Page 69 of Research with Rivals
Evelyn glanced at me, and I feared my wolf might have growled along with the revelation. I cleared my throat, hoping no one else had heard the noise, and turned to Lord Arctos. “Are there any other items that persist from the creation of the fae?”
“No,” he said flatly.
“What about the artifacts for the other courts?” I asked, remembering the other items in the painting.
“Destroyed,” Arctos said, waving his hand in the air as if to tell me to move on.
“All of them?” Evelyn squeaked.
He nodded.
She glanced at Carter as if he could provide more rational information. Unfortunately, he nodded as well.
“While a good idea—and, from Ambrose’s paper, a proven method for breaking blood magic—I’m not sure anchors will work for this particular case,” Carter said.
Evelyn glanced at me. I thought I knew what she wanted to say. She’d been noodling on the idea of the rope between us since last night. But I also knew Evelyn. She would never say it until she’d at least proven it could work in a test. The problem was that she and I were the only ones who could be experimented on.
She opened and closed her mouth. The sun faded from the sky, and with it, her decision to say anything about the idea. Was she afraid I wouldn’t let her test it on me? I shouldn’t be surprised that she would assume I wouldn’t participate. My fear of what could happen presented as hatred toward her methods, but this connection felt like an extenuating circumstance. There was literally no way out without experimentation, and it would necessarily have to be on us, two living beings.
I would push myself on this. There was no alternative. I trusted Evelyn to test as carefully as possible. With my decision made, I wanted Evelyn to share her idea—I wanted her to know that we were in this together. We weren’t out of ideas yet.
“Evelyn has another theory she’s working on.”
She turned to me, her eyes widening again. “Ambrose.”
“Don’t give up yet. She’ll say it’s not ready. She still wants to do some testing, but it’s promising.”
Carter glanced between us. “My father was right, you two do work well together. I look forward to seeing what you come up with next. I have complete faith in the pair of you.”
Finally, I picked up the bread and cheese left on my plate and took a bite. It was simple, but exactly what I needed after the day I’d had. I swallowed with a smile on my face, even as I felt Evelyn glaring daggers at my cheek.
29
Evelyn
After the meal, Ambrose and I trudged up the stairs to our rooms. I clenched my teeth the entire walk.
“I can hear you fuming,” he said behind me.
We were almost to the door of my room. I could wait a few more steps.
“They needed to know you were working on another option.”
I opened the door, grabbed his hand, and pulled him into my room. “And what gave you the right to mention it?” I hissed as I pushed the door closed behind his broad frame.
Ambrose’s brow lifted. “We’re … colleagues. I couldn’t let you sell your own work short.”
Something twisted in my chest at the wordcolleagues, and it had nothing to do with the magic that connected us. Or maybe it had everything to do with it. It had everything to do with the fact that he still thought the magic made us feel things we hadn’t previously.
“I don’t know if I can test it appropriately.” I didn’t look at him. He was sharp; he knew what I meant. That was part of why I couldn’t believe he’d said something. Testing it would mean testing onhim.
“You can test it on us.”
I froze. He didn’t know what he was saying. “This wouldn’t be the same as trying to work through the magic. Testing this would require applying more magic to our connection. It would be akin to Lord Arctos and Carter’s test, which you called reckless. It’s something I would never ask you to do.”
He took a step forward, crowding my space so that I couldn’t see anything but him. “You’re not asking. I’m offering.”
I sucked in a breath. “We don’t know what it will do.”
