It’s everyone else I’m suspicious of.”
Topacia hugged me back, then left the cottage. I stood on the threshold and watched while she disappeared into the woods.
Wind whistled around the cottage, and thunder rumbled through the air again. Those purple-gray clouds had picked up speed, and sheets of rain spattered down in the distance, sweeping this way. Worry filled me, but Topacia should be able to get back to the city before the storm hit.
I shut and locked the door, then flipped a switch on the wall, making the fluorestone lamps flare to life. Even though it was only midafternoon, the approaching storm had cast the cottage in a murky gray gloom.
Another, louder rumble of thunder roared, and the first wave of rain tap-tap-tapped against the roof. I peered out a window, watching the wind tangle the tree branches. Part of me longed to make some hot chocolate, curl up in a chair, and watch the storm. Maybe I would do that, after I hauled Leonidas off the floor and onto the bed. I moved away from the window and went to check on my wounded enemy—
I jerked to a stop beside the blue settee that divided the kitchen from the living room. The area in front of the fireplace was empty.
The prince had vanished.
* * *
I hurried over to the rug where Leonidas had been lying. My gaze darted around the living room, but he was nowhere in sight. Where had he gone?
A light, feathery, electric presence brushed up against my mind, and I whirled around. Leonidas erupted out of the shadows from behind a nearby door and shoved me up against the wall next to the fireplace hard enough to rattle my teeth. I started to push him away, but he whipped up his right hand, brandishing a sword. I froze. He had grabbed my sword off the table where I’d left it this morning.
“Who are you?” he demanded. “Where am I?”
His amethyst eyes were wild, confused, and glazed with pain, and he was sweating again, probably from the effort of hauling himself upright. He tottered back and forth on his feet, and his arm bobbed, dipped, and weaved from the strain of holding up the sword, even though the tearstone blade was much lighter than a normal weapon.
“I’m the person who saved your life.” I held my arms out to my sides, staying calm in the face of his confused, disheveled anger. “You’re in my cottage on the outskirts of Blauberg.”
His arm dipped, but he managed to brandish the sword at me again. “Who do you work for? Wexel?”
“I work for myself. Now, why don’t you put that sword down before I take it away from you?”
Leonidas laughed, although it was a low, weak rasp. “I might be wounded, but I can still cut your throat faster than you can wrest this sword away—”
I reached out with my magic, grabbed the invisible strings wrapped around the sword, and yanked the blade out of his hand. The weapon flew across the room and thunked into an ebony dressing screen in the corner.
Leonidas turned in that direction, tracking the sword. I surged forward and shoved him away. He staggered back and almost tripped over the low table in front of the settee before he managed to right himself.
I held my position by the fireplace, my hands clenched into fists, ready to toss him back with my magic if he attacked me again. Leonidas stood in front of me, his own hands clenched into fists. Sweat was now dripping down his face, neck, and chest, but his gaze was sharper and clearer than before.
“You’re a mind magier,” he accused.
“Just like you are. Now, are you going to make me hurt you, or are you going to sit down and be reasonable?”
I gestured at the settee. Leonidas eyed me with suspicion, but he shuffled around the table and plummeted down onto the cushions, as though the strength in his legs had suddenly deserted him.
He glanced around the cottage, staring out first one window, then another. “Where’s Lyra?”
“In a cave in the woods.”
Magic flared in his eyes, making them burn a bright purple, and that faint feathery presence tickled my mind again.
Lyra, I heard him whisper, although I didn’t hear what reply she made. Still, their communication soothed the prince, and some of the tension eased out of his shoulders.
His eyes dimmed, and the feel of his magic vanished. He slumped back against the cushions, and his head dropped, as though he was