A Shadow Bright and Burning (Kingdom on Fire #1)(61)

“Thank you. I’m glad to know my father had such a good friend.”

“No, don’t think that.” His expression darkened. “If there’s one thing your father was unlucky in, it was his friends.” Before I could ask what he meant, he folded himself tight within his cloak and vanished.

—



THE FAMILIAR APPROACHED ME FROM ACROSS the room. She licked her dry lips with a thick black tongue and hummed deep in her throat. This was the rider I had met, the one with the eyes sewn shut with coarse black thread. “Little lady sorcerer,” she hissed. Her thin white-blond hair lay stringy against her face, down her back.

She was even more hideous than I remembered. I sank down onto the sofa, trying to keep my wits about me. This was a dream. We were seated in the mist-shrouded library. I looked across the room to my sleeping body collapsed over my desk. This would teach me to study when I was so tired.

Would these visitations happen every time I went to sleep?

I tried not to panic. If R’hlem could kill me in a dream, I felt certain he would have done so already. These last three nights, he’d followed me about the room wherever I went. He’d watched me struggle to wake up, an amused smile on his face. But he had never touched me. Perhaps he couldn’t.

And there he was. R’hlem appeared beside the rider, a pleased expression on his skinned face. “Do you like her?” he said to me. The girl knelt at his feet, as if she’d twine about his legs like a pet cat.

“No,” I replied.

R’hlem laughed at my sullen response. He chucked the Familiar under her chin. With a wave of his hand, she vanished.

“No fear this time. You did well.”



Did well? “What does that mean? How are you doing this? What do you want from me?” He didn’t respond, only came to offer me his hand. I rose without it and backed toward the fire. Wherever I went in the room, he moved after me at a leisurely gait. He seemed to take enormous pleasure in my confusion. I tried a different tack. “Are the Ancients attacking London because of the scent of magic?” There. That finally stopped him. “You’re attacking us because so many magic users live inside the ward, aren’t you?”

R’hlem sneered. “Ask your great men what sins they’ve committed.” Sins? Now he regarded me with real interest. “Who told you this?”

I wouldn’t give Hargrove away. “I want to wake up now.”

R’hlem strode toward me. Before I could dodge him, he grabbed me by the wrist. His touch was slippery and cold. Bloody. I screamed and struggled. His grip tightened. He was squeezing hard enough to break my—

—

“HOWEL?” MAGNUS SHOOK ME AWAKE. I swung about blindly, sending paper flying all across the desk. “Sorry. I didn’t realize you were so determined to sleep.”

“I must have nodded off,” I muttered, rubbing my eyes. Magnus grabbed my wrist.

“Did you cut yourself?” Looking down, I discovered fingerprints shining wet with blood. I pulled away and wiped off the marks with my handkerchief.

“I scratched myself when I was out in the garden. It must’ve bled more than I thought,” I said lamely. What would have happened had Magnus not woken me? Perhaps he would’ve discovered my mangled corpse at this desk. Trying to appear preoccupied, I grasped my pen and looked over a piece of paper. Magnus watched me with his back against the hearth. After a minute, I gave in. “Yes?”



“I was just wondering,” he said, arms crossed over his chest, “why you were outside the ward today.”

I dropped the pen. “I wasn’t.”

“You were, and you clobbered that raven with a blast of wind. I planned to join in the fray myself, but it was over before I could do anything. Why were you there?”

I stood and turned away from him. “I didn’t see you follow me.”

“You spoke to me.”

“I didn’t.” I looked back at him, confused. “When?”

He hunched himself and shouldered past. “?’Scuse me, miss,” he said in a gruff, familiar tone.

“You were the fellow who bumped into me? How did you know where I was going?”

“I saw you sneaking down to the kitchen for food, so I followed. Why did you go?”

“I wanted to bring something to that horrible magician Hargrove’s children. Please don’t tell Master Agrippa.” I realized I’d given Magnus power over me. Damn.

“How did you have such control over the wind? You couldn’t even lift a feather during lessons this morning.”

“Sometimes when you have to do something, you find you can.” Would he accept that and say no more?



Magnus nodded. “I suppose that makes sense. You did well, actually, battling that thing. Hideous beasts, aren’t they?”

“Yes. Were you aware that Familiars sometimes attack the unwarded area during the day?” I felt ill recalling the carnage I’d witnessed.

He looked uncomfortable. “No. The Order likes to keep secrets from us, don’t you think?” He spun a globe that sat atop the desk, skimming his fingers across the Pacific Ocean.

“We should do something about it.”

“We will. Once we’re commended, we can change things.” He leaned against the desk, the image of confidence.