“Right,” I stammered, straightening my back and smoothing my robes. “Well, I best head off to the lake.”
Before I could spin on my heel, Talon’s hand whipped out and gripped my neck. I gasped, my eyes widening as they met his.
“No,” he warned. “They are still watching. If you go now, you will lead them straight to the water.”
My eyes narrowed, my hands coming up to rest on his wrists. It was not to push him away, because his grip was not tight enough to hurt, but to know I had the option if I needed to.
“Then how will I get my answer?”
Talon’s eyes darted behind me, scanning the terrain. “At night.”
I scoffed. “Do the plants sleep?”
“Yes.”
I squinted, scanning his face for any sign of a joke, but he remained agonizingly serious.
“Okay,” I agreed. “I will head back to the Archives and wait.”
Talon’s face and his grip simultaneously tightened for one final heartbeat before he released me. He stepped away, and I felt the sudden, cold draft of his absence as I leaned back against the bark.
“Stay safe, Solea.”
I peered at him through my lashes, a small smile tugging at my lips. “How can I not? You are always watching me.”
Talon smirked, his form already beginning to bleed into the surrounding shadows. “Always.”
10
CHAPTER TEN
“How went the trials, child?”
I stopped a few paces from Sora’s desk, my throat tightening.
She was not aware I had hightailed it out of that cavern before the Priestess could even process my absence, and I was counting my lucky stars that the report had not yet reached her.
I could not tell her I had left, or why. As far as I was concerned, the woman sitting before me could no longer be trusted.
If the High Court was using the very forest to track me, how could the woman who managed their history be unaware?
“The crystal was silent,” I lied.
Her eyes softened for a heartbeat, then she masked it behind a quick nod. “The Lunthra works in ways we cannot always perceive. Do not strain yourself unnecessarily before dawn.”
I swallowed, aware that she could not know what I really meant. That pull, that thing inside me that was far too alive and far too dangerous—I could not let her see it. I needed information, and I needed it without alerting the High Court to my true trajectory.
“Keeper,” I started, my voice steady despite the roar of my pulse. “Are there any books I may read regarding the origins of the Veythar?”
Sora paused, her quill hovering. She studied me from beneath her frames for a long moment before nodding. “A wise pursuit. To know one’s shadow is to understand the light. Come.”
She rose, her heavy robes whispering against the stone as she led me toward a secluded alcove in the western wing. She pulled a leather-bound volume from a high shelf, the silver leaf on the spine tarnished with age.
Flipping the thick tome open to the middle, she looked at me. “What would you like to know?”
I had hoped she would hand the book over and leave me to it, but she remained anchored to the spot.
“Could a Veythar plant an illusion in one’s mind?” I asked, settling for a vague enough question. “Could he make you see something that is not real?”