Page 48 of Death of the Glass Angel
“You’d be amazed.”
Janus slid off her bed and walked to her trunk, pulling out a cloak to wrap around her shoulders. Her legs wobbled. Pressing her hands against her neck, she closed her eyes, remembering the sharp edge of the dagger.
“Are you okay?” Talon asked quietly.
“No,” Janus answered.
Talon had been by her side for a few weeks, talking with her, listening to her ramble, and teaching her to dance. She felt safe with him. As her knees turned to jelly and she lost her balance, she fell forward and wrapped her arms tightly around him.
Catching her, Talon returned the embrace, running a soothing hand down her back. “It’ll be alright, Janus. I’m not much of a guardian, but I can at least watch your back.”
“I’ve never been good at paying attention,” Janus mumbled into his shirt. “You’ll have to watch every side of me.”
Talon chuckled. “I’ll be sure to pray to the gods for help, then.”
“I don’t believe in the gods,” Janus muttered somberly.
“Well, I. . . " Talon hesitated. “I believe in mine.”
If the gods were real, they were cruel, sitting by while allowing innocents to suffer unimaginable horrors. Janus had not prayed to them in years.
Not since they’d allowed Eros to die.
“My lady?” Raja tapped on the ajar door. “You have a guest.”
* * *
Felsin shuffled a deck of cards, wincing as he leaned back in his seat. His injury hadn’t encouraged him to adopt modesty—Janus could see the bandages around his waist where his shirt lay open.
Talon sat across from him, eyeing the prince disapprovingly, following the movement of the cards as though he expected an assassin to leap from between them.
The pleasant scent of herbs wafted over the couch as Raja returned with a warm mug. “This should help with bruises. Drink it, and the pain will dull.”
“Thanks,” Janus said.
Felsin leaned forward, wincing. “I said we needed to talk, in confidence. Ask your guards to leave.”
Kalid practically rammed into the back of Janus’ seat. “You cannot expect us to-”
“It’s alright,” Janus said. “He saved my life. Stay nearby, just out of earshot.”
She could see a defiant gleam forming in Kalid’s gentle eyes. He wanted to invoke her brother’s or father’s name to overrule her order. Raising his chin, he nodded, waving Raja off as he found a spot to guard in the parlor.
Satisfied, Felsin dropped his stack of cards on the low stone table between them. “I never got a chance to ask you this. In your men’s report, there was mention of a strange evoker interfering.”
Janus nodded.
“Tell me about the assassins. In full.”
Drumming her fingers on her mug, Janus glanced at Talon. Sighing, he told the story for her. “Four men, well armed and concealed. Two ambushed her from the roof, and two more blocked off her escape route. As for the evoker. . .” He glanced at Janus.
A little white cat shoved itself between Felsin’s boots and jumped on the table before leaping to curl up between Janus and Talon. Running a hand over Sors’s back, Janus closed her eyes, trying and failing again to recall the memory.
Of the mirage. Would Gemellus be proud or annoyed that Janus had aptly named it by accident?
“He was like a mirage.” Janus opened her eyes. “Not quite there. Blurry, like a wavering shadow. I could see hints of metal, of white cloth. This odd water appeared on the ground, and. . . and arrows meant for me slammed into the creature and shattered.”
“That’s what I thought.” Felsin folded his arms.
