Malice, Heather Walter [hardest books to read txt] 📗

into the cell with a low groan. The lanterns gutter. Their cloaks snap in the current of wind. And then everything is still.

“Now,” Laurel says to me once the gilded aura fades. “Let’s get you out of here.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

The guards are still drooling in their sleep when we tiptoe past them. We’d locked my cell door again and replaced the heavy key ring on the belt of its owner. Laurel even thought to bring me a fresh dress—stolen from the palace servants—and we arrange the one I’d been wearing so that it looked like I was curled up in the rancid straw. But we have no illusions. I have hours, if that, before they discover I’m gone. I can only hope Tarkin won’t punish Aurora for my escape.

My power is waning, depleted from the harrowing events of the last night, but I manage to Shift into one of the guards to emerge from the dungeons. And then find a shadowy alcove to transform into a Grace to exit the palace with Laurel. But my magic is stretched farther than I’ve ever pushed it, and with each step I’m afraid that I’ll lose the Shift and expose myself.

But it holds.

Laurel hails us a closed snow carriage and directs it to the Grace house nearest to the Common District checkpoint, as close as she can get to the black tower without raising suspicion. I let my Shift fall away as soon as the brocade curtains are drawn, sighing as my bones drift back into place.

“The princess will send for me again once she has something for you to curse,” Laurel says as the carriage sets off. “As you said, it will be too risky for her to come to you herself. I will bring it. To the black tower. Where you’ve been training in secret.”

Even in the charcoal dim of the carriage I can see the accusation etched in the angles of Laurel’s face.

I pick at the stitching on my sleeves. “Yes.”

“Alone?”

“Nearly.”

The carriage skids over a patch of ice and I catch myself on the hand strap before I’m thrown forward. Laurel crosses one leg over the other and drums her fingertips against her knees, waiting for me to say more. I don’t.

“I hope you know what you’re doing,” she says at last. Through a slit in the curtain, I watch the Grace District blur past. I wonder if it’s the last time I’ll see the pale brick façades and snow-frosted poplars. “We’re in enough danger as it is.”

I want to tell her that I do. That Kal is our ally. He taught me what I needed to flee Tarkin’s dungeon. To control my power. But would she trust him? A prisoner locked in a tower since the War of the Fae. I keep the words back.

“You have nothing to worry about.”

“We have everything to worry about.” She snaps the curtain closed. “And if you don’t understand that, we’re in more trouble than I thought.”

—

I use the dregs of my power to Shift into a dirt-smudged errand boy in order to talk my way through the checkpoint at the Common District and then the main gates of Briar. I wanted to stop by Lavender House to rescue Callow. Even set Prince Markham free. But Laurel refused. My Lair is in ruins, she told me. The palace guard arrived shortly after I was sent to the dungeons. And my animals are gone.

A fresh lash of guilt scores my conscience. Callow. Is she in an alleyway, pecking at scraps of food? Is she dead? Laurel promises to look for her, but I’m not optimistic. Another life on my hands.

Kal is waiting for me in the black tower, his shadows gathering like storm clouds. After the dungeons, the king, Callow—I come undone.

My threadbare Shift dissolves. Sobs wrack my body. Kal doesn’t ask questions. He holds me, his icy body a comfort against the liquid fire of my own.

I don’t speak for a long time, only clutch at Kal’s chest. When I do, he listens. I keep nothing back, ashamed of myself for lying for so long. But he doesn’t chide me, as he should. Doesn’t rage. He pulls me closer, resting his chin on top of my head.

“I worried this would happen. And I suspected there was something with the princess.” He strokes my hair, the frost from his touch tingling on my scalp and stinging the inside of my nose. “But I am sorry you felt the need to lie to me.”

“I’m sorry,” I mumble against his heart. It beats slowly, faintly, as always. “I’m a fool.”

“For falling in love?” A shadow tickles my cheek. “I cannot agree.”

I curl my fingers tighter into his clothes. A wave breaks against the cliff, the echo reverberating through the tower.

“I want her to rule. I want a different Briar, one where I’m respected and treated like an equal. I want—” I break off, shaking.

“You want her.” Kal smiles, but it’s sad. Shadows swirl around his shoulders like tentacles. “I understand. But is it worth everything, Alyce? Because that is what it will cost.”

Anger swallows my grief in a single violent gulp. I shove Kal away harder than necessary and stalk to the other side of the chamber.

“Do not mistake me,” Kal says after a while, a cautious hand on my shoulder. “I do not mean to discredit your feelings. Your kiss broke the curse.”

I taste salt on my lips. “But why us? Why that kiss, when I’m Vila?”

Kal taps his index finger gently on my forehead. “I think you know. The union of a Vila and a human. Two races sworn to despise each other, who irreparably harmed the other during the war, coming together. That alone is powerful magic.”

My head throbs. What he says makes sense, but I still do not fully believe it.

Kal runs the pad of his thumb over the crust of tears on my cheekbone. “Please. Think.” He pauses, waits until my eyes lock with his.