Trial of Magic (The Fairy Tale Enchantress #4) - K. M. Shea Page 0,73

her off for them.”

Gabrielle bit into the bread and hummed in appreciation. When Puss gave her uninterrupted eye contact with his gleaming bronze eyes, she ripped a tiny chunk off and held it out for him.

Puss hopped off his stool. “We’ll have to watch for the little girl. She was impressively silent.” He sat at the feet of Gabrielle’s chair and jumped onto her belly—eliciting a choked noise from her—before he started eating her offering while purring.

Elle slathered another piece of bread with cheese and raspberry jam. “That’s true.” She held the piece of bread out to Quinn.

Quinn took it from her—though she held her bow with her free hand. “Excluding the time she was sent to gather forms, the little girl only went back and forth between the workshop downstairs and the storefront,” Quinn said. “I suspect she is used to relay messages.”

“How do you know she only went downstairs?” Gabrielle asked.

“I heard her footsteps,” Quinn said. “She went to the same room every time she was dismissed. And when she opened the door, the noises coming from it echoed—which implies a staircase.”

Elle whistled. “Impressive—she moved like a ghost to my ears.”

Quinn shrugged. “She was quiet for a human, but she’s got nothing on forest animals.”

“This is why it’s so enjoyable to work in teams.” Elle chortled as she spread some more cheese and jam on another piece of bread. “We throw all our talents together, and it makes us that much harder to defeat!”

“It also gives us a lot more weaknesses,” Gabrielle said. “I almost ruined the whole thing when he asked us who recommended him.”

“You were fine. I certainly didn’t notice anything.” Holding her bread-cheese-and-jam offering, Elle stood up and sauntered over to the corner Angelique had chosen to occupy with all of her confused thoughts.

“She froze up like a rabbit facing a fox,” Puss declared. “I felt her shoulders tighten.”

“That was because you were so heavy, I was having a hard time keeping my shoulders up,” Gabrielle said.

Puss, having finished his chunk of bread, climbed onto Gabrielle’s chest, making her wheeze. “Again, you dare to anger me!”

Elle held out the bread to Angelique. “It ended up being fine—Angelique covered for us all.”

Puss let Gabrielle push him down into her lap, though he twitched his tail so it tickled her nose. “Yes, she did. Who is Acri, anyway?”

Angelique took the bread and stared at it. Her thoughts were too frantic to let her do much more than stare at the snack. Acri is real. I couldn’t have made that name up in a mere dream and a Chosen mage just happens to share it. Which means my dreams were real. What else did Evariste say?

She strained her memory trying to remember anything helpful.

He’d said Liliane is the Chosen’s leader, and Acri—her son—was the mage who attacked me in Zancara. He had no idea where they were hidden since he was in a cave system, but he thought it was somewhere cold because he’d only ever seen people dressed in winter clothes. But what else?

The memory of Evariste leaning closer, so close that their lips nearly brushed, filled Angelique’s mind.

Chapter 12

No. She slightly shook her head as she stared at her rapidly cooling bread and cheese. No, I can’t waste time thinking about that—I talked to Evariste, and I practically ignored everything he said! Focus—what else can I remember?

“You asked Severin to search for a Liliane and an Acri before—did you come across their names somewhere?” Elle asked, interrupting Angelique’s thoughts.

She hesitated for a moment—how could she explain what Evariste had told her in a dream when even she didn’t understand the mechanics?

“I heard those names while running across the continent,” Angelique slowly said. “I think Acri is the name of the Chosen mage who attacked me in Farset and Zancara. But I had no way of knowing if that really was his name—much less if a Liliane even existed among the Chosen—so it was a gamble to use it.”

Gabrielle shrugged. “It worked out in our favor.”

“It did, but that was lucky.” Angelique stared at her bread again. “I didn’t honestly think it would work, but I spoke before I thought.”

“Then we can be extra thankful that it worked.” Quinn finished her piece of bread and licked her fingers. “Especially because he seemed much more impressed with us afterwards.”

“We should use that to our advantage,” Elle said. “But we should take care to mention Acri as little as possible.”

“Why?” Gabrielle asked.

“If he’s really the black mage who attacked