“Thought you weren’t going to sleep.”
Iris awoke with a start at Char’s teasing voice in her ear. She had cuddled up to him under the blanket while she slept, and she jerked away, her cheeks burning as she clambered out of bed to put distance between them. She swallowed and looked around the room for something to focus on, anything but him.
There weren’t many options.
“I guess you were comfortable.”
He chuckled. “Comfortable. That’s a new one.”
Her eyes landed on the window and the blizzard that was still raging outside it. She went to it and put her hand on the cold glass, wondering what was happening to her. Spending a night dancing at a party with a man she’d just met, sharing passionate kisses in front of perfect strangers, and then spending a night with him in bed?
She could blame the alcohol for the dancing and kissing. But sleeping with him…
And then she realized something was wrong. Something she should have noticed before now.
“Why is it snowing? It’s summer.”
“I’ve been wondering that myself.”
Char’s voice was right behind her, and her pulse skyrocketed again. He slid his hands around her waist and stepped closer, his chest coming flush with her back, and she was back on the dance floor, warm breath gusting across her ear and soft lips touching her neck.
A shiver that had nothing to do with the weather ran down her spine.
“Char—”
“Good morning, Iris.”
Her mouth went dry. He was good at this. Really good.
But he had a lot of practice, she reminded herself.
She swallowed, summoning her resolve. “Sh-shouldn’t you introduce me to your friend now?”
“In a minute.”
He turned her to face him, and her meager resistance evaporated. His green eyes were so persuasive. The fingers tilting her chin up were only asking her to do something she was already doing; the kiss on her lips was only adding fuel to butterflies already in motion in her stomach.
This was why he’d kissed her when he’d found her in that cave, she realized. He’d expected this reaction. This was the way girls usually responded to him.
But even knowing that, she couldn’t help giving him a shy smile. “Good morning, Char.”
“I don’t want to leave you, Iris.”
Her heart did a somersault, but she averted her eyes, unsure if she could take that at face value. “I bet you say that to all the girls you sleep with.”
He guided her chin up and her eyes back to his, and when she saw the earnestness in them, her heart did another somersault.
“None until now. And I haven’t actually slept with that many girls.”
“You’re just saying that.”
He shook his head. “No, I’m not. Rath is the playboy in our family, not me.”
“But all those girls at the party—”
“I like to dance. That’s all.” He kissed her again, a light, tender kiss, and somehow, she believed him. “Ready for breakfast?”
“Wait. Is my hair okay?” She pulled free from him and combed her fingers through her hair. “And my dress is wrinkled from sleeping in it…”
“I can help you change, if you’d like.”
Her eyes snapped up to his mischievous smirk, her cheeks burning again. “Never mind. Let’s just go.”
He took her hand, and she followed him without protest.
Outside the door, a small landing interrupted a tight spiral staircase. Flickering wall sconces exaggerated their shadows on the blackened stones as he led her down the stairs to another landing and a rough wooden door. He reached for the heavy iron latch, and her heart thumped with anxiety.
“Hey.” He paused and squeezed her hand, flashing her a smile. “You trust me, remember?”
She took a deep breath and nodded.
Then he pulled the door open and strode into the room. “Hey, Jonah.”
Her ears pricked at the familiar name. But it couldn’t be.
“Hey, Char. Who’s that behind you?”
But it was.
She pushed past Char to see a man in his early thirties sitting at the dining table, his platinum blonde hair and warm, pale blue eyes features she would always recognize. “Jonah?”
His eyes widened. “Iris?”
She ran toward him. He stood in time to catch her when she threw herself at him, lifting her off the floor and spinning her around once before setting her down again.
“Jonah! I can’t believe it’s you!”
“What happened to the little girl who used to follow me around like my shadow?”
“It’s been fourteen years, Jonah.” She threw her arms around him again, beaming from ear to ear. “Oh, I missed you so much.”
“I missed you, too, Iris.”
