Page 31 of The Faceless Mage

Footsteps upstairs. Footsteps in her antechamber. Footsteps approaching from the end of the hall outside her suite.

She’d never moved so fast. The end of the rope shot in through her window just as she heard both panes of the upstairs window pulled shut. She stuffed the rope into its pocket, then ripped off her vest and shoved it into the bed, followed by her shirt and trousers. Her boots went back into the maids’ trunk. Leisa ran to the mirror in nothing but her underthings, gazed for an instant at her wide blue eyes, then watched her reflection ripple and change until Evaraine’s emerald-green eyes stared at her once more.

The belt of her dressing gown was already tied neatly around her waist when the tentative knock came at her door.

“Your Highness?” It was barely above a whisper.

“One moment,” Leisa called, trying to sound sleepy and running her fingers through her hair to muss it before she opened the door. “What?” She didn’t even have to try to sound irritable.

“I’m so sorry, but…” Lady Piperell couldn’t even finish the sentence. Just jerked her head to indicate the anteroom behind her.

The Raven was waiting.

Chapter 9

He could sense her unease, though she disguised it well behind a frown and fluttering lashes.

“Why am I being disturbed?”

He didn’t say anything, just took two steps closer, wondering what it would take to break her facade. To make her admit to the startling truth of her earlier activities.

“I believe there was an intruder,” Lady Piperell said to the princess in a quiet voice. “Perhaps he means to ensure that you are unharmed.”

Perhaps… and perhaps not. Perhaps she was not even a princess. Would a princess be so adept at spying? Would a princess have the ability to pick locks, leap off balconies, and rappel down walls? It seemed unlikely, especially given what he’d overheard about the princess from Farhall.

Sickly. Shy. Underwhelming in looks and personality. This woman’s face matched her portrait, but nothing else matched what King Melger had expected to find in his son’s prospective bride. Especially not the magic that lurked beneath her skin.

If King Melger knew what the Raven now knew, he would likely demand the girl’s execution. Or at least that she suffer an unfortunate accident. But the king didn’t know, and he hadn’t commanded his bodyguard to tell him.

And yet, neither could the Raven simply stand by and watch as this disaster unfolded. He was… curious. For the first time in years, he felt another emotion balancing out that burning desire for revenge, and it was strangely unsettling.

The princess finally seemed to gather her courage. She straightened her spine, folded one arm across her chest, and let the fingers of her other hand fall on the gem around her neck.

Then she pulled it free and rolled it around in her fingers, touching it to her bare skin for only the second time.

He felt when it burnt her. Felt the shock and unease ripple through her emotions. Felt when she recognized the link, reached out, and…

It was like looking across a crowded room full of strangers and unexpectedly meeting the eyes of someone he knew.

She reached through the bond, and shesawhim. Or at least she saw his presence. Not his physical form, but the truth of his power and his heritage—the magic that scalded his very bones, straining to be free.

And he, in return, saw hers. Oh, she scrambled to hide it. After that initial moment where her mind blazed up in recognition, her presence seemed to stagger away from his, reeling with shock.

But they were too closely linked now for her to hide from him completely.

He could almost watch as her magic tucked itself into a ball and rolled into the corner of her mind, out of sight, feigning harmlessness.

Naturally, she didn’t want him to know she was a mage.

But there was more—more than shock, fear, or the desire to protect herself.

The Raven felt a new emotion swell and burn as it grew and overwhelmed her fear.

Rage. Like a quiet fire in her mind. Not at him, which, for no reason he could name, struck him as amusing. She was angry at Vaniell, for giving her the gem. For linking her to someone without her consent. And she was furious with…

She dropped the gem, and the link with her mind faded. Too soon. The Raven experienced an unreasonable sense of irritation at his inability to determine exactly who she’d been most angry with.

“Thank you for your concern,” she said finally, almost mechanically. She was obviously still disturbed. “But I’m quite well, as you can see. Merely distressed by all the interruptions to my rest.”

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