Page 19 of Secrets of Graves and Gold

I grimace in answer. “Rheave might be mistaken about just how far their operations have expanded. But it does sound as if it’s a much bigger mess than we had any idea about.”

My ghostly passenger shudders. When I set you on this mission, I never thought it’d ask anywhere near this much of you, Ivy. I never thought it’d ask this much of me. And now the king wants your head too… I’m sorry.

Does she really think this disaster is somehow her fault?

I wrap my arms around my waist, wishing I could touch the woman I now consider a friend, look into her eyes, make sure she accepts how much I mean this. “You didn’t launch the Order of the Wild. You never asked me to use my magic. I’m still glad to have a friend through all this chaos, as long as you can stick with us.”

I think the tickle of Julita’s presence at the back of my skull gentles a little. Her voice comes out softer. I’ll stand with you until the end of it—as well as I can actually stand.

The corner of my mouth ticks upward, but the unsettled mood the conversation provoked lingers. Pulling my cloak closer around me against the breeze, I peer through the night-cast woods.

A flutter of movement catches my eye. Was that a crow taking flight from a branch overhead?

I hesitate and then step toward that tree. Gazing up at it, I can’t see any further sign of divine presence or anything else.

Did Kosmel know all along that he was sending me on a collision course with a murderous conspiracy that extended far beyond the college’s walls? Have I offended him as much as I did the king with my impromptu shows of magic?

I was already in over my head at the college. Now I’m so deep underwater I can barely see a glimmer of light through the churning surface overhead.

How is a street-rat thief supposed to challenge a kingdom-wide, hundreds-strong plot to overturn the very fabric of our society?

For a moment, the drowning sensation overwhelms me. I close my eyes and sink to my knees at the base of the tree trunk.

I know what the clerics would say I have to do if I want to call on him properly.

Open myself up. Prove that I welcome his guidance.

Because I do need it now, more than I ever have before.

I’d started to take comfort in the trickster godlen’s interest in me. Knowing he was on my side and supporting me helped me stand up to Ster. Torstem and deal with the conspirators my way.

Please, let him not have abandoned me.

I close my eyes and bow my head, thinking out to the divine powers that flow through our world. Kosmel, if you’re still watching over me, I could use some advice. Our enemies are so many more than we realized. I have no idea how I can even start to tackle the rest of the scourge sorcerers. And the king’s soldiers will be hunting me too… If there’s any direction you can offer, I’ve never needed it more.

I wait, cold seeping into my knees from the dirt, leaves hissing against each other overhead.

No voice comes to me. No sense of a divine presence grazes my skin.

After a few minutes, I push myself to my feet. A hollow sensation has formed in the pit of my stomach, but I ignore it as well as I can as I head back to the tent.

I’ve gotten through plenty of sticky situations in the past without any godly assistance. We’ll figure something out.

Stavros nods to me as I pass him. I tuck myself back under the blankets between my other two men and soak up their warmth until it takes the edge off the ache inside.

The sleep I fall into this time is full of jumbled images that don’t quite form a dream. Shadows whirl, and jagged shapes brush against my limbs.

Then I’m perched on a tree branch in the midst of the woods, the light of a full moon beaming over me… and a strange figure balanced on the branch across from me.

At first glance, I think it’s a gigantic crow. Then the creature raises its head, and the eyes of a man stare back at me—pale but fathomless eyes as if I’m staring straight through a star.

My pulse hitches, and I jerk my gaze away, over the body that’s feathered and winged but with a man’s legs, leather boots braced against the branch’s bark.

A low chuckle reverberates around me. “There are many ways I can appear. I promise you’d find most of the others more disturbing.”

“Kosmel,” I mumble. Am I still asleep?

The godlen doesn’t bother to acknowledge his name. “You know I can’t tell you what to do, my wayward rogue. Some of my siblings feel I’ve meddled too much as it is.”

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