Page 44 of Ruled By Magic

He took the necklace from me and fastened it round my neck, his touch cool against my skin. His fingers ran down my arm, and he led me to the mirror. The stone hung like a bead of sunshine. Just looking at it made me want to smile.

I met his gaze in the mirror. “It’s really beautiful.” I fought curiosity and lost. “But why are you giving it to me?”

A smile tinged his lips. “No reason. I just wanted you to have something nice, that you could keep.” He glanced at the clock. “Time to go. Ready?”

I would get no answers from him today. I nodded.

We appeared on the edge of a large stage, in a street cleared of people. I sighed as the smell of the city hit me and I breathed in the familiar scent of fried food. Homesickness overwhelmed me, a longing for normality and all the people who seemed so close, but still untouchable. Leo glanced down at me, concern in his eyes. “Are you okay?”

I squeezed his hand. “Yes. It’s just the first time I’ve been to the city center since—”

“Lord Commander!” A large man in a suit strode up and held out his hand. Leo held my gaze, forehead creased, then let me go. He shook hands with the interloper. Fiftyish and bald, the man sweated despite the chilly day. Outside the palace, the air held a wintry edge.

“I’m Hogan, Master of Ceremonies this evening. If you’d be so good as to come with me, I’ll show you where to stand for the cameras.” Leo followed him to the front of the stage.

I took in my surroundings for the first time. We stood on a raised stage in the main thoroughfare of the city, set back from the road to allow the parade to pass by. The street shone, scrubbed for the event. I found my bearings—we were in the poshest part of town. Every shopfront promised jewelry, designer clothes, or overpriced pocket watches. Not an area I usually frequented.

Festive lights lined the street, everything festooned with the classic red and gold colors. At either side of the stage, huge buckets were positioned in the act of tipping over, real fruit and vegetables pinned as if they poured out into great piles on the floor. Impressively decadent. Would the food go to waste, or be used somehow? I’d ask once it was all over.

“You’ll stand here.” Hogan directed Leo to a spot at the center of the stage. The emcee glanced behind them. “If you’d be so good, sirs, as to come over.”

I followed his gaze. Two red-robed priests, their rubies the size of duck eggs, drifted over. High excellencies. Two other suited men followed, both of whom I recognized. Edward Barton, the Prime of Finance, and Vice Commander Ellory Griffin. Leo exchanged polite greetings with them all.

Hogan positioned the men with one eye on the camera, arrayed in a line to greet the parade-goers as they came past. Leo beckoned me over. The men watched as I approached, the two Assembly members with curiosity and the priests with obvious distaste. I held my breath. Would they demand I leave? Was Leo hoping for a direct confrontation to prove his power outmatched theirs?

Leo put his arm around me and glared at the priests, as if daring them to object. I winced. They whispered together and one shook his head. I caught, “He brings her everywhere.” I exhaled in relief as they fell silent.

Hogan stepped forward. “Now, sirs and ma’am, the crowd will pass by the stage and leave their offerings of food. Runners will take it to storage at the back. We’ll have guards stationed along the stage to ensure your safety. If we get word or see signs of danger, I’ll make this sign,”—he waved his hand above his head in a flicking gesture—“and that’s your cue to teleport to safety. We’ll bring selected guests up to the stage to shake hands. Does anyone have questions?”

No one did. Everyone seemed calm, though on the outside I’d have looked calm too. Maybe all six of us were faking it.

Hogan chattered into a mouthpiece. “Okay, the first paraders will be here in a couple of minutes. This goes for around three hours. If you need a break, just take yourselves to the back of the stage, there are facilities there. Refreshments will be brought out. Zantus be praised.”

“Zantus be praised,” we all repeated in a schoolyard drone. The traditional greeting of Harvest.

Leo leaned down and brushed a thumb over my cheek. “Ready? I suspect you’re going to get more attention than the rest of us combined.”

I doubted it. Leo drew stares wherever he went, but I was a curiosity. A one-time only deal. Leo would stand on this stage for many years to come, but I’d be long gone this time next year. The thought lanced my heart, and I pushed it down.

“I’m ready.” I managed a weak smile.

The first people approached, a solemn mob. I shrank back when they gathered around the stage. They placed their offerings at the base and gawped upwards. I scanned the faces. Many appraised me with smug distaste.

Fuck them.

The guards moved them on to be replaced by the next batch of onlookers. Some passed through to the stage, where they shook Leo and the other Assemblymen’s hands and received a blessing from a priest.

The afternoon dragged on. Young volunteers brought water and bite-sized snacks, but after two hours, my head ached. I tried to catch Leo’s eye to call for a break, but he was always engaged with members of the public. He smiled and looked as fresh as he had two hours earlier. The perfect politician.

I turned back to the crowd and frowned. A woman approached, head bowed, straight for me. Inches of grown-out gray roots marred her black hair. Something about her struck me as familiar. She looked up and met my eyes. Recognition burned through me like acid.

No.

Catrina Lisson, a non-mage who taught alongside me at the Academy. Kind and helpful, she’d always been prim and self-conscious about her looks. Perfect makeup, fashionable clothes. She wouldn’t be seen dead with grays.

Guilt, thick and toxic, coiled through me. I’d cost Catrina her job. Leo told me in the courtroom and I tried not to think about it, the same way I tried not to think about Hex. I tried never to think of that day at all, to rid myself of the memory of Leo’s cruel smile and cold eyes as he forced me to kneel.

Catrina reached the foot of the stage. I stood frozen, trapped by her gaze. She had three kids. They’d have been kicked out of the Academy when she got sacked. How were they surviving now?

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