Page 219 of A Winding Wave of Magic
“Then I will?—”
“You will not touch her.” His growl meant death. Even without his touch, I knew that.
Celine was smart enough to step away. “What a pretty sense of humor the Fates have. The one person our assassin must kill to protect us is the one for whom he would die himself to protect.”
Jonathan didn’t argue—not with her, and not with the questions for confirmation I sent through our bond.
You’re an assassin? Who has to kill me? Wait, I have to die?
It’s true, he told me silently.You are my mate.
As if that explained everything.
“She’s right,” I said out loud.
They both turned to look at me, almost as if I were a curiosity rather than a part of the discussion.
“You’re right,” I told Celine. “I’m a liability. But…there’s another problem on the Council. The seer, Senni.”
“Will break you,” Celine said. “You’re right to be afraid. He’s very good at it. There are no secrets from him either, which is why your grandmother left in the first place.”
“No, it’s not that,” I said. “He was looking for something else. The Secret—Penny’s Secret. But not for the Council. For himself.” I looked at Jonathan. “For your father, I think.”
“Senni Perumal has and always will be a boil on the Council’s face,” Jonathan muttered.We’ve got to tell her.
I glanced at him.Are you sure? Penny said not to.
I know what Penny said. But we need her help. And she will want something in return.
“Will you stop that?” Celine demanded. “Once again, it’s incredibly rude.”
Jonathan offered a grim smile. “Apologies. But Cassandra and I were discussing the fact that you—and the Order—should know there’s been a development about it. About the Secret.”
He proceeded to tell her in hushed tones what we had found in Penny’s box. The writing on the parchment. He didn’t tell her about the translation that Rachel had offered, but he did say that they did in fact believe it was a clue to something in the neighborhood of Pandora’s Box. Or the remnant of Hope left in it.
“Penny left it to Cassandra for a reason,” Jonathan said. “To an oracle. To a mind bender. A vector for truth, not secrecy. Celine, we don’t know what she is supposed to do with it, but we won’t know if she’s dead, and we won’t know anything if the Council gets their hands on it. We must leave. Please. Help us. You are the administrator here. If there is a way out,help us.”
Celine stared hard at the two of us. Then she sighed and looked behind her once more. “There won’t be much time. But I can…yes, I can adjust the wave binding overhead. You’ll be able to?—”
“I can get us out,” Jonathan confirmed.Trust me.
I didn’t ask himhow, exactly, he planned to lift us more than two hundred feet up and out of an actual mountain. But he seemed sure enough, and I really had no other recourse than to do as he asked.
I trust you.
Warmth and gratitude filled his touch.
Celine turned to leave again. “Look for the blue light. When it’s visible, it’s weakened. That will be your only chance before they come.”
“Celine. Thank you.”
She opened the door but looked back once more at Jonathan. “I suspected you would have been a terrible husband. Now I know why.”
And then she was gone.
The doors closed,and I turned to my mate. Or my mate-in-progress. My almost mate?
Jonathan chuckled. “I think mate is fine for now. It’s inevitable.”
