“How far off?”
“He threatened to kill me. He held me prisoner. He forced me to lure you into my shop.”
“Did he?” Kaylin smiled. “He also used magic to control you, from the looks of it.”
“That, too.”
Kaylin turned to the man in question. Her skin wasn’t crawling or screaming in protest, which she would have expected had he been using magic. But her marks were glowing. “Severn.”
The man drew a weapon. It was longer than Severn’s two blades, double-edged but also faintly curved. Kaylin definitively disliked the look of that blade. “You are very clever,” he told Kaylin—but not Severn, who happened to be armed and closer. “But you are meddling in matters you do not understand. Stay on the ground with the rest of the worms; leave the skies to their kin. I will leave now. I will not cause you any trouble—but I suggest, strongly, that you don’t attempt to detain me.”
“Or?”
“Or you will die.”
Kaylin’s grin widened. Eyes on the man, she said to Margot, “I’m not sure I think threatening you is a jail-worthy crime. It’s got to happen every day. But threatening officers of the law? That’s bad.” The marks on her arms had passed from a deep gold to the color of aged silver; she could see them through the dark fabric of her shirt. “Hey,” she said to the familiar.
He obligingly lifted a wing, and this time didn’t smack her face with it before he let it settle across her eyes. She looked through the wing and sucked in air in a way that drew all eyes in the room except Severn’s, who was facing the armed man.
She cursed. Loudly. “Don’t touch him!” She could see lines of Shadow, like very fine mesh, drawn across every exposed inch of the man’s skin. It was probably crawling over the unexposed skin, as well. She glanced at Margot, and saw that Margot wasn’t free of that oddly spidery effect, either, although it was much, much sparser.
With the familiar’s wing as guide, Kaylin lifted a hand. It hovered over Margot’s face, and froze an inch from her skin. She didn’t want to touch either Margot or this Shadow.
The small dragon squawked.
“Once for yes, twice for no,” Kaylin told him.
He sighed.
“Is the Shadow dangerous?”
Squawk squawk.
“I can touch it safely?”
“What are you talking about?” Margot demanded.
Squawk.
“I think I can see how he controlled your movements,” Kaylin told Margot. “I’d like to break that spell, unless you want to be returned to his control in the near future.”
With obvious derision, Margot said, “You can break it?”
“I think so.”
“I’d rather not be subject to your magical uncertainty. No offense meant.”
“None taken. You can visit an extremely expensive mage of your own choosing. I’m not sure he’ll be able to help you, but frankly, I can’t force you to allow anything, and I don’t actually give a rat’s ass if you get devoured by Shadow.”
“Not likely,” Severn said. “It’s more likely that she’ll walk into a busy street and stand still while she gets hit by a wagon or carriage.”
Margot stiffened.
“They don’t want you to talk. I’m assuming they wanted something from Kaylin, and I can guess what.”
“Fine.Fine. But if you screw up, I’ll take my complaint all the way up the hierarchy.”
“You’re welcome,” Kaylin said sweetly. She felt herself relax.ThisMargot, she understood. Margot wanting to share information was so foreign it was unbelievable—and actually, it was unbelievable for a reason. Margot did things to protect Margot. Margot did things that were advantageous for Margot.