Page 90 of The Storm of the Empire

She studied me, wide eyed and I smirked. “I thought we’d end up hungry.”

“You are a genius,” she said, accepting the offered food and taking a big bite.

“I can’t imagine growing up not knowing about magic,” she said incredulously after she’d finished chewing.

“And I can’t imagine growing up with it. It’s just what you know.” It almost made me wonder what I’d missed, being raised so far outside of any kingdom’s culture.

“Do you never wonder if you have any?” she hedged.

“Me? Nah!”

Hazel smiled and shook her head. “Most fae do, you know. Whether they know what to do with it is another matter, but you’ll never know unless you take that pendant off.”

I touched the pendant and thought on it for long moments. It warmed to my touch slightly, something it had been doing ever since it had burned her. “I can’t see it for myself.”

I could tell from her face that she didn’t get it.

“Have you ever felt like your life is completely out of your control and nothing you do ever helps you get on top of it?

Her chewing slowed, and she stared. “Sometimes.”

“I’ve never really had choices, only decisions between one bad situation and the next. The pendant was never even a thing until Zaria took hers off. And while I get that, to you, I should just take it off and see what happens, to me, it’s a choice not to rock my boat any more than it rocks all by itself every day.”

She nodded in understanding, taking another bite and not pushing the subject.

But I wanted her to understand so I went on. “And while I don’t have too many fond memories from how I grew up, it’s the one thing I have left of where I came from.”

She placed her hand on my knee and smiled. “I understand.”

I covered her hand with mine, and for a while, we just stared at each other until she gave a shy chuckle and looked away.

We ate the rest of our food in companionable silence while the storm raged outside. Then I packed the remains in my bag and held open my arm for her to settle against me. “Get some rest. We will be here a while, and you’re exhausted.”

She nodded and curled up under my arm, her head resting on my lap.

I threaded her hair through my fingers and stroked soothingly until her breathing evened out and she went slack with sleep.

I didn’t sleep while the storm blew through. I just watched her sleep by the light of her magic and wondered if she was right. Would I have magic if I took the leap to find out? Then I shook off the thought.

My life was complicated enough.

We left the cave once the storm had passed. Hazel was rested enough to fly us up to the temple, but we landed a distance away so as not to be seen. We approached the same way as we had before and took up a place in the trees to watch and plan.

“We’re both going in this time,” she insisted.

I didn’t argue with her. We were past that.

We watched priests come and go from the temple into the gardens, and nothing seemed different from any other place of worship in the kingdoms. Until I noticed a face I knew.

“Goddess, save us,” I whispered.

TWENTY-NINE

HAZEL

“Who is that?” I asked, glancing from Luka to the fae who had his attention. He wasn’t one of the priests, but he had an air of belonging, and he walked with two priests towards the temple stairs.

“His name is Kalon, and he’s in charge of the supply of Dragon’s Bane within the kingdoms. He is who we answered to when I was working in the supply chain.”

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