Inkmistress (Of Fire and Stars 0.5)(20)

“Let’s go,” the boy said, grabbing one of the guardsmen’s cloaks and slinging it over his arm as he walked away from the table. He ambled toward the door as though he hadn’t a worry in the world. I snatched my satchel and hurried after him, casting nervous glances behind me. The guards had already moved on to tunelessly slurring a song about their own greatness, much to the distress of the minstrel who was supposed to be the afternoon’s entertainment.

“How did you do that?” I asked. I’d never encountered magic like his before.

“I’m very persuasive,” he said with a smile. “What did you put in their drinks? I hope it wasn’t poison. Believe it or not based on the company I keep, I’m not fond of killing people.”

“Of course it’s not poison. Let’s just say they’re going to get sleepy and then they’re going to become very forgetful,” I said. His warm eyes with their long, curling lashes made me want to trust him, but the guardsmen had, and that wasn’t going to work out very well for them. I needed to stay wary.

“How forgetful?” he asked with barely contained glee.

“They won’t remember anything.” The purple fire-flower powder was potent stuff. They’d be lucky to recall their own names when they first woke up.

“Delightful!” He chortled and offered me the guardsman’s cloak. “Here, I took this for you so you can dump the bloody one.”

I accepted it, grateful for the gesture of kindness. “So why did you make them take off their boots?”

“I just thought it would be funny,” he said, breaking into another grin.

An unexpected laugh burst out of me. After what had happened in Amalska, I thought I might never laugh again.

“Besides, it’ll make it harder for them to come after us,” he said, though it was clearly an afterthought.

We stepped out of the alehouse into the crisp afternoon air. The overcast sky was already beginning to fade—there couldn’t be more than a few hours until sunset. Part of me wanted to latch onto him, to stay close to anyone who could make me forget my woes even for a second. But good feelings always begged to be chased. With Ina, love was the feeling I’d raced after with my whole heart, and love was what had led me into darkness. That love was the reason I’d tried to help her, and the cause of everything that had come after. Now I had to confess and atone to stop her from murdering the king. I had a job to do, and even if I hadn’t, spending time laughing with a handsome boy was the last reprieve I deserved.

“Well, it was nice meeting you. Good luck with whatever trouble brought you down that alley.” He turned to walk away with a casual wave.

“Thank you,” I said. The longing to follow him rose up again, and I shoved it aside. His kindness had been pure luck—not something I could count on. I needed to get away before more city guardsmen turned up. Moreover, I needed to resume my search for Ina. A deep breath brought the Sight so I could look for her as I had before, but I had barely opened myself to it when light blinded me.

Even halfway down the street, almost gone from my line of sight, the boy burned with magic—just as brightly as I did.





CHAPTER 10


“WAIT!” I SLUNG MY SATCHEL OVER MY SHOULDER AND chased after him.

At the sound of my voice, the boy turned back, pausing for me to catch up. I ran to the end of the block. Standing in front of him, I barely knew how to put my question into words, much less ask it of a stranger.

“What are you?” I finally whispered. I’d never expected to meet another demigod. I couldn’t help it—I reached out and touched his hand. A spark of invisible energy leaped between us, familiar and strange. We both jerked back in surprise.

“You’re like me,” he said, his eyes lighting up.

“My name is Asra,” I said. I wanted to know him. I needed to.

“Phaldon,” the boy said, “but I go by Hal.”

He cast a furtive look around us, then offered his hand to me again. I stared at his tapered fingers, wanting to touch him, but a little bit afraid. I had never met another demigod before. I certainly hadn’t thought it would be under these circumstances. I took his hand to shake it in a proper greeting, cautiously at first. When nothing happened, it almost disappointed me. Now that I knew it was there, I could feel his magic, but it didn’t leap between us as it had the first time.

“Listen, I don’t want to stay in one place long enough for the city guards to find us, especially if they figure out we’re more than mortal. Walk with me?”

“All right,” I said. I fell into step beside him. I had so many questions I barely knew where to start. “How did you get those guards to do what you wanted?”

“It’s one of my gifts as a demigod,” he said. “I’m . . . persuasive. To the point of compulsion if I make eye contact while I use the gift. But if I compel people for too long or to do something particularly irrational, it gives me a headache. The blinding sort. Takes hours, sometimes a day or more, to recover.”

So that was why his voice was so sweet and his tongue so silver—and his gift had a cost, too. I was fascinated, and a little alarmed. Would his gift work on me? Did I need to fear that he’d try it? “Do you have any other abilities?”

“I can hear things far away.” He inclined his head for a moment. “Right now the guardsmen three streets over are having a conversation about whose turn it is to take patrol in the Quova quarter. Nasty neighborhood.”