Page 97 of Secrets of Graves and Gold

“I had to—I had to stop…” she mumbles.

A holler reverberates from the far side of the field. “Wildings, prepare a search! The traitors who want to prop up their false king are here!”

Great God smite me, one of them’s already seen through our trick. They barely appear shaken, and Ivy—Ivy teeters as she spins around.

Guilt clamps around my innards from throat to belly. All I can do is throw my arm around her back to hold her steady as we race back to the others.

Is she in any condition to even keep us hidden much longer?

I thought I understood—I wanted to believe I’d found the answer so badly. Gods, how I’ve fucked up.

And my mistake could be the ruin of us all.

Twenty-Eight

Ivy

Iwake to faint early dawn light and a pine needle dropping against my cheek. The boughs Stavros hauled into the shape of a tent late last night block the worst of the wind, but it’s still a pretty rough shelter.

The best we can do in our present situation.

With a heavy pang in my stomach, the memory of the panicked dash that brought us here fills my head.

We piled onto the horses two apiece with Stavros jogging alongside us. As well as I could tell in the midst of the turmoil, he led us in a wide circuit around the scourge sorcerers’ camp before they’d had much of a chance to conduct their search and continued on to give us at least a few hours’ lead on their typical marching pace.

Are we still in their path or safely out of reach? I’m not sure we’ll know for certain unless they crash right into us.

A clinking sound and a rustle outside the shelter tells me at least a couple of the men are already up—and cooking some part of our breakfast. As I turn my head to look around, an arm tucks around my waist from behind.

Beneath the layers of blanket, Alek scoots a little closer so our bodies are aligned. His breath tickles through my hair to the back of my scalp. A quick glance shows it’s just the two of us left in the shelter.

The scholar dips his head to press a kiss to the nape of my neck. His voice comes out low and rough. “I’m sorry about last night.”

I twist in his embrace so I’m facing him. As I meet his anguished eyes, I rest one of my hands against his chin. “You didn’t do anything wrong. We tried our best, and it didn’t work out after all.”

He swallows audibly. “I encouraged you to take on a bigger challenge with your magic—I know how much you hate grappling with it?—”

“Hey.” I caress Alek’s unscarred jaw with my thumb, my throat closing up around the truth of what happened. “You didn’t ask for too much. I did what I could handle, and I stopped when I needed to.”

There really wasn’t anything overwhelming about the effect he asked me to create. Fire balanced by ice is an easy equation.

The real problem was that while the flames I’d conjured wavered and roared, I thought I caught a glimpse of Borys in the disarray—and a sudden urge to blaze straight through the camp to destroy him blotted out everything else for a moment.

In that moment, I was so convinced that I had to make the fire bigger. That I needed to flood the whole camp with flames before… before the scourge sorcerers and their lackeys lashed out at us. Or something even more horrible happened.

It didn’t totally make sense. I’m not even sure it was Borys I saw, the glimpse was so fleeting.

But the feeling just kept growing, and I lost my grip on my intentions. More magic leapt out of me than I’d meant to release.

Maybe if I’d let it, it would have scorched the entire camp and everyone in it to embers: deceived civilians, sacrificial victims, horses, and all alongside the actual villains.

But I didn’t let things go that badly. I felt my control slipping and I yanked it back, just as I always have. Everything is still okay.

If I repeat that to myself enough, maybe I’ll totally believe it.

Alek’s mouth twists. “I thought the strategy I suggested would accomplish something. I don’t see how we made any progress at all. Instead, we’ve ended up with the scourge sorcerers actively on the lookout for us.”

I caress his face again. “We gave them something to worry about. We distracted them. The blaze might have made some of the locals they drew in question what they’ve actually signed up for.”

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