Page 141 of Fortress of Ambrose
He meets my eyes, but his deaden on impact. “Nore Ambrose is Red.”
I blink. “Red?” I lean toward him to make sure I heard him correctly. “Yourgirl, Red, the Unmarked?”
“Nore may as well be Unmarked. She has no natural magic either. No one knows that, of course.”
His words are a train wreck in my head. Red, my brother’s love, who the brotherhood killed, is alive. And she is actuallythe heirto House of Ambrose? She hasno magicand has somehow hid that her entire life. I sit back in my seat, unable to shut my mouth. He explains how her brother gave her the persona. How she used it to have a life away from the Order.
Red is alive.
My brother’s love. Hisonlylove is alive.
“I’m happy for you,” I manage, his words still sinking in. My brother deserves true happiness and a life that’s his own. The sag in his shoulders and shift in his posture confuse me. His heart still thuds. My stomach twists. Something isn’t right.
Red being alive means…“You’re still looking for the Scroll pieces, aren’t you? You haven’t run off to Dlaminaugh like a couple of newlyweds?” Ichuckle. Yagrin doesn’t respond, and I sip my drink. Cold stretches in my chest, riling itself up.
“Ambrose has an agreement with their dead. That’s why their magic is so advanced.”
“What kind of agreement?” My grip on my glass tightens, and it feels like I’m standing on the edge of a cliff I’m about to be pushed from.
“Ambrose Headmistresses turn over their hearts to their dead ancestors. In exchange, the House gets to channel the magic of all their dead. Breach means death.”
“But Nore doesn’t have magic. So—” The world rips in two. Nore becoming Headmistress should be a death sentence. I shove myself up from the bar. “You have the Scroll! You used it to save her!”
People stare in our direction. But the ice seizing in my veins whispers,Choke him.
“No!” He shoots up as well. “Though, would that have been such a bad idea? To do something for myself for once!”
The glass cracks in my fist. Shadows bleed from me in every direction. Table bussers come by to clean up the mess, and I pull my brother into the corridor to the bathrooms. “Everythingis riding on this. And you’re worried about yourself?”
“Isn’t that what you’re worried about? The girl you love. I don’t deserve the same?” His finger stabs me in the chest, and I stare at a brother I’ve never seen.
“You’ve planned it this way the whole time, haven’t you? You’ve never been honest. You’ve been plotting with Nore behind my back!” How could I ever have trusted someone so selfish?
“You’re wrong. The Scroll is a bust. It was found centuries ago. We’ve been chasing a fraud. Duncan told me tonight. But if Icould have foundthat last piece of the Scroll,” he spits, “I would have used it without thinking twice!” He tries to push me off him, but I tighten my hold on his shirt.
Cold claws at my bones. “The Scroll is a fake?”
He pulls pieces of parchment from his pocket. “These are pieces of Caera Ambrose’s historic scheme to look like the cleverest Marked to ever live.”
I shove him back into the wall.“If you’re lying to protect your little redhead, I’ll gut the life from her myself.” Shame burns in my chest. I did not mean that.
All the tenderness in my brother’s stare dies. The hard, bitter Yagrin I’ve known the last few years glares at me. Only he doesn’t change into one of his personas. He doesn’t hide his feelings.
A thousand apologies and regrets run through my mind, but only “Am I clear?” makes it to my lips.
Fifty-Six
Yagrin
Jordan’s eyes burned with a madness that stuck like a knife between Yagrin’s ribs. He’d seen his brother furious at their aunt, at their father, even heartbroken over Quell. But he’d never seen such rage in his brother. The numerous times Yagrin found himself lost, cast aside, broken, his brother had saved him. Shouldn’t he save Jordan in return?
As Jordan let him go, Yagrin wrestled with love for his brother and the dignity he deserved but had never demanded.
“Thanks for all the years, brother. I can never repay them. But I’m done being your errand boy.”
His brother fumed. Murder glinted in his eyes. Yagrin couldn’t breathe. If Jordan came at him, he’d give it all he had. Nore deserved that.Hedeserved it.
But something prompted his brother to turn and march out.
