her was nothing more than a slight queasiness.
“You only experienced a little over an hour of Berhta’s tender care,” Evariste reminded her. “She’d likely insist you stay longer if you were to be sick again.”
“A valid point.” Angelique swiveled back to the guards. “Very well, I shall remain here. But don’t try to play hero—use caution. And here, take some of these.” Angelique pinned her bucket to her side with one arm and dug into her satchel with the other. She didn’t have to root around long before she found and pulled out a few pre-lit starfires. “If the mirror left some constructs behind, these will help.”
“Thank you…lady mage?” the note-taking captain tried.
Angelique raised an eyebrow at him and smiled. “Thank you for investigating these locations.”
“Of course. Princess Snow White told us to do whatever you ordered, mystical lady mage.”
A grim smile briefly surfaced on Angelique’s lips. “Still, thank you all the same.”
The guards bowed to her and glanced among themselves before adjusting their bows to be slightly lower, then turned on their heels and swept off to organize their men.
Angelique relaxed as she watched them go, the pressing need to chase after the mirror dissolving almost entirely.
I’d be shocked if they find anyone. Those mages clearly had a planned route. I’m sure the mirror will be out of Mullberg within days, and it’s likely already far from Juwel. But we should be thorough. There’s a chance they might have left something helpful behind, and I never got the chance to search these locations, we just observed the patrol schedule. But with this taken care of, I only have to worry about one thing: making sure the Chosen don’t come back for Evariste.
Between her nearly subsided nausea and the assurance that they weren’t letting the Chosen run off on their merry way entirely unhindered, Angelique was finally starting to feel better.
She shuffled around to face Evariste, whose eyes never stopped moving as he looked around the room, watching guards and soldiers come and go according to Snow White’s orders.
Angelique was pretty certain the princess was hunkered down in the study with some of the Seven Warriors, Queen Faina, and the lords that had helped infiltrate the castle.
Naturally, this means we will not be going to the study.
Angelique ran a hand through her unevenly cut hair as she studied Evariste with a more critical eye.
He looked fairly terrible, but not quite as bad as Angelique had expected given how long he’d been in the mirror.
He’d filled in a few of the missing pieces for Angelique when she’d been meekly waiting for Berhta to let her leave—namely that he’d been stored in a mirror in some kind of cave system for the longest portion of his captivity, and he had been moved to the Snow Queen’s mirror last summer after the Chosen had shipped him north—creating the trail Angelique and Quinn had picked up on.
But given that it was now spring, that meant Evariste had spent roughly two thirds of a year inside the twisted mirror—and Angelique couldn’t imagine that his previous captivity had been “easy.”
He had dark circles under his eyes; his skin was pale compared to his usual healthy tan, but what worried Angelique the most was how tenuous his smile seemed. He didn’t seem physically wounded, but he’d been cut off from his companions, magic, and all friendly contact for years.
I don’t know that Berhta’s “special care” could help him.
It was understandable—expected, even—that he’d still carry that kind of pain even after being freed. But Angelique also wasn’t entirely certain how she could help him—or even if she should prioritize it above the need to make certain he was not captured again.
I’m quite possibly the worst when it comes to the mechanics of relationships. It doesn’t bode well for Evariste that I’m the only one here.
Evariste finally peeled his gaze off a brightly painted wall mural—which had so many gems encrusted into the surface, it would have made the Loire palace and its tacky obsession with gold positively envious. His eyes settled on Angelique, and his smile solidified a tiny bit—but it was enough to squeeze Angelique’s heart.
“Is anything wrong?” Angelique asked.
Evariste arched an eyebrow at her. “I’m not the one that was sickly green a short time ago.”
Angelique awkwardly clasped her hands together. “Yes. Well. It seems we have a lot to talk about.”
Evariste sighed, his expression looking a little haggard. “I imagine so. Have I really been gone six years?”
“Yes,” Angelique said, the word heavy with feeling.
There