Page 85 of A Fate Unwoven
And then, in a sharp burst, shelaughed.
“You did it,” she said, “you actuallydid it.”
Casimir looked offended. “Of course I did; I told you, I’m good at what I do.”
She could have kissed him then. The urge rushed through her, and Lena had to take half a step back from him to resist the impulse. “What do I need to do?” she asked instead, hoping Casimir didn’t notice the hitch in her voice.
“It isn’t the same ritual Dimas wants you to try after the rite, but itdoesmention casting this incantation in order to channel a large amount of power. I don’t know where we’ll find said power, but—”
“I do.”
The sealed chamber. The residual magic in the symbols. If she could channel it,harnessit, perhaps that, combined with using her magic on Casimir, would be enough to trigger the vision again. Lena took yet another step back from Casimir, needing distance for the truth she was about to share. “I didn’t tell you everything about the severing ritual. I … I’ve already discovered where it’s hidden—in a chamber beneath the palace.”
Casimir’s expression was unreadable, but she carried on.
“The vision I mentioned, it was a memory of theZværnaacolyte who hid the ritual by sealing the chamber door. I’ve been trying to summon that vision again so that I can learn how to open the chamber and retrieve the ritual inside. I didn’t tell you because I wasn’t sure I could trust you. But now …” She took a breath. “Now I’m sure that I can.”
The smuggler had had every opportunity to betray her. To walk away and never look back. And even though Lena knew he still needed her to honor her part of their deal, she was also starting to wonder if there was another reason. One that had something to do with the gentle way he’d touched her just minutes earlier.
Still, a moment passed between them in which Lena feared Casimir would turn his back on her. A moment where she felt the desperate urge to reach out and grab his hands.
But then the smuggler simply said, “Has anyone ever told you that you have trust issues?”
A strangled laugh escaped Lena’s throat, the relief of the familiar warmth filling Casimir’s expression making her feel oddly delirious.
“It’s been mentioned, yes,” she replied. “I’m working on it.”
The smile that took over Casimir’s face was one that made Lena feel warm all over.
“Anyway,” she said, her gaze drifting to the fireplace, “the entrance is down in the tunnels beneath the palace. I need to get into that chamber. Tonight. My powers are still a little … unpredictable. If anything goes wrong down there, if I … lose control, you have to make sure I don’t leave those tunnels.”
“You won’t lose control.” Casimir said the words with such conviction, suchfaith,that for a moment Lena let herself believe it.
She drew her cloak tightly around her shoulders. It was now or never.
Before her fear could return, Lena walked over to the hidden entrance, pressed her fingers against the sigil in the stone, and stepped into the dark.
THIRTY-SEVEN
DIMAS
“Are you certain about this?”
Ioseph’s voice echoed against the stone walls of the servant’s hallway, the uncertainty in his tone amplified in the narrow space. The light from the lantern he carried was barely bright enough to illuminate a few steps ahead of them at a time, and Dimas had to resist the urge to look up from where he was walking and study his friend’s expression. To reassure himself the uncertainty Ioseph was feeling was simply due to the less-than-favorable circumstances they’d found themselves in and not because he’d finally lost faith in Dimas’s capability to lead.
“I’m certain. This will work,” Dimas said, unsure if he was trying to convince Ioseph or himself.
Ithasto work.
If it didn’t, he was out of options. TheHæstawould corrupt his Fateweaver, and everything his ancestors had built would burn to the ground.
“And if it does work, what happens if the rebels find out?” Ioseph asked. “They’ll use it against you to tarnish your reputation. These methods were forbidden for areason.”
Dimas stopped then, turning to face Ioseph in the dim light, his heart slamming so hard against his rib cage he thought he might be sick.
“What would you have me do? Wait for theHæstato attack again? Wait for Lenora to lose control? I won’t let any more people die under my rule, ’Seph.”
Aldryn. Milos’s unit. The pilgrims and acolytes at the temple. All those deaths were because Dimas had failed in his duty as the new Emperor of Wyrecia. Because even after everything he’d done, he still hadn’t proven himself worthy in Næbya’s eyes.
