Page 114 of Secrets of Graves and Gold

The soldier lets out a sound that starts as a snort and then seems to choke. His grasp on me loosens, his sword sinking.

Julita propels me out of his arms and then flings herself back into her usual place in my head, letting my consciousness hurtle to the fore again. I yank the strands of invisibility around me, glimpsing Stavros staring at me with a grayish tint to his light brown skin, and grab his hand. “Come on. I don’t know how long Julita’s gift will last.”

The soldier is gaping at what must now look like only empty air again. But he doesn’t snatch at me or raise any shout of alarm as we bolt past him.

We rush down the stairs and through the hall. I have just enough wherewithal to remove a chunk of the front door just in time for us to dash through it.

My magic batters me from the inside in a fury. My nerves jangle with the insistence that we should flatten the whole building and everyone in it to the ground.

They aren’t going to leave me alone until I?—

No, no, no. I pull the image of the protective vine tight around myself, but the power keeps wrenching at me.

Gods above, I wish I could use Julita’s gift on myself.

Her buoyant laugh rings through my head. It really worked. Thank the gods! I’m so glad I could do something real for once.

“You were pretty amazing,” I murmur to her. I don’t want to think about what might have happened if I couldn’t have turned to her, but my stomach churns with the horror anyway. “We’re still a good team.”

As the last words leave my mouth, a holler carries across the hill from the fortress behind us. Stavros and I exchange a frantic glance and run for our mounts as if the world depends on it.

Which, unfortunately, it very well might.

Thirty-Two

Rheave

Ivy bites her lip as she paces the room. There’s been an agitated energy to her ever since she and Stavros returned.

A tiny red mark mars the pale skin of her neck. A soldier held a sword to her throat there.

He wanted to hurt her.

My fingers curl around the urge to storm out of the temple’s refuge rooms and across the countryside until I can tear that villain apart.

I should have been there to protect her. But I couldn’t go, because it would have been more strain on her to conceal me too. Stavros was the one who knew what needed to be done at the fort.

I would have made things harder for her, not easier.

The knowledge sets me even more on edge.

I bare my teeth. “They’re all idiots. They won’t listen. Maybe they deserve to get blasted with scourge sorcery.”

The horrified look that crosses Ivy’s face makes me want to catch the words and stuff them back down my throat.

“We broke into their fortress,” she says. “The soldier who caught me and the ones who came after us—they were only doing their jobs.”

A growl creeps up my throat. “Not well.”

Stavros gives a dark chuckle. “We should be glad they didn’t perform better, or we might not have made it back here safely.”

Casimir comes up behind Ivy and sets his hands on her shoulders. He squeezes them with gentle circles of his thumbs, and she partly relaxes into the massage.

I could have done that. It doesn’t look very hard. Why didn’t I think of it first?

There are so many things she needs, and I’m not sure I’ve been doing any of them lately.

The courtesan tilts his head toward the wall nearby. “I made decent use of the time while you were gone. Purchased a few items from passing merchants that could come in handy.”

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