Page 76 of Fortress of Ambrose
“Yagrin, I don’t think I’ve told you what I love about you.”
His brow creased. The music shifted, and they danced the next section several feet apart. The dance floor was a tapestry of ornate masks. It felt like every single one of them was looking right at her and could feel the thud of her heart pounding against her ribs.
“I’ve never met someone who despises the Order’s hypocrisy the way I do.”
They moved into the next part of the dance. He stepped backward; she stepped forward, following his steps.
“And—” Her voice cracked. “I love that you don’t look down on me because I don’t have magic. It feels like I am more beautiful to you without it. It feels like we could run away from all this together and pretend the Order, magic, none of it ever existed.”
“How do you—”
“Let me finish. I love that you are not easily fooled. You don’t wear intellect as a shield like so many in my House do. I grew up in a world of plastic people enslaved by their need to be better than the next person. I could care less.” She squeezed his hands. “Andyouget that! No one elseI’ve ever met gets that.” Her heart sank. “When I am with you, there is no Order. Or awful mother. Or terrible brother. Or looming dead.”
He tucked his lip.
“I don’t desire magic. I decided a long time ago, I don’t need it. But if there was a magic that could make you understand how sorry I am for what I’ve done to you—” Her eyes stung.
“Nore?”
“I love you, Yagrin. I have only ever loved you. And I will always love you.” She swallowed. “Even if you can’t forgive me. Only with you have I ever feltfree.”
His hands stiffened in hers. He stopped dancing. “Forgive you for what, exactly?”
When she opened her mouth to speak, shadows shifted in the distance. The skies darkened as the dead descended upon them.
Her heart banged violently in her chest.
Yagrin turned, following her gaze. “They’re here. Impossible.”
“My brother. Somehow he’s done this. They want my heart, Yagrin.”
“Yourheart?”
She grabbed him by the sleeve. “Have you ever consideredwhyAmbrose can stretch magic in ways others can’t? Our Anatomers can changeothers’faces when the rest of you can only change your own. Our Retentors don’t justremovemagic; they canrepairit. Our expansive intellect has asource.” The crowd continued dancing, a few glancing up with the expectation of rain. “We have a Pact with our dead. They get the Headmistress’s heart, allowing them to cling to a shell of a life. And our members get to channeltheirpower to push magic beyond its limits.”
His gaze widened. He let go of her hand. She hadn’t even told him the worst yet.
“But you don’t have magic—” His mouth fell open. “Your ancestors would be furious if your heart is given—”
“They’d devour me alive.” She fought tears. “My mother needs to live. They have her heart. It needs to beat forever.”
Yagrin put distance between them.
“Who knows this?”
“My brother wants to be heir. And we don’t have any female cousins anywhere near the immediate bloodline. A dozen times removed, all males. Because of that, succession would pass to him if I’m out of the way when our mother dies.”
Yagrin didn’t move. Frozen with shock.
“But he promises to bring me back to life with the Scroll after he’s secured Headship.”
“Bullshit.”
“He might actually mean it, but I’m not taking any chances. I told you before, people get one time to show me who they are. If he would kill me, his own sister, I can’t be sure he’d bring me back. Or what my condition would even be after.”
“He’s not going to kill you. He’s not even going to touch you.”
“If they are here, he has to be.” An audience of masks watched them. How many of them knew her brother was out for her blood, like Shar had? Did Litze summon Ellery? Getting the ancestors to cross the threshold is probably what delayed him here. Yagrin pulled her closer. Her stomach knotted. The next admission she made would rip him away from her forever. But she’d been this truthful, she owed him the rest.
