Page 57 of Fate's Sweetest Curse
Oderin shot his sister a glare, then regarded Noble again, his gold breastplate glimmering with raindrops. “How’d you end up in metalwork?” he asked. “I’d’ve guessed a man like Kalden Asheren would’ve wanted his son to follow in his footsteps as a knight.”
In a few short moments, Oderin had managed to flirt with Nobleandfind his most tender nerve. He felt a little dizzy from the other man’s attention. “Wasn’t in my Fate,” Noble replied stiffly.
Noble glanced around. The rain was letting up, the air turning humid. Knights of various Orders meandered throughout the courtyard, managing the crowd and talking to sopping, shivering apprentices. The bells no longer rang, but there was a hum of agitation in the air. Of barely contained panic.
Oderin’s rather chaotic first impression had distracted Noble, but now he thought of Hattie again, his anxiety stirring anew. “What’s going on?” Noble asked.
Phina’s expression turned grave. “An assassin broke into Inver last night.”
21
History Repeats Itself
Hattie
Can you describe what they looked like?” the Lawful Knight asked me, his blue eyes darting between my face and the notebook he held.
“I didn’t see much,” I answered. “Long brunette hair, short stature.”
We were standing under the shelter of a tunnel-like archway that led from the courtyard to the southern wing of Inver College. I was still wearing the chemise I’d slept in, a knee-length scrap of fabric. Thankfully, Lawful Knights had handed out spare cloaks, otherwise, my thin dress would’ve gotten entirely soaked through. I was already cold enough with my bare legs and feet.
“Clothing?”
“Nothing distinct.” I glanced at the crowd congregating by Inver’s front gate. “Black shirt and trousers. Boots.”
“Weapons?”
“A sword sheathed at her hip,” I answered. “A dagger in her hand.”
“Blood on the blade?”
The rain was letting up, sun beams breaking through gaps in the clouds. I watched a pair of pigeons drop from their perch on an upstairs windowsill, wings clapping as they flew over the roof and out of sight.
How quickly things could change.
One minute, I had been writing a letter to Anya by candlelight—assuring her that I was being safe—and the next, a horrifying scream tore through the building.
Between Uriel, Sani, and myself, I’d been the first to make it to our door. To see the attacker fleeing down the corridor and the blood soaking into the hallway rug just a few doors down from ours.
Room 205.
Images flashed through my mind: Viren, slumped against the wall just inside her dorm, her face pale with shock. The crimson leaking between her fingers from where she clutched her side. My own voice, shrill in my ears, calling for help. A blur of other students arriving on the scene. The odd calm in Viren’s voice as she talked me through how to staunch the flow of blood. The way her words had trailed off when she’d passed out.
“Did you see blood on the dagger?” the Lawful Knight repeated.
I wrapped my arms around my middle. “I don’t know.”
“The person who ran away—you’re sure they were the attacker?”
Are you still worried about me being murdered?I’d teased Sani just last night.
I feel like I prophesied this into being, she’d whispered to me, tearfully, as we clung to each other in the courtyard early this morning.
You are too smart for your own good, Uriel had added, wrapping her arms around us both.
Bile rose in my throat, and I blinked back to the knight. “Why else would they run away?”
“To get help?” he supplied.
