Page 46 of Secrets of Graves and Gold

How much farther will she go to stop us if we linger any longer? If we’re leaving, we have to go now.

Stavros’s expression has hardened. Any doubts he might have had about the validity of her concerns appear to have vanished.

He marches toward the sorcerer. “This isn’t your decision to make.”

Casimir tucks his hand around my elbow and leans close so only I can hear him. “We left a few things in the saddle bags down where the horses are stabled. I don’t think she could have grabbed anything there yet. We’d better get to them first.”

Sulla’s head swings toward us. Her mouth sets with determination.

She must have come to the same realization we just did.

I bolt for the nearby doorway, the one she hasn’t sealed yet. It’s a short scramble down the stone steps built into the mountainside to the covered wooden shelter where we’ve been keeping the horses.

The men hurtle down the steps behind me. Sulla’s cry carries after them. “No! I can’t let you do this. You’re meant to be here.”

At the base of the stairs, I dart to the side, letting the men charge past me to prepare the horses. Toast nickers, either in greeting or to protest that I’m not attending to him myself.

Sulla scrambles after us, her eyes wide. She catches her balance against a hunched sapling just a few steps away from me and stares past me toward the makeshift stable.

Her hand rises again as if she intends to cast out more magic.

I step right in front of her, my own magic unfurling through my chest with an unnerving but potent vibration. “Is this really what you want to do, Sulla? You’re going to protect the world from being hurt by my magic by hurting us with yours?”

The desperate look she gives me sends an ache through my heart. “You don’t know what could happen.”

I gather all my determination in my posture and my voice. “Neither do you. I know where I’m meant to be, and it’s not locked away up here for the rest of my life. Not when there are good people down there who’ll definitely be hurt if I don’t step in.”

Sulla looks down at her extended hand. Her arm shivers, and she lowers it to her side with a mumbled curse.

She’s probably already let loose more magic in the past few minutes than she normally would in a week. I can’t imagine she had enough time to think through the consequences. How much damage has she done to her own home?

Seeing her hopeless expression, I can’t help giving her one more chance. “You could still come with us. We’ll keep each other in check. I’d appreciate your guidance just as I have here. Please.”

Sulla meets my gaze again. There’s so much anguish in her eyes that my throat closes up.

“We’re not meant for the rest of the world, Ivy,” she says. “I know that. I pray that you realize it as well before too many others pay the price.”

Fourteen

Ivy

My mentor’s words echo in my head long after we’ve left the Haven behind. With every step I take down the mountain, a boulder seems to sway in my belly.

Sulla saw my power firsthand. She knows more about the riven than anyone else I’ve encountered in my twenty years in this world.

What if she’s right that I shouldn’t trust myself? Tackling a province-wide uprising is going to challenge me a lot more than tangling with a small group of conspirators at the royal college.

My men have stayed mostly silent as we descend the mountain, concentrating on leading the horses well so none of us breaks a leg. As the ground between the trees levels out, Stavros draws to a halt at the head of our group and reaches for his saddle to mount.

The rest of us move to follow suit, but Casimir stops me with a touch of my shoulder. He trails his fingers up to my jaw and leans in to claim a kiss.

The heat of his mouth reminds me of all the ways he took charge the other day, of the fleeting freedom he offered me from my responsibilities. Which maybe is his intention, because when he draws back, he says in a firm but tender tone, “We’re facing this crisis together. If you need anything, we’ll be right there with you.”

I gaze up at him with a swell of affection. “I know. I couldn’t do this on my own.”

And you shouldn’t need to, Julita pipes up in my head. But I do look forward to seeing the bunch of you accomplish what the king’s whole army hasn’t managed. He’d better realize he never should have cast you out.

As I haul myself into Toast’s saddle, I appreciate my trousers and the slits I cut in my dress’s skirt overtop more than ever. At least my legs will stay decently warm in the late autumn air.

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