The Glass Magician

But before he could pull her from the room, Mg. Aviosky said, “I’d like to speak with both Miss Twill and Delilah before you take her anywhere, Magician Thane. There is a severe matter of—”

“My apologies, Patrice,” Emery said, quiet but sharp, “but Ceony is my apprentice, and I will deal with her side of the situation.”

With that he tugged Ceony from the mirror room and down the stairs to the second floor, where he opened the lavatory door and pulled her inside, only then releasing her.

She backed up to the footed tub, heart hammering. Emery turned on the electric light and shut the door.

Wiping tears from her eyes, Ceony said, “Emery, I’m—”

“Sorry?” he asked, the word snapping from his mouth. “You’re sorry? Damn it, Ceony, you could have been killed!”

“You don’t think I know that?” she asked.

“No, I don’t think you know that,” he countered, “or you wouldn’t have undertaken such an idiotic endeavor! This is Grath Cobalt! Not some pickpocket off the street!”

Ceony started. Other than in the third chamber of his heart, Emery had never shouted at her before.

“What if Saraj had been there?” he asked, his green eyes blazing. “You would be on a meat hook right now, while the rest of us would still be wondering where the hell you disappeared to!”

“Delilah was—”

“And how dare you bring Delilah into this!” he interrupted. “Do you realize how mirror transportation works? He could have killed you, then her!”

“I know how it works, I’m not stupid!” Ceony shouted back. “I didn’t go into this blind! This is my responsibility—they’re after me—and yet I’m not even allowed to sit in on the meetings discussing it! I thought I should take care of it on my own.”

“You thought wrong,” Emery said. He ran a hand back through his hair, looking ready to tug it from his scalp. “You have a great deal of good fortune in your blood, Ceony, but you cannot continue to take these kinds of risks. You’re not immortal. Do you have any idea what it does to me when you put yourself in danger? And so willingly, no less!”

“If I didn’t take risks like this, you’d be dead!” she shot back. She swung her hand out, nearly knocking a seashell from the sink beside her. “I can’t sit idly by while the rest of the world goes on without me!”

“You do not hold up the world,” Emery replied, closer to his normal volume. “You are not God, and it’s time you stopped acting like you were.”

“You don’t even believe in God,” Ceony quipped, folding her arms. A sore lump formed in her throat, and tears threatened her eyes. She stared at a spot on the floor, trying to bury the sensations.

“It doesn’t matter what I believe, or what you believe, or what anyone in this damn country believes,” Emery said. He let out a long breath. “I don’t understand you, Ceony. I don’t understand why you would do something like this without even telling me. Do you not trust me?”

She lifted her eyes. Beneath the anger in his face, she saw genuine hurt in his eyes.

Her shoulders slumped. “I trust you. You know I trust you. But I don’t want to see you hurt, not again. Grath threatened you, too.”

“Threats are only threats,” Emery said. “If I had a pound for every threat someone has thrown my way, empty or not, I could retire.”

He reached up and touched Ceony’s cheek. She winced. The spot where Grath had struck her still felt swollen and tender.

“This is not a threat,” Emery said, much quieter now. “I know Grath far better than you do, and I know he keeps his promises. You saved my life; now you have to let me save yours. I couldn’t fight Lira, but I can fight Grath and Saraj. You have to understand that they’re nothing like Lira. She was a novice. You’re comparing a house pup to wolves.”

The tears finally broke through Ceony’s resolve and traced uneven lines down her face, wetting Emery’s thumb. “It’s my fault,” she whispered. “Because of me my family is in danger. Oh God, he’ll kill them . . .”

Emery dropped his hand to Ceony’s shoulder and pulled her toward him. He embraced her, gently. He smelled like charcoal and brown sugar, as though bits of the cottage still clung to him. His shirt collar absorbed Ceony’s tears.

“I promise I’ll do everything I can to protect your family,” he said. “We’ll pray it’s a bluff. But Grath and Saraj are my business now.”

He released her, taking his warmth with him, and opened the door, vanishing back into the hallway.

Ceony stood like a statue for a long moment, numb and broken, feeling cracks form over her heart. Then she shook her head and spun around, following in the wake of the paper magician.

She saw Mg. Aviosky and Delilah first, coming down the stairs from the mirror room.