, you tend to forget how tolive. Through their eyes, we’re able to see beauty in the world long after our own senses have dulled to it.
I don’t answer her until we’ve reached my door. “My aunt and uncle know, of course, as well as a few members of the staff. Kopic and Buri know, too.”
I push through the door to my bedroom, then settle on the edge of the bed as she leans against the wall to watch me. Something tells me that no amount of bribery, no measure of pleading, will get her to leave.
The last thing my miserable existence needs is someone trying to push themselves into my life. It’s already complicated and messy—not to mention dangerous—and I don’t have room to share it. Not anymore.
