Nocturna (A Forgery of Magic #1)(64)

She gave a sharp, angry sound, like a laugh turned inside out, as she stuffed more clothes in her bag, her back to him. “Then you’re even more foolish than you look.”

“When I said please in the palace, you held Luka in your lap so I could heal him. You helped me.” Finn froze, and something in the rigid way she stood called to him for comfort, but it wasn’t his place to touch her. He didn’t know what she wanted, and she’d already been made to bear so many things she didn’t want. He would not add another. “You told me you wanted more time to say ‘Not today,’ to stop letting terrible things happen without trying to stop them. I believed you then and I believe you now, even if you don’t. So I’m asking you one last time to come with me, but the decision is yours. Tell me no again and I will leave and never come back.”

Silence stretched between them. Alfie’s heart beat in his chest like a bird in a cage.

“No.” She did not turn to look at him. She only said the word.

The word sailed through him like a stone through a windowpane. He wanted to beg her to reconsider, but he’d promised he wouldn’t and in this world where all he knew had gone up in smoke, the strength of his word would anchor him to what once was. He would not break it, even if it meant doing this alone. Dying alone.

But he deserved this, didn’t he? When he’d met this girl, he’d thought himself above her. He’d thought her propio meant she was someone selfish and reckless. But he was wrong. She was a girl who cloaked herself in the lives of others to save her own. It was he who had been the reckless one, he who had put this world in danger. Shame poured through him, thick and slow. Alfie walked to her door and pulled it open.

“Espérate,” she said, her voice frayed at the edges.

He turned and she was looking at him with wide eyes that spoke of fear and something more, as if she’d recognized something in him that she could trust. Alfie was struck with the memory of being a frightened little boy and Dez coaxing him to jump into the pool, promising to catch him. He’d looked at Dez just like this when he’d caught him in his arms.

“Fine.” She scrubbed a hand across her eyes. “I’ll help you. Under one condition. I get the vanishing cloak for good, and a chest of gold at least my weight.” She glared up at him, her chin raised high as if daring him to argue. But today, he wouldn’t dream of it. His parents would kill him, but at least the kingdom would be saved.

“Deal,” he said. Then he turned toward her wall and tossed the doorknob at it. “We’ve already wasted enough time. We’ve got to get back to the palace.”

She stared at the doorknob. “So this is how you get around? How you got here?”

Alfie nodded. All his life he could carry only himself through his doors of magic, but with the dragon in his hand he was certain it would take both of them. This horrid magic had already done the impossible; why doubt it now?

“Oye!” A gruff voice sounded from the hall. “What the hell did you do to my door?”

“That’d be the landlady!” Finn grabbed a fistful of sheathed daggers from beneath her bed and shoved them into her bag. “Hurry up! Open your wall tunnel thing!”

Alfie turned toward the door. “I could fix it—”

Finn pulled him back by the shoulder. “No need, let’s go.”

“You’re behind on rent and then you break the maldito door too!” the landlady shouted.

Alfie shot Finn a look.

Finn shrugged. “If I help you stop this magic, then the whole city owes me. Let’s go!”

His hand shaking in fear of what was to come from using this magic again, Alfie twisted the doorknob. The tunnel of magic opened just as the gray-haired woman threw the door open behind them. Shouting a stream of obscenities, the elderly woman stormed in with a sandal in hand. It was a testament to the strictness of his mother that even though Alfie had faced a dark magic earlier today, the mere sight of a sandal about to be thrown still struck fear in his heart.

“Shit, go!” Finn cursed.

Alfie held the dragon tight in his hand and asked it to carry Finn with him safely. Pain reverberated through him violently, like the taut string of a guitar plucked until the string snapped free. He stepped into the magic, Finn gripping him like an anchor of flesh and bone.

Over his shoulder, Alfie watched the landlady throw her sandal as the wall began to close behind them.





21


The Hourglass


When Luka woke late in the afternoon after his night of drinking, he felt strangely bright-eyed. Strong, even.

He stretched his arms over his head before folding the plush blankets over and wriggling out of bed. Luka snorted when he saw that he was still wearing what he’d worn to the dinner party the night before.

“Typical,” he said. Drunk Luka was never a fan of changing into sleeping clothes. He was a mess, but at least he was a consistent mess. Luka remembered nothing of last night beyond the dinner party, but maybe that was for the best.

He marveled at how full of energy he felt, like a child who’d gorged himself on sweets. “This is the greatest wine hangover I’ve ever had,” he declared, his voice still rough with sleep.

Then Luka remembered what had driven him to the wine in the first place.

Alfie. Stupid Alfie and his lies. His dangerous games for illegal goods. His dabbling in Englassen magic.