of her anger.
Will looked at her over his arm. “You’re usually more logical about these things.”
Glaring at him, Selene moved suddenly, pushing his arm back and bringing her face down until it was inches from his own. He thought she was going to kiss him again, but when their mouths got close she nipped his upper lip—hard. “Don’t expect me to be rational about this. He tried to kill you. I’m not my father. I take things like that personally.” She finished with a real kiss.
The kiss went on for several moments, but eventually she pushed his hands away. “This interrogation isn’t over yet.”
“Damn it.”
Selene let her breath out in a great sigh. “It’s not so bad. I think I’ve already found out about your worst transgressions, and I don’t give two figs about Felix Lustral.”
“He’s not the only one,” admitted Will, before proceeding to tell her about the commander of Maldon’s peremptory execution.
She listened but showed no sign of discomfort. “If anyone else had done it, it might have been a problem, William, but not you. Father won’t hold it against you.” She waved her hand in a wide circle. “Besides, you’ve all but finished taking Darrow. From what I heard about the last battle, the Patriarch has practically nothing left. You even recruited some of his army.”
He said nothing for a moment.
“The king can’t argue with success,” she added, then she noticed the look on his face. “What? What else is there?”
Will debated with himself about what to reveal. In the end, he settled for explaining Grim Talek’s visit, but he avoided mentioning what the goddamn cat had told him. If it was true, then they had practically no chance, but he couldn’t bear to rob her of whatever small hope she could find. Even so, the news was extremely grim (pun intended), but Selene took it surprisingly well.
“So, you think Myrsta is full of demons,” she summarized.
He nodded. “And Madrok himself, and possibly a spell-engine meant to slowly destroy the world.”
Selene met his gaze evenly. “Sounds like fun.”
“You aren’t coming with me,” he pronounced firmly.
“The hell I’m not,” she replied calmly.
Will glared at her, and Selene glared right back. After thirty seconds, he had to admit she was better at it than he was, but he still had no intention of changing his mind. “You can’t use magic—”
“Didn’t you see what happened today?” she countered. “That wasn’t a fluke. It started a week ago. I wanted to surprise you. I’m drawing turyn in faster and faster with every day that passes.”
He couldn’t help but feel proud. His wife had become the second third-order wizard in modern history. Now that she was beginning to actively absorb turyn, she was bound to steadily improve. “Congratulations,” he said sincerely. “You’re a wizard.”
“Don’t look at me like that,” she protested.
“I mean it,” said Will. “You’ve accomplished something I thought might be impossible, but if there’s a spell-engine in Myrsta then the area is going to be flooded with void-turyn.”
Her jaw firmed. “I’ll use the demon-armor spell.”
“You have to sustain it,” he returned. “It’s a constant drain on your energy, and if you don’t, you’ll soon be drowning in demonic magic. It’ll kill you.”
“But not you?” she shot back.
Will shook his head. “I’m at a point now where I don’t even really need the demon-armor spell. I can absorb and convert it quickly enough that it will hardly even be an inconvenience for me.”
There were daggers coming from her eyes. “You always have an excuse, don’t you?”
Sitting up, he started to put his arms around her. “Not in Barrowden, remember? We walked into that insanity together.”
“You didn’t even know my name,” she protested, pushing his arms away. “You still thought I might be planning to betray you.”
“Did not,” he lied, trying again to catch her in an embrace.
Selene ducked and scooted farther back. “You’re not going to Myrsta alone. There’s no way you can do it by yourself. I absolutely know you’re planning to take help with you.” Her eyes narrowed. “And if you tell me Janice is going because you’ve found some special way for her to survive, you’re going to regret it.”
In point of fact, he had no such plan. He had no plan at all. He’d only learned the bad news the night before, after finding out his cousin had died. During the morning, he’d started to think things over, but nearly being assassinated had scattered his thoughts. There was really no way he could take anyone with him.