Page 23 of Twisted Magic

“I saw it cut short during the bonding ceremony with my own eyes.” Lady El-Adrel paced toward her, face alight with excited interest. She reached out, narrowing her eyes in warning as Selly flinched, then took hold of a long lock of hair, extracting it from the coil it loosely dangled from, and tugged sharply. Running her fingers down the length of it, her magic buzzed around them, like cogs and gears flying into motion. “This is your own hair,” she marveled. “How did you grow it so long in such a short time? Jadren did this, didn’t he?”

Selly didn’t want to answer, but she also didn’t know how to escape this trap. No suitable lie sprang to mind. She certainly didn’t want to throw Jadren into the maw of this particular wolf by admitting that he’d brought her back from near death and, in the doing, somehow restored her long hair also. Feeling more than a little like the cowering bunny cornered by that wolf, she stared up at Katica’s keen, knowing gaze.

And shivered at the triumphant smile curving the wizard’s cruel, crimson-painted mouth.

“I’ve done it,” she whispered, mostly to herself, still rolling the coil of hair between her fingers. “Dark arts, but I’ve actually, finally gotten Jadren to do what I thought he could do. After all these years, I’d nearly despaired.” She tipped her head back and laughed, a sound of pure, pealing joy. “I’ve done it! And success is so very sweet.”

Returning her attention to Selly, she wrapped the hair around her finger and tugged sharply enough to make Selly gasp in pain. “Tell me what happened. Exactly. Leave out no detail no matter how small. And believe me, I will not hesitate to put you in stocks and cut little pieces off of you until I’m satisfied you’ve told me everything, as obviously Jadren can and will restore anything I destroy. Tell me how he did this.”

“Why don’t you ask me yourself?”

Jadren’s jaunty voice had Selly wheeling around to the open balcony doors at her back. Dressed to kill in his black leathers, auburn hair and beard shining bright, Jadren stood poised on the other side of the balcony rail, clearly having just climbed up. He flashed her a conspiratorial grin, reminding her that she’d rescued him in nearly the exact same way back at the tribunal in Refoel, and she started to smile back—before Katica’s steely grip on her hair yanked her attention away.

Selly at least got to enjoy the privilege of seeing Lady El-Adrel completely bamboozled by Jadren’s unexpected appearance. He swung a leg over the balcony rail and landed with sinuous grace, wizard-black eyes caressing Selly with fiercely possessive concern. He drew his machete, the moonsilver gleaming with magic. “And take your hand off my familiar before I cut it off.”

Jadren’s mother recovered herself. “You think to harm me with a mundane weapon? Only you would be so pitiful as to—”

A bronze dart arrowed away from Jadren before Selly saw him move. It sliced over the back of her hand, making her yelp and snatch it back, releasing Selly’s hair.

Jadren tsked, shaking his head. “Careless of you, Maman, to forget to extend your wards around Seliah, too. But then, you always were reliably selfish.” He held out a hand to Selly and she ran to him, not at all too proud to let him gather her under one arm and shield her from his horrible mother with his body. “Are you all right?” he murmured, searching her face.

“Unharmed,” she reassured him, her heart full to bursting. Though she’d never doubted that he’d come for her, she was overwhelmed that he had, that he’d climbed up the house to get to her. “How are you here already?”

“I hurried,” he replied drily. “I was motivated,” he amended. “Helpful of you to have the house create a way in for me.”

Before she could reply that she hadn’t done it on purpose—though it occurred to her that the house might have known exactly what it was doing—Jadren gave her a long, almost desperately rough kiss, drawing deeply of her magic, then broke it off abruptly, raising his head to focus on Lady El-Adrel with glittering intent. “Don’t do it, Maman,” he said in a lethal voice. “Or the next dart goes in your throat.”

“You can’t harm me.”

“Oh, but I can,” he said with easy confidence, “or shall I demonstrate how I killed Ozana?”

“Ozana was careless,” Katica retorted, but Selly caught cold fear momentarily flashing through the woman’s haughty poise, the wariness of the scientist confronting their own invention and knowing they’d lost control of what they’d wrought.

“Are you sure?” Jadren purred, menace in every line of his body. “Maybe Ozana simply wasn’t aware of what you’d created when you sent her after me. You’re always so meticulous with keeping your secrets, particularly regarding me, playing your cards so close to the vest. I’ll bet you sent Ozana after her little brother to drag him home by the ear without ever telling her that the puppy she remembered had grown into a rabid dog capable of savaging her without notice.”

Katica looked, more than anything else, weirdly fascinated. She certainly showed no signs of grief or remorse over her deceased daughter. A monster incapable of love was how Jadren had once described his mother, and Selly believed it. “How did you kill her?” his mother asked in a tone of professional interest that didn’t at all disguise her burning need to know.

“Just used what you gave me,” Jadren replied lightly, “and no, I’m not giving you any free information. Didn’t your Elal spies report on what they saw of our little altercation?”

Lady El-Adrel wavered, seeming torn. “Spies?”

“If it helps,” Jadren said cheerfully, “you should know that we are well aware of your clandestine collaborations with House Elal. You’re not giving anything away there by admitting it.”

Making a moue, she dismissed that with a wave of her hand. “I admit nothing. Besides, you have no proof to take to the Convocation.”

“Who said anything about bringing the Convocation into this?” Jadren shot back smoothly. “This is between you and me. You asked how I killed Ozana and I asked what you knew already.”

“Then you admit murdering your sister.”

“Self-defense.”

Katica stared him down, but Jadren said nothing more. She tossed her hair back, raising her artfully groomed brows. “She appeared to have been vaporized. How did you accomplish that?”

“What is that knowledge worth to you, Lady El-Adrel?” Jadren returned smoothly.

“Worth to me?” Katica sounded so astounded, she nearly sputtered, and Selly was hard-pressed to keep a gloating smile from her face. She didn’t know what had gotten into Jadren that he’d gained this new confidence in standing up to his domineering parent, but she wanted to applaud. And shower him with kisses. And more.

“If you want to know how I killed Ozana, how I restored Seliah’s beautiful hair,” Jadren continued, glancing at Selly and running a proprietary hand over the curls that dangled down her back, before looking back at his mother and shrugging, “well, it seems we have some negotiating to do. You might begin by deciding how much this knowledge is worth to you.”

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