Trial of Magic (The Fairy Tale Enchantress #4) - K. M. Shea Page 0,59

concern.” Elle flopped down into a chair pulled up to Severin’s desk with a carelessness that still managed to look graceful. “You’ve been in so many dangerous situations on your own. It would make us all feel a lot better knowing you have a fast way of contacting us rather than relying on sending physical messages that take longer to reach us.”

“She’s right.” Gemma briefly looked up from the sash she was hemming. “It’s a necessary precaution, even though Prince Severin has personally stated he will refuse to ask you to enter said dangerous situations on your own ever again.”

By the knowing light in her gray eyes, Angelique knew Gemma had chosen her words carefully.

Back when Severin and Elle had hosted the Summit—where most of the countries on the continent agreed to work together to fight the Chosen—the other mages had been less than useful and had volunteered Angelique to investigate a sorcerer that was terrorizing the country of Kozlovka.

Angelique ended up fighting a wyvern by herself as a result of that horrible decision.

She’d been angry and more than a little bitter about it and had somewhat yelled at Severin when—after defeating the wyvern—he’d asked her to head off to Sole on his behalf.

Apparently, he’d taken her complaints to heart.

Angelique mashed her lips together as she carefully cradled the slight weight of the mirror in her hands and felt like crying.

They care. They’re listening.

“Thank you,” Angelique said, her voice small.

Elle reached across the desk and squeezed her hand. “Of course.”

Angelique cleared her throat and coughed. “I’ll use it to tell you what we learn after infiltrating the Chosen location.”

“Yes, that would be splendid!” Elle said. “Speaking of which, I shall continue with the report we received. While many goods pass through the Chosen den, it appears that most of what they work on involves imbedding charms into jewelry.”

“Jewelry would be easy to hide and smuggle,” Angelique said.

“But it’s expensive,” Stil said. “Gems and precious metals would cost them quite a bit.”

“Which likely means they have a secured stream of income,” Angelique said.

Elle nodded.

“Or,” Gemma—having returned to her hemming—didn’t even look up. “The Chosen have a number of wealthy and assumedly powerful or well-connected members.”

Angelique planted her hands on the desk. “I hope not. If they have an income stream, it means we can dissolve it. But wealthy members…” She shook her head in dismay.

Quinn rubbed her chin as she circled the desk so she could get a better look at the map. “If I may enquire, what can you tell us about the surrounding geography of this Chosen location?”

“Ah, yes.” Elle unrolled a sketch of a building. “It’s surrounded by woods—the best way to provide visual cover, I imagine—and is near a city that is a major trading post…”

“I think the journey from Chanceux Chateau to the Verglas border is nearly a week moving by horseback—on a normal horse.” Angelique glanced to Fluffy—who was still chewing on the scarf he’d swiped from a stableboy at their exit approximately an hour prior.

Apparently he eats textiles for his meals. Given that he belongs to Emerys, I can’t bring myself to be surprised.

Pegasus didn’t seem to care about Fluffy’s eating habits. He pranced every few steps and snorted at the woods.

Why is he showing off so?

She shook her head—for all his power, sometimes Pegasus acted more like a temperamental child than an ancient being.

“I’m not sure how long the journey will take for us, given our mounts.” Angelique was careful not to single out the cloth-consuming mount in fear that her dress would be next on the list of his meals. “And I expect we’ll run into some foul weather. I can reroute some of it, but I’m no weather mage.”

“I also expect the closer we get to the location, the less you should use your magic,” Quinn said, “given what you explained to me about others being able to sense magic.”

“Yes.” Angelique flexed her fingers in the warm, yarn mittens Stil had charmed for her and Quinn. “Normally it wouldn’t matter quite so much. Each mage’s magic has a personal touch or sensation to it, but there’re enough mages in the world that unless you’ve been exposed to a mage’s powers more than once, it would be difficult to pinpoint whose magic it is you’re sensing. But…”

“But because you’re the only mage—enchantress or otherwise—who has been running around the continent and blasting Chosen work to smithereens, it’s very likely the Chosen have a rough idea of how your magic feels and have