Char cleared his throat.
“Oh, sorry.” Iris and Jonah pulled apart, and she gave Char a sheepish smile. “Jonah was an orphan, too.”
Char’s green eyes flicked from Iris to Jonah and back again. “I got that much.”
“How did you end up with him?” Jonah asked Iris. “And that dress—unless Father John’s doing really well lately, he didn’t get you that.”
“What about you? You’re a mage! When did that happen?”
“How about we talk over breakfast?” Char suggested.
“Good idea.” Jonah snapped his fingers. “I’ll have the fairies bring more food for you two.”
“Fairies?” Iris asked.
“Yes, fairies. This tower is right in the center of an enchanted forest. You probably couldn’t see it because of the storm.”
“Storm or no storm, I have a tendency to pass out when flying,” she said, taking the chair he pulled out for her.
He returned to his seat at the head of the table on her left, giving Char a curious look as he took the seat on her right. “Huh. How many times have you flown with him?”
“My story’s a bit long. Why don’t you go first? When did you find out you were a mage?”
“Oh, I’ve always known. I just didn’t tell anybody except Father John. Why did you think I was always taking off on my own?”
“I thought it was because I was annoying you.”
He laughed. “Not at all. I was practicing my magic. Father John found out what I needed for tuition at the magic school in the capital, and when we’d saved up enough, that’s where I went. Your turn. How did you end up with Char?”
“The war started,” Char replied.
Jonah’s smile faded. “Heard about that. So it’s true Little Rest was sacked.”
Iris whipped her head around to look at Char, her brown eyes widening in alarm.
He took her hand under the table and gave it a squeeze. “Sorry, Iris. I hadn’t gotten around to telling you yet. I swear we didn’t sack it, though. The king’s mage must have done that after we left.” He squeezed her hand again, and then his green eyes shifted to Jonah. “I went in for a scouting mission ahead of the attack. Ran into Iris, found out the king’s mage was in town. Things got complicated.”
“I bet. What was he doing there?”
“Looking for Iris.”
She was still reeling from the news about her hometown, and hearing Char summarize the mage’s intentions in those three short words made her feel sick.
Jonah’s heavy sigh only added to her sense of foreboding. “This is about the amulet.”
She stared at him, stunned. “You… you know about that?”
He reached for her hand over the table. “I found you, Iris. When you were left at the church. I found you in that basket on the doorstep, and I brought you to Father John. When I saw that amulet, I knew it was magical, and I told him to lock it up.”
She looked down at her chest and bit her lip. She’d hidden the amulet under her dress, and she released Char’s hand with reluctance to pull it out and show it to Jonah. “This amulet?”
His blue eyes narrowed. “Yeah. That amulet.”
The door flew open, and she snapped her head around to watch with trepidation as several plates of food floated into the room on dozens of moving, pinpoint golden bits of light. They shifted to the edges of the plates as they set them down, and then they swirled together into a miniature tornado and swarmed the amulet.
She jerked her hand free from Jonah to shield herself, but the lights darted in and out, undaunted, coming to within half an inch of the amulet before zipping away again. “Um… Jonah?”
“Fairies,” he explained. “Okay, knock it off. You’re scaring her.”
The golden lights zipped up toward the ceiling and scattered like fireworks, then darted from all corners of the room for the door. It shut behind them with a resounding bang.
Iris lowered her hands, staring after them, mystified.
Jonah gave her an apologetic smile. “They mean well, but they can get a little out of line sometimes.”
“What did they want with my amulet?”
“Uh, well, that’s…” He sighed. “That’s the most powerful magical artifact in the world, and it draws all magic, including magic within other creatures, to it.”
Char frowned. “You seem to know quite a lot about it.”
“Any mage worth his salt knows about it. Legend has it the most powerful mage in history cut it from a single, massive crystal a thousand years ago. The amulet enhances its bearer’s power and stores their magic within it after their death, making the next bearer even more powerful. At this point, its power is almost unlimited.”
