No.
The full weight of what he’s told me hangs in my head, dizzying, threatening to overwhelm me—but at this moment, something else is much more important than the incredible stories of the Alchemist and the Sorceress.
Ina Gold.
The Queen thinks Ina, and not me, is the Alchemist. That’s why she adopted her all those years ago. And if Liam is right, the Queen must have some plan to destroy Ina and take her power back—she’s only waiting for something . . . something I don’t quite understand yet. But whatever it is, I need to warn Ina, need to save her—my sister—before someone else suffers in my name.
Instinctively, I fling out my hands, palms toward Liam’s retreating figure. All I can think is that if he gets on his horse and rides away, he’ll lock the gates of Everless behind him.
The need to stop him is hot and desperate in my chest, and it’s as though I can almost see the seconds that pass like physical threads—as though I can grasp them.
Power, ancient and primal and dizzying, rushes up inside me.
It’s not like when Caro choked, or when I kissed Roan. Then, stopping time felt like something had gone off, like the world around me was infected—wrong. Now the world stills because I will it to. The cold wind dies abruptly around me, and every other noise stops too, even the distant wash of the ocean that I hadn’t realized was present until it was gone. Beyond, I can see the blurred shapes of Liam and his guards as they make to mount their horses. Stop them.
My blood leaps in my veins as time obeys me, the freeze racing out from my feet, the grass stilling. It’s like a soap bubble swelling to encompass the field. In the space of a few heartbeats, it’s spread across the twenty yards separating me from the guards, and overtaken them.
An instant later, it takes Liam. I see him clearly as it swallows him. He’s looking back toward me, one hand poised on the reins of his horse, and his eyes are wide with terror.
He saw. He saw what I did, before it froze him. But I can’t stop to worry about this. I run for the horses, the crunch of my boots on the ground and my own ragged breath the only two sounds in the universe. Panting, I stop in front of the younger guard and his horse, a small, solid-looking brown mare. With a gentle touch to her cheek, I will her to wake.
She comes to life beneath my hand and rears up, snorting. I jump back, raising my hands. Of course, it seems to her as if a strange human has blinked into existence before her. “It’s okay,” I say in my calmest tone, my heart pounding. “It’s okay.”
The mare stamps and whinnies, but allows me to approach and extricate her reins from the guard’s still hands. I stroke her cheek, like Tam showed me, and soon she quiets. She shifts nervously when I clamber into the saddle, but obeys when I squeeze my legs and lead her away from the group.
From my vantage point on her back, I can see that our little party has left its mark in the snowy field—divots of horseshoes and long, deep tracks from the carriage wheels, a trail pointing toward the coming dusk. I’ll have to hope that it leads me to a road to take me back to Everless. And that my bubble of time will hold even after I’ve left its boundaries, at least for long enough to give me a decent head start against the guards and Liam.
I can’t help but twist around in the saddle to look at Liam once more. He stands, his eyes fixed on the place where he saw me last. I used to think he looked like a statue, with his carved features and cold gaze. But now, though his chest doesn’t move and his eyelids don’t flutter, he looks anything but. A riot of emotions is suspended on his face, in his parted lips and wide eyes. Shock and fear and anger—but also something like admiration. Like longing.
The road back to Everless seems to fly beneath us, the guard’s mare galloping as if we’ve been riding together for years. Maybe she can feel the power surging through my blood—or more likely, just the urgency in my heart, the kind that all animals seem to be able to sense. I ride south, and the sun is well up by the time I come upon the edges of Laista, the jagged shape of Everless cutting into the sky.
The gates stand open, and a steady stream of carts bearing flowers, wine, and bolts of fabric are already trickling in. I overtake them, my horse dodging neatly between the wagons, and burst through the gates.
The two guards stationed there twist toward me in surprise, gaping at my servant’s dress and handsome horse, but I’m already past them, racing toward the courtyard. Everything around me seems to be moving slowly, as if the air has turned to tar for everyone except me. I don’t know if time is warping around me or if it’s simply the adrenaline rushing through my body, panic converted into motion.
In the courtyard, I vault off the horse and leave her near the stables. I enter the castle through a side door and find myself in the servants’ corridors. Even this early in the morning they’re crowded, wedding chores added to the normal chores to create a steady stream of servants going this way and that.
I’m afraid of being stopped if I appear too strange, so although my whole body itches to run to Ina’s chambers, I walk quickly instead, keeping my head down and my hands pressed to my sides. At first I don’t see the face of the person who grabs my arm. Startled, I look up, and my throat constricts as my vision fills with a pale, handsome face framed by dark curls. Liam. He’s found me, already, impossibly. But—
“Jules,” Roan breathes, pulling me toward the side of the hall. It seems like a year has passed since the moment when he kissed me in the courtyard, but his nearness brings it all back—the thrill, the shame, the confusion and panic. But I try to ignore the sudden pounding of my pulse. What happened between us is the least important thing in the world today.
“I’ve been searching for you. So has everyone. Where have you been?” he exclaims