Page 104 of A Deception of Courts

“I’ll miss this face.” Althea’s eyes trailed across every detail of my face. I sensed her drink me in with her gaze. “How long will it last?”

Her question was not for me, but for Eroan.

“It is reversible only by the one who crafts the glamour,” Eroan answered. “As long as Robin comes back a victor, and I’m still breathing, it will be reversed.”

“Then you better stay alive,” Duncan added, casting a hateful look at the bundle of flesh hidden beneath the sheet. “You’ve just become the second most important man in my life.”

Eroan couldn’t hide his blush.

I hadn’t allowed myself to dwell on the new addition to my original plan. It had always involved a glamour and infiltration. But the face I was to take had only become a recent addition to my ever-changing plot. In my mind, there was no other option. It was practically handed to me on a silver platter.

“Let us leave them to concentrate,” Gyah announced, urging Althea toward the exit of the room with a firm hand. “It’s frowned upon to interrupt the artist who works on their finest piece.”

Eroan waited for the great doors to clang shut behind them before addressing me again. “I’m ready to begin when you are, Robin.”

“Let’s begin then,” I replied, focusing entirely on the covered body, not prepared for what I’d see when the sheet was finally taken off.

“Are you sure?” Eroan persisted. “I ask only a final time.”

“Not at all,” I replied honestly, forcing a wavering smile. “But this is my only option.”

“I’m here,” Duncan said. “And I’m not going anywhere.”

I wondered if he would feel the same way when this was done.

“I am going to stay, too,” Erix said, voice as sharp as steel. “Little bird, you are not alone.”

Altar. Hearing those words were all I needed.

“You are going to need to sit for this,” Eroan said, edging his songful voice with command. “It’s best you are as still as you can be, so please try your hardest for me.”

I did as he asked, taking a seat in a chair provided.

Eroan rubbed his hands together. Then, with disgust drawn over his narrow face, he tugged at the white sheet covering the body and pulled it away. The material rippled onto the floor like water. Everything was silent as I took in the body laid out before him.

Until now, this idea had been a grand one. But looking at Kayne’s lifeless body filled me with nothing but dreaded regret.

CHAPTER 29

My guttural howls of agony drowned out the encouragement Duncan provided me. I heard him beneath my breathy moans and tight-lipped gasps, but that didn’t mean I listened. The more Eroan worked on me, the louder I became, until all of Wychwood likely heard my screams.

The process felt as though my bones shattered and my skin was being continuously split apart. I dared not open my eyes for fear I’d find my flesh melting over Eroan’s hands as he brushed tender fingers over my face, like the paintbrush of an artist.

“Can you give him a moment?” Duncan snapped.

I squeezed his hand, barely registering the click of his fingers beneath my force. If it wasn’t for the precautionary band of iron clasped around my wrist, there would’ve been nothing stopping my power from rising to protect me.

“No.” I heard the fury embedded in Eroan’s reply. He was breathless, as though he climbed the face of a mountain. “If I stop, there is no saying how disjointed the glamour will be. Please, allow me to… focus. Or leave until it is over.”

“It’s fine,” I hissed through gritted teeth. “I’m fine.”

Of course it was a lie, but Duncan couldn’t refuse me.

Instead, Duncan leaned his forehead into my shoulder. I risked a peak and saw no blood, melted flesh or destruction. There was nothing to suggest I should’ve been in so much torture. Eroan’s fingers were feather-light, but where he touched, it was as though he left ruin in his wake.

Gritting my teeth, I leaned into the pain and focused on the body before me. Kayne’s head was turned slightly to face me. His wide eyes were all-seeing. His skin was an ashen grey. I expected him to blink or move. He didn’t. Every now and then, Eroan would turn back to look at Kayne, pausing his work and studying the lines of his face and the details that one would only see up close. Freckles, old scars, the tone of hair and the length of eyelashes. Those moments of painless peace were short-lived. Eroan reached for me again, fingers prepared to mould my face into one that no longer looked like mine I focused on keeping my heart beating.

If I wanted to succeed, this had to work. The glamour was about to make me look like Kayne, to steal his face and use it as my own. Our key into the heart of Aldrick’s base – close enough to kill him.

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