Wicked As You Wish (A Hundred Names for Magic #1) - Rin Chupeco Page 0,125
the Cheshire thinks I’m a mess!”
“Forget what I said,” Cole said roughly, the tremors in his voice betraying an unusual amount of emotion. “Forget everything I ever said about you.”
Zoe looked up at him. Cole immediately took his hands away, his face now shuttered and suddenly inscrutable.
“The others survived. Gravekeeper can sense the dead and the dying, and it doesn’t sense them.”
Despite the warmth she’d willed around them both, Zoe couldn’t repress a shudder. What kind of segen did that? What kind of sacrifice had the Nottinghams made to allow it? “How is it able to…” she began, then realized it was a question Cole was unlikely to answer. “If you’re lying just to make me feel better,” she threatened instead, “I will never forgive you.”
“When have I ever gone out of my way to make you feel better, Carlisle?” There was still no change in his expression, but it was a faint stab at humor. If this had been anyone but Nottingham, Zoe might have smiled. And then the look on Cole’s face changed again, to one that hovered between uncertainty and something else that Zoe was finding hard to read.
Something glittered from an overhead tree branch over Cole’s shoulder. It was a long, golden tail feather, and it was glowing.
“Look!”
Cole turned, but Zoe’s strength had returned. The whip sang, wrapping around the feather so gently that it wasn’t even ruffled. Zoe caught it easily with one hand as her whip rebounded.
“It’s a firebird feather. It has to be, no other bird glows like this. Doesn’t this mean they’ve left the marsh? We have to keep moving!” She was hopeful, energized, relieved that the uncomfortable moment between them had passed.
“Lyonesse shouldn’t be all that far off. There should be farmsteads nearby, now that we’re closer to Maidenkeep territory. Can you walk?”
“Some.”
“Good. I’m not strong enough to carry you all the way. Maybe we can even find a working car or something. Or a bicycle.”
“Don’t need it. I’m not hurt.”
“Stop arguing with me.”
“I always argue with you.”
“Stop arguing with me. Wait.”
Zoe walked back toward the swamp, gathering in all her anger, all her pent-up frustration. Before Cole could say or do anything, she unleashed her rage on one of the dead-looking stumps that littered the marsh exit, lightning ripping it into ruthless shreds. Almost immediately the surrounding trunks manifested pairs of webbed feet, and the previously disguised frogs dashed away, ribbiting their protest. One of the larger toads remained for a moment, blinking at her with its large bulbous eyes. For a moment, it looked determined to stay, but abruptly changed its mind, turning to hurry after its companions.
They’re gonna be all right, Zoe thought. They have to be all right.
“Persistent little ghouls,” Cole noted calmly, like he hadn’t been startled at all. “You might have a fan club.”
“Now we can go,” Zoe told him.
After a few minutes spent determining which way they should be heading, they began to walk, slowly, to put as little strain on Cole as possible, in an odd silence Zoe wasn’t used to between them. It gave her time to mull over the pact she had made, remembered how solid and real the glyph in her hands had felt one minute, only to be gone in the next.
Lose your tears. That was all she had to give up, right?
“Once from frogs,” Zoe heard Cole mutter to himself. “Huh.”
“What?”
A pause.
“It’s nothing,” he finally said.
28
In Which an Old Flame Brings Tala out from the Cold
It had stopped snowing.
Tala opened her eyes to an impossibly cloudless sky, a surprising blue against the usual grays and whites that had plagued their journey. She was disconcerted by the sudden absence of falling snow. For the first time since leaving Ikpe, she felt warm, the cold no longer threatening to bite at her through her cloak.
A plumed head entered her line of vision, tilted its neck to look down at her. It was the firebird, looking the closest thing to concerned a firebird was likely to look. It cawed questioningly.
“I’m all right,” Tala murmured, aware that she was dry when she shouldn’t be. Hadn’t she fallen through the ice? She tried to sit up and was assailed by a brief wave of dizziness, only managing to prop herself up on her elbows before deciding doing more wasn’t worth the nausea.
“Don’t move. You’ll make it worse.”
That definitely didn’t sound like Zoe. It didn’t sound like Alex either. Or Ken, or Loki, or West, or even Cole.