Page 74 of A Palace of Smoke & Mirrors
“I’m sorry,” I gasped. I staggered backwards, my hands curling around the edges of a wooden flower planter decorating the curb outside a small cottage. Firelight smouldered through the window behind me, the only light left in the entire street. “Leave me here and go ahead.”
The sirens continued to blare in the distance—a chilling omen.
Panting, Lucais bent over and braced his hands on his knees. Then, he looked up at me with disgust etched into his features. “Why?” he demanded, his voice hoarse.
I raised my eyebrows at him. “Because I’m heavy, and I’m distracting you, and you’re…” My tongue came out to wet my lower lip, and then I bit down on it, hesitating. “You look exhausted.”
He rolled his eyes at me. “You’re not heavy, but you are annoying.”
My shoulders slumped forwards, and I sat back on the edge of the planter. “Finish lighting the city and come back for me,” I suggested.
“I’m done.” He blew out a long breath and straightened, swiping a hand through his wind-tousled hair. It was like starlight, illuminated in the glow of the firelight radiating behind me and the few faelight orbs that had returned from where they’d scattered into the fog. “Morgoya can cover the rest of the city. I need to get to the wards.”
Shock robbed me of the colour on my face. “You’re not—”
“I am.” Having caught his breath, he strode towards me. “And I’m not leaving you here.”
Despite the warmth in his conviction, I found myself gripping onto the flower planter a little harder as he approached. “You’re not going to offer me up to broker a peace treaty, are you?”
Lucais curled both hands around my hips with a raw, possessive force and tugged me against him hard enough to knock the breath from my lungs. The hard planes of his chest pressed into my breasts, his fingers digging into my skin, and my heart began beating without rhyme or reason.
Heat curled and expanded between my legs.
Gazing up at him, his sheer height forcing me to tilt my head all the way back, I found that he seemed to have regained at least a bit of his strength alongsideallof his usual attitude.
“It depends on how annoying you are between now and when we arrive,” he taunted.
And then we were spinning again.
The city fell out from under our feet like Lucais’s powers were taking us on a magic carpet ride, and I felt a distinct shift in him. It was a deliberate, carefully held composure, as if he was trying to prove that I didn’t exhaust him physically—and neither did the Malum or the thing in the lapsus.
Mental exhaustion was another story entirely, and I promised myself that I would be more mindful of it in the future. I would remember that he had so many things coming at him from all sides, and I…
Will I stop being one of them? Could I?
The voice in my head was silent.
The next time we evanesced, it took longer, and when we finally stopped, it was on the top of a hill in a completely new part of the city.
I could tell that we were on the opposite side of Caeludor to the Court of Water by the way the mountains stood over the valley of fog. When we had entered the city, there had been a very harmless entryway paved for us over a sloping hillside—as opposed to the adamant barricade of the Metal Mountains that loomed from every other angle.
Like the one towering above us as we found our footing and Lucais let go of my waist.
Squeezing my eyes closed, I quickly brought up a memory of the Map of Faerie in my mind. Based on what I could recall, the Court of Earth was closest to us. There were passes beneath the land that allowed the caenim to get through, and Gregor was the High Lord of the Court of Earth…
…and suspected of high treason.
The contents of my stomach turned ice-cold.
I guess this proves it.
There was a narrow pathway that looked to have been created almost by accident leading down from the top of the hill. It was lined by the wear and tear of footsteps and the wheels of carts or carriages, following the slope as it rose up and then disappeared into a low-lying cloud of fog that had settled at the base of the Metal Mountains.
Dark, smoky shadows congregated in the mist, obscuring my vision of whatever lay ahead of us, but Lucais was staring directly at it. He had paled. His face was bone-white, like he was seeing a ghost.
I glanced down to find that his hands were trembling at his sides.
Wait here,Lucais said into my mind. His voice, at least, was steady.
