Page 45 of Ash and Feather

She tucked them out of sight, clenching her fists tighter against the table. “I told you I was going to take the opportunity to find my sister if I was presented with it,” she said. “And the council needed someone to make a decisive move. It made sense.”

“What happened towe’ll discuss it later?”

“I’m saving us some time on that discussion,” she said, matter-of-factly, as she stood and stepped away from the table. “The easy part is decided: I’m going. Now we can focus our efforts on how to get me in, how I might be able to best help our cause, and how I will then manage to get back to you and this realm in one piece.”

She lifted her chin, daring me to argue. Bits of fire swirled in the air; I wasn’t sure which of us had summoned them. Maybe both of us.

“If I have to do this myself, then I will,” she said, turning and starting toward the palace.

I grabbed her arm and jerked her to a stop more roughly than I’d meant to—roughly enough that she let out a small gasp before yanking free and spinning furiously around to face me.

Valas started toward us as if to intervene, but Mairu stepped into his path. Zachar stood as he had for most of the morning—keeping his distance without saying a word, his eyes slightly aglow as they tracked our movements.

The three of them lingered at the edges of our conversation, but Karys didn’t seem to be paying them any mind; her gaze had not left mine.

“Go on, then,” she challenged, “yell at me if you’d like.” She gestured to the scraps of flame floating around us. “Set this whole courtyard on fire. Do whatever you need to get it out ofyour system. But you should know that it doesn’t matter what you do...I’ve made up my mind. Ihaveto go, Dravyn.”

“Karys—”

“Please. Understand.”

I wanted to take hold of her and shake her until all thoughts of dangerous missions in the mortal realm fell out of her head.

I wanted to wrap her in flames and whisk her away from this garden and all the fallout of the meeting that had taken place here.

In the end, I forced myself to back away from her. I paced restlessly for a moment before returning to the table, gripping my chair for balance.

“I know you would lock me in the towers of your palace indefinitely if you could get away with it.” I could feel her stare digging into me as she spoke.

I gripped the back of the chair harder. “That isn’t true.”

“You can’t protect me from everything.” Her voice softened a bit toward the end, as if she knew her words would drive deeply and she was trying not to draw blood.

I shook my head, not wanting to dwell on this weakness she’d struck.

Valas and Mairu crept closer, both looking anxious for a resolution. Zachar kept still, leaning against a vine-wrapped wall, but his attention was zeroed in on us, the weight of his stare uncomfortably heavy.

I sighed. I couldn’t think of any more arguments—none that would sway Karys, anyway

“We’ll go together this time,” I said to her, “as you said the other night.”

“That sounds like a disaster in the making,” Valas interjected.

“He’s right,” Mairu said. “My magic has limits. I don’t know if I can keep a spell around both of you for as long as we’d need to, especially if you’re going deep into that elvish territory. Wedon’t know what kind of anti-divine wards they’re using there. The simpler—and quicker—we can keep this first mission, the better.”

Worse and worse.

I was gripping the chair hard enough at this point that I’m surprised I didn’t crack it.

“Fine,” I growled. “But even if I don’t go all the way into that territory with her, I’m going as close as I can to the perimeter. It will be easier for her magic to transport herself to me, and to someplace in the same realm, than it would be for her to try and make it all the way back to the middle-heavens.”

“I’ll go as well,” Valas offered. “We can both stay close by. Run interference and extraction, if necessary.”

Karys considered this plan for a long moment, her gaze occasionally flickering toward me, as if waiting for me to change my mind and go back to arguing.

Iwantedto keep arguing—but how could I fight her on this?

She was right. Of course she was right. I could not keep her here knowing that the wars outside of these grounds belonged to her as much as any of us. I didn’t want to cage her; I only wanted to keep her safe.

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