Today's Reading
The night slid by in a stream of conversation and glasses of champagne, short dances and stolen bites of food. As the sun set and the enchanted lights cast a lazy glow over the courtyard, a familiar pain settled at the base of Ari's skull. The headaches were a constant companion, and she was well used to forcing her way through them, but they still spoiled her evenings.
"Excuse me," she murmured to Damien, and broke from their circle for the open-aired corridor at the edge of the crowd. Spotting Reid by the refreshment table, she joined him, taking deep breaths of cool night air.
He gave her a quick once-over as she arrived. "Had enough yet?" She pressed a hand to her temple. "Do you have any of that tea?"
He withdrew a flask from his pocket, and she nearly rolled her eyes. "You know, that's not what these are for," she muttered as he handed it to her. The tea was lukewarm, but relief swept through her at the taste of chamomile on her tongue.
"One day," he began drily, "one of you is just going to say thank you." Her lips quirked. "Thank you."
Predictably, that only made him scowl harder. Her smile slipped as the full impact of his words settled: 'one of you'. Her and Damien, yes, but she could tell from the forced slouch of his shoulders and the way he wouldn't look her in the eye that it was Mikira on his mind.
Ari handed him back the flask, then squeezed his arm. "We'll find a way to fix this, Reid. I promise."
"What part of Damien being an expert at holding grudges slipped by you?" he asked bitterly. "He wouldn't know forgiveness if it bit him in the ass."
He was right. Damien had hardly listened to her protestations before excommunicating Mikira, and she was tired of pretending her friend's loss didn't affect her, of tucking it away like some shameful secret. The thought stoked her frustration, the humming in her mind rising.
'I can feel your fury, little lion', came a quiet whisper in her mind. 'Unleash it.'
Ari startled at the Heretic's voice, at how smoothly it slid into her thoughts. It felt fuller than before, more tangible, as though she could reach out a hand and—Ari squeezed her eyes shut, silencing the notion, but she couldn't block out the unease that eddied in her chest.
'Where have you been?' she demanded, certain the creature's absence was not without reason.
'I despise gatherings like this', the Heretic replied as if it hadn't heard her.
'Everyone here is a counterfeit and a liar.'
Ari gritted her teeth at its evasiveness. She'd all but given up on convincing the Heretic to share anything about itself. Its silence the last few days had made it easier for her to pretend everything was okay, but her frustration at its cryptic messages only redoubled now.
'And what are you?' she snapped.
The Heretic's answer settled into her mind like a drop of poison.
'Retribution.'
"Ari?" Reid asked uncertainly, but she barely heard him. A low humming reverberated in her ears, the feeling reminiscent of the one she detected along the link she shared with her golems. It suffused her senses, cocooned her, became her—
Something bumped her from behind. Ari whirled, knocking a tray of glasses to the ground and sending a startled server flying into a nearby pillar. Without realizing it, she'd accessed the emerald gemstone in her other ring, binding a strength enchantment. The information reached her like the buzz of a gnat, too inconsequential to truly register.
The server gaped at her, fear making him inert. Ari stared at him unblinkingly.
"Arielle?" Damien's hand on her arm drew her back to the present, to the look in his eye that told her he missed nothing. Except he still thought the Heretic bound to her Saba's spellbook, merely a voice in her head reaching down the bond that linked them.
He didn't know the truth.
So much had happened so quickly since the ball that she'd yet to find the right time to tell him, and with everything demanding his attention, she didn't want to burden him further.
"Arielle?" Damien's mask had cracked, concern spilling out. "What's wrong?"
"It's nothing." Ari tore free of him, the crowd's eyes following her down the corridor. Some distant part of her knew this anger was not truly hers, not all of it, but it suffused her like a heady perfume.
Damien followed, slowing at her side behind another pillar. "I know it isn't nothing."
...
