Page 143 of A Game of Veils

Maybe it’s better if they believe something might continue between us even after the results of tomorrow’s trial. More to fight for, more reason to champion me. But I’m not going to lie to them and pretend I think it’s possible.

Tonight I can think of myself as well as my goals. After tomorrow, Princess Aurelia really will cease to exist. Everything I do will be in service of my country.

Which is all the more reason to make the most of this moment.

Bastien wets his lips and glances around the room. His stance tenses just slightly in a moment of hesitation.

His voice holds an uncertain note I don’t totally understand. “I can give us a nicer venue.” He lifts his chin with an aura of resolve. “Yes. It’ll only take a minute.”

Before I can ask what he means, the lean muscles in his shoulders flex, and a draft sweeps through the space.

Not just a draft—a gust of wind, tugging at my hair and dress as it passes me.

The current of air flicks the sheets off the furniture and blows them into the other room. It catches all the puffs of dust rising from the floor and sends them billowing after, wiping the floor clean.

In a matter of seconds, the lantern glow beams across a worn but clean rug on a smooth stone floor, two mismatched armchairs with a scuffed wooden table between them, and a faded settee by the wall.

My jaw has gone slack. I reel it back in, my gaze jerking to Bastien. “That—your gift?—”

His smile looks pleased if a tad sheepish. “Lorenzo showed you his. You might as well know mine. I can manipulate air.”

Understanding clicks in my head. “I heard you can send away rainclouds. That’s how? You just push them with the wind…”

Gods, it’s hard to imagine how much magic that must take—and how much else he might be able to do with a gift that strong.

But then, he did give up an entire lung for it. It isn’t as if the sacrifice wasn’t worthy.

“Show-off,” Raul grumbles.

He scoops his hand through the air next to the chair we’re standing near and lifts it with a strange object clenched in his fingers. It looks like a clump of dark, gauzy cloth standing erect, but somehow both filmier and denser in its darkness than actual cloth would be.

Then, as I watch, the edges of the shape ripple. It stretches out, thinning into a ribbon of the hazy material.

With a twist of his wrist, Raul slides the ribbon across my neck. It feels like a swath of mist, cool and tingling, grazing my skin.

With a squeeze of his fingers, the substance hardens. He traces it over my shoulder as if stroking me with a rod of smooth wood now.

A shiver travels through my nerves. “What is that?”

Raul grins. “A shadow. Mostly I can just sense what’s in them—the shadows of pockets and pouches and what’s under ladies’ skirts.”

He dips his head to brush his lips against the spot where the shadowy ribbon touched my neck. “But if I can touch part of a shadow, I can grab hold and shape it however I want. You can thank Kosmel for that.”

I suppose the trickster godlen would be amused by the uses Raul typically puts his gift to.

As he slides his band of shadow over my hip and uses it to rustle the skirt of my gown, Bastien folds his arms over his chest. “Now who’s showing off?”

Raul simply smirks at him and lets the shadow soften to lick across my shin.

Even in this isolated room, the peal of the hourly bell resonates faintly through the walls. Bastien glances toward the sealed doorway and back at me, hunger reigniting in his deep green gaze.

“There are only so many hours left in the night, and our princess needs her rest before tomorrow’s trial. We can ensure that she’s completely sated before she retires to bed, can’t we?”

Chapter Forty-Four

Aurelia

As Bastien’s question lingers in the air, Lorenzo takes my hand and raises it to his lips.

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