Page 13 of Fate's Sweetest Curse
We’d discussed the matter at length, deep into the night, only to come away with more questions than answers. Ultimately, neither Anya nor Idris had much to say about the implications of Mariana’s warning. Not because they were being secretive, but because they genuinely didn’t understand the forces of the Mirrors. No one did.
Still, I’d wondered: what if Noble could tell us what Mariana had not?
I’d tried asking him about it, once—but he’d coolly evaded me, offering nothing. And seeing as we’d agreed to avoid one another, my determination to confront him again—to force an answer from him—eventually waned. Mariana’s warning had been vague, and Anya and Idris had stressed that the less we pried into matters that concerned her, the better. After all, Mariana was a knight of a secret Order. I was not supposed to know about her charge—and technically, I didn’t—but I had an idea…
And that idea disturbed me.
But now…now that she was here in Fenrir’s Charm, heading straight toward me…something must be wrong. My heart dropped like a stone into my stomach, a sudden panic rippling through me, even as my curiosity stirred. As the trio of knights neared, my muscles tensed, bracing for the inevitable threat.
But they weren’t walking towardme, I realized.
They were walking toward—
“What’s the meaning of this?” Phina asked, folding her arms across her chest, her eyebrow arching ever higher—unperturbed.
A few nearby students shrunk away from the professor. I should’ve done the same, but I was rooted in place, hovering on the edge of their congregation, eyeing Mariana with a mix of surprise and dubiousness. When her gaze flicked in my direction, her eyes widened with recognition—then continued their shrewd perusal of the room.
“We have a problem,” the man with the shortswordssaid.
“Have you gotten lost on your way to the Ire?” Phina asked.
The man with the longbow huffed what might’ve been a laugh, but the others remained tense, watchful, unamused.
Phina’s lips quirked. “Care to elucidate? Or would you like me to start guessing?”
“Not here.” Mariana’s hand tightened around the pommel of the sword at her hip. The movement caught my attention, and I noticed a black smear across her wrist bone.
When my gaze shifted to her dark eyes again, they’d narrowed on me, and I glanced away—back to Phina, wondering what she would do.
The professor’s wry expression shifted into something sharper—then she assumed a look of bored inconvenience. “Fine, fine,” she said with a wave of her hand, then turned on a heel.
I watched as my professor followed the knights out of the warm glow of the pub’s sconces and into the moonlit night. Mere moments after the door snicked behind them, the chatter in Fenrir’s Charm—which had diminished considerably with the unwelcome newcomers—returned in full force.
“What was that about?” Uriel asked, suddenly by my side.
“No idea,” I said, even though my mind was racing at a pace that matched my galloping pulse.
“Huh. Well.” Uriel jerked her chin in the direction of the bar. “I am getting another drink—want one? Sani is cut off. She cannot hold her liquor for shit.”
“I think I’m going to retire,” I replied, glancing at the door again. “I’ll see you at the dorm in a bit?”
“Tired from all the mingling?” Uriel asked with a smirk. “If we do not return before midnight, assume Sani is emptying her stomach in the street, and I am holding her hair.”
“She’s notthatdrunk, is she? She seemed fine when I left the table.”
“Snuck up on her,” Uriel said, already walking backward toward the bar. “Apparently books did not teach her how to pace herself!”
I laughed, waved, waited for Uriel to disappear into the crowd—then I darted out the door after my professor.
5
Tincture
Hattie
Ashocking chill swept over my pub-warmed skin as I stepped out of Fenrir’s Charm and into the night. Across the way, a jaunty chorus of deep voices were spilling out of Fenrir’s Ire, the tune obscured by drunken enthusiasm. A few off-duty knights loitered on the cobblestones outside the pub, their hot breaths curling around their faces. Otherwise, the street was empty.
Except for the foursome turning briskly down an alley to my left.
