Wicked As You Wish (A Hundred Names for Magic #1) - Rin Chupeco Page 0,114

be avoiding trouble,” Zoe reminded him. “I’m not going to forgo speed in favor of you seeking revenge. I want to get to Maidenkeep before we lose any more months outside Avalon.”

“Why does logic always have to get in the way of a perfectly good plan?” Ken grunted.

“And you!” Zoe directed her next question at Cole. “I’m going to ask you again. Why didn’t you tell us about the wolves?”

“I didn’t know they were going to be there,” Cole said calmly, like that explained everything.

Zoe’s eyes narrowed. “I recall Count Tintagel saying you’d been skulking about outside his castle. Did you know you were going to find them then?”

A muscle flexed in Cole’s jaw. “Yes.” Zoe looked triumphant. “I let them know we were traveling through their territory. Wolves can’t be forced to do anything they don’t want to.”

Zoe frowned, turning that over in her head, trying to find something wrong with his reasoning. “You should have told us, anyway,” she said stiffly.

“They’re gone. We’ve passed the boundaries of their territory some time ago.”

“Do ice wolves make it a habit of following y’all?” Nya asked. “I think I ought to be warned about that. We’ve never had them infiltrate the village before.”

“I’m sorry,” Tala blurted out. “It was me. I broke one of your grandmother’s spells.”

“You’re a Makiling, right? I’ve never seen any of Grammy’s magic dispelled before.” Nya caught the distraught look on her face and added hurriedly, “Please don’t be sad; there’s nothing to blame! Grammy wouldn’t have asked for you if she hadn’t been willing to accept all the possible outcomes. For all we know, this was supposed to happen.”

“Have you had other nightwalkers attacking beyond ice wolves?” Zoe asked her.

The girl shook her head. “Not at the village, as far as I know. The tower had been enough to keep them away. But I’m certain Avalon’s got shades and ogres and jabberwocks all up in its trousers.” She contemplated the firebird curled up inside Alex’s saddlebag, its little beak sticking out. “What is it, by the way?”

“It’s my firebird,” Alex said absently.

“Oh.” Nya blinked, and then almost shrunk away. “Oh. Oh no.”

“What’s wrong?” Loki asked.

“Grammy says it’s the firebird that’s going to lead me to my supposed corpse husband. She didn’t tell me y’all actually found it!”

“That’s probably exactly why she didn’t tell you,” Loki noted.

“Is it too late to return me to Ikpe? I need to have words with my grandmother.”

“No take backs,” Ken said merrily. Nya glared at him.

“How is it even the firebird? It doesn’t look anything at all like the pictures I’ve seen.”

The firebird growled.

“What exactly is up with this corpse-husband business?” Zoe wanted to know.

“I’m not too clear on the details, because Grammy doesn’t know either. All I know is, I’m not getting hitched to a dead guy, no matter what she foretells. It’s why I was in the tower. Grammy’s library collection is in there, with a list of every prediction she’s ever made. I was hoping to find more clues, but I was interrupted before I could…” Her voice trailed off, getting a little choked up. “Oh. She knew I was gonna be up in the tower. She was so solemn and formal when she was bidding me good night. I thought she was actually starting to get emotional about the wedding, even though she criticized Mama for it in the first place…”

Tala couldn’t tell her. What was she going to say? You just happened to be in my dreams a few nights ago sounded plain creepy—she didn’t even know what the dream meant, when it felt like a series of worst-case scenarios dredged up by her nervous subconsciousness.

“Are you looking at my eyes, Miss Makiling?”

Tala floundered. The girl was far too observant. “Well, I…”

Nya pointed to her right, golden eye. “The matrons were convinced it was proof I was meant for better things, waxing on and on about how lucky my future husband was, though I could see they were relieved their daughters weren’t the ones saddled with the undead spouse. They were sure it wasn’t a literal interpretation, but they couldn’t explain what kind of metaphor corpse was supposed to mean, though…”

She shrugged. “Mama’s been in denial ever since. The wedding was her way of rejecting it. Figured I can’t be married to the dead if I’m already married to someone else.”

“Can you do magic with your eye?” West asked.

“No, but tell that to the others.” Nya couldn’t quite hide her bitterness. “Not all the villagers think