Page 108 of Drawn in Blood
Ember gritted her teeth as she nodded. “That’ll be fine, Mum.”
“Perfect,” Aoife cooed, taking another sip from her mug. “In the meantime, I’ve invited Rowan over to go over some etiquette with you before the ball.”
“Etiquette?” Ember wrinkled her nose, making Aoife laugh.
“Yes,” she nodded, “there are certain things you need to learn, certain customs that you aren’t familiar with, and Rowanwill be the perfect young Vala to teach you. You are a princess now, and it’s high time you learned how to act like one.”
Ember groaned. The very last thing she wanted to think about was proper etiquette. She suddenly felt very self-conscious in her jeans and jumper, fidgeting with her sleeve as she bit her lip. “That sounds lovely, Mum.” Ember forced another smile. Fake it, she had to fake it.
“Very good.” Aoife smiled. “Now run and find your brother, and the two of you wash up, Gaelen should have breakfast ready any moment.”
Ember gave a nod and laid down her mug. Aoife kissed her on the cheek, and it took all of her willpower not to physically recoil. The door to the study clicked closed behind her, and Ember let out a long sigh, wiping her cheek with the back of her hand. Faking it was exhausting, on a cellular level. It felt like she was using all her magic to douse the fire inside of her, keeping it to a dull roar. She walked through the hall, her footsteps echoing off the arching ceilings, and made herself think about Maeve, her tiny face, her bruised neck, the way her lip trembled as she stood to protect the other children. She thought about Theo and the fact that the only family he had ever known never truly had the capacity to love him—not fully, not the way he deserved.
She steadied herself against the weight bearing down on her chest. She would figure out how to fake it. She had no other choice.
She had to do this for them.
“Your first lesson,”Rowan announced, as she waltzed into the library where Ember was buried in a pile of books, “is to stop slouching.” She snapped the book closed under Ember’s nose, and then shot a spell at her that made her sit completely straight.
“Cut it out!” Ember snapped, yanking the book back toward her. “Just pretend you taught me something so I can keep reading.”
“Are those books telling you how to break the kids out of the dungeon?” Rowan asked, as she pulled out a chair and sat at the table. “Or perhaps how to manipulate your way out of a lifetime sentence with the Jarl if you don’t succeed?”
Ember gritted her teeth. “Do you have something useful to say?” She rolled her eyes as she flipped open her father’s journal—for the hundredth time. “Or did you just come to annoy me?”
“Oh, I’m so glad you asked.” Rowan smiled, flipping her hair over her shoulder.
Ember almost laughed. She was suddenly transported to the library at Heksheim, the two girls giggling behind a pile of books while they studied. What she wouldn’t give to go back to last year before everything got complicated, before she knew what betrayal tasted like. She shook her head—wishful thinking never did her any good.
“The ball is in two weeks,” Rowan continued, “and everyone will be too busy dancing and drinking and celebrating to notice a couple of teenagers wandering about the castle.”
Ember tapped the pages of the journal. “Okay…” She nodded. “Say we sneak down to the dungeons undetected and free the children… what then?” She leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms over her chest. “We can’t just walk them out the front door, and we still haven’t found a way out of the wards. We’re trapped until we do.”
Rowan chewed on her lip. “They would have built a way out,” she said, as she traced the grains of wood on the table. “Whenthe First Families built the castle, they would’ve had a secondary escape route—a means to protect the royal family. We’re just not looking in the right place.”
Ember’s brow furrowed as she focused on the page in front of her, on a name she recognized. “I might have an idea.” She grinned.
Ember had passedFrigg’s Spindle dozens of times in the last month, but the walk suddenly felt more harrowing—dangerous. She didn’t know where this sudden burst of heroism came from, but they were running out of ideas—and time—and it was one last shot to find information.
The town was bustling with people preparing for the ball, shopping and chatting and encouraging flowers to spring out of the thawing soil. The sun warmed her skin, kissing the freckles on the bridge of her nose, and she breathed in the honeysuckle and thyme. The bridge that straddled the churning river felt unsteady beneath her boots as she hurried across, but Rowan acted like it was any other March afternoon.
“Now,” she said, as she plucked a wildflower from the grass and stuck it in her hair, “remind me what we’re doing again?”
Ember rolled her eyes as she pulled her father’s journal from her bag. “My dad made this list,” she said, as she flipped the book open, dodging the children that ran across the cobblestone, “and there’s this little symbol right here, almost like a crow. I keep seeing it on a bunch of shops that are on the list, so maybe one of them knows something.”
“About…” Rowan furrowed her brow in question.
“The mapnext tothe list,” Ember replied, a little annoyed that she was having to vocalize this for the fourth time. “Someone drew it—either my dad or someone he knew—and I am willing to bet someone on this list knows more about it.”
“It’s just a map, Em,” Rowan replied. “He probably drew it while he was wasting time in the library or drinking his tea in the garden. What kind of information do you expect these people to have?”
“I don’t know.” Ember shrugged, stuffing the book back in her bag. “Maybe there’s a secret underground network of magical mapmakers. Or assassins.”
“They’re just common folk.” Rowan shook her head as she kicked a pebble at her foot. “There’s nothing inherently special about anyone in this city, other than the fact that they haven’t left.”
Ember stiffened. “I was pretty common once upon a time too.”
The girls stepped into the shop and were immediately greeted with the sight of jewels and silk, fabrics Ember had never even seen before, let alone touched. Several mirrors lined the walls with raised platforms for the wearer to view themselves at all angles. Ember rubbed the fabric of her jacket between her thumb and pointer fingers, suddenly very self-conscious in her own skin.