Iris felt a heaviness settle in her stomach. “And that’s why everybody wants it.”
“Not just it. You.” His pointed look made her that much more uncomfortable. “It chooses its next bearer, and the only way to take it from that person is by killing them. But then the amulet has to choose the killer in order for them to use it, so that’s a risky play. The last person to do that ended up with a useless necklace for years and years until a serving girl stole it.” He paused. “Your mother.”
Iris felt as though her world were spinning out of control—again. Down was up, up was down, and nothing made sense. “My… my mother?”
Char’s hand found hers under the table. He gave it a gentle squeeze as he spoke in a calm voice. “So the king’s mage lied when he said it belonged to him.”
Jonah shook his head. “In his mind, it does, because he killed to get it, only to discover somebody else had already stolen it.”
“H-how do you know all of this?”
The second before Jonah spoke again stretched into eternity.
He sighed and slumped back in his chair, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Because the person she stole it from was my master, and the king’s mage and I went to school together. We were both apprenticed to the same man. Our master always boasted about how he had the amulet, even though he knew full well it had been stolen, and that boasting got him killed.”
Jonah paused, searching for the right words, and Iris swallowed. She wasn't sure she wanted to hear whatever he said next.
His blue eyes locked on hers. “The king’s mage won’t stop until he finds you, Iris, but he won’t kill you and risk losing access to the amulet’s power. He’s been experimenting with ways of extracting magical power from outside sources for years—artifacts, magical creatures, other mages—and that’s why his power keeps growing. And… that’s what he’ll do to you if he finds you.”
Another deafening silence.
“Can you keep her safe here?” Char finally asked Jonah, his voice still steady and his hand still holding hers.
“Can he track her?” Jonah countered.
She dropped her eyes to the table and nodded. “He touched my wrist at the inn, and I healed a dragon he’d wounded.”
Jonah groaned. “Oh, Iris.”
She was pale and trembling, her hands clammy. Her voice came out as little more than a whisper. “There’s no hope, is there?”
“I wouldn’t say that. I’m nowhere near as powerful as the king’s mage, but I have the help of all the magical creatures that have taken refuge in this forest. We’re all hiding from him. Our combined barrier should hide you for a little while, too, long enough for me to start teaching you how to use your magic. That’s your best defense.”
She nodded again. “I’ve already learned a little. The amulet… tells me what to do.”
“The voices of the past bearers. Good. I’ll need you to tell me exactly what you’ve learned so far, and everything you’ve done, but you’d better eat first. This will be a long day.”
“I’m… not really hungry.”
“Nonsense. Wouldn’t want to upset the fairies.”
Jonah snapped his fingers, and the door burst open again, letting in a golden swarm that rushed toward the cold food and spun around it so fast, it vanished in a golden blur. When the fairies stopped, steam rose from the plates again.
They hovered in midair for a moment before darting toward Iris, dancing around her the way they had with the amulet, zipping as close to her face and hair as they could without touching her.
“What are they doing?” she asked, too nervous to move.
The golden lights reflected in Jonah’s smiling blue eyes. “They like you.”
“Oh!” One landed on her hair, and another followed, and another, flecks of gold coming to rest on chestnut brown. She felt more landing on top of her head, and she couldn’t help smiling. “They’re like little snowflakes. Except they’re warm.”
“Speaking of snow, what do you know about this weather?” Char asked Jonah.
“Definitely something magical going on. Not the king’s mage, though.”
The golden lights arose from Iris as one and landed on the table around her plate, fluttering across the porcelain edge and skating along the silver utensils.
She laughed. “Okay, I’ll eat.”
They arose again and flew out the door.
She watched them go, still smiling, and picked up her fork. “Are they always like that?”
“No.” A soft smile played across Jonah’s lips. “You have some powerful little friends now, Iris."8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxWppt4DZFE
