Devereaux huffed. “Your ego bruises far too easily, Dronov. Don’t let it bother you.”
Evren Dronov.
Evren grumbled mutinously. “Of course it fucking bothers me! It would torment you, too—don’t deny it, Dev. I just don’t understand why…”
I reigned in a gasp. They don’t know why I’m immune to Evren’s glamours. Perhaps I could use that to my advantage.
“We’ll see,” Devereaux acquiesced with a sigh. “It’ll be on your head if Wrayburn retaliates.”
It wasn’t hard to imagine a smirk gracing Evren’s cruel mouth.
Devereaux merely chuckled, and then moved toward the door and out of my line of sight. “Come on, it’s getting late,” he said. “The grad students left the bloody dome open again so I expect they’ll be back to close it before long.”
I gave silent thanks to the wonderfully careless astronomy grad students.
It was only after the observatory door clanged shut behind them that I realized I was trembling. I remained hidden beneath the panel for another five minutes before I remembered my assignment and summoned the courage to venture out. Squinting over the lens once more, I made a hasty note of the positions of Mars and its companion stars, closed the dome and bolted from the building. Once I was sure I was alone I allowed myself to breathe again.
Back inside the safety of our dormitory, I crept into bed, my stomach roiling with nausea even as my heart rate returned to normal. I ruminated over everything I’d overheard tonight.
Ethervale.That strange place my father’s book had described.It can’t be a coincidence, it must be real,I thought. And then—the secret ritual, the same one Neely had alluded to back in the Tusk. Apparently, it was a ritual that mortals didn’t often survive—but when I’d asked Casimir about it the other night, he’d avoided giving an explanation. He didn’t want me knowing August was in serious trouble. Why? What else didn’t he want me to know?
And last but certainly not least, Evren had asked to “have” me after all was said and done. I wondered how exactly he sought to possess me. Did he want me as a plaything? Or worse—as a slave? I had little desire to uncover whatever horrors he had in mind.
This is bad,I thought as I stared up at the ceiling. The wallpaper was peeling at one corner.This is very fucking bad.
The only piece of their conversation that gave me a glimmer of hope was Devereaux’s implication that Casimir might retaliate if Evren came after me. But would the threat of Casimir’s wrath be enough to deter him? I couldn’t know for sure. Even this consolation turned to ash in my mouth when I recalled Devereaux’s words.
The trick with him is to hit him where it hurts.
As fate would have it,Casimir and I didn’t cross paths the following morning or afternoon. I was grateful, as I needed time to decide how much of last night’s conversation to share with him. That evening, I barricaded myself in the Labyrinth and was nose-deep in a heavy text called,Lore vs. Legend: Daemons of the Northeastwhen my luck ran out.
“You’re wasting your time.”
I jolted at the interruption and turned to glare at my intruder.
Casimir was leaning against the stacks, a lazy smile playing on his lips. Dressed in all-black, he cut the figure of a dark Adonis in the shadowed library. “That book is about as insightful as the cracked town psychic,” he added, ignoring my obvious irritation.
“I happen to find Madame Odette very insightful,” I replied stiffly, closing my book. “What do you want?”
“I just wanted to make sure you hadn’t hatched any foolish notions regarding the Bloodthorn Order since I last saw you,” he said, his eyes trailing over the book in my hands. “But based on the nature of your research, I suppose my hopes were naive.”
“It’s none of your business what I read,” I retorted, fixing my gaze back on the page.
He gave a dramatic sigh. “Are you always this hostile?”
“Only with people who deserve hostility,” I replied, fixing him with a hard stare. “You’ve been holding out on me.”
He frowned. “How so?”
“Tell me about Ethervale.”
Casimir blinked in surprise. “Where did you hear that name?” he asked.
I relayed the conversation I’d overheard between Devereaux and Evren, careful to withhold any doubts I had as to Casimir’s loyalties, watching closely as his brows rose higher at each revelation. Wisely, I also omitted Evren’s unsavory request regarding myself, surmising that Casimir would not take it well.
“And they didn’t see you?” His expression was a mixture of horror and disbelief.
I shook my head. “So?” I prompted. “Are you going to answer my question?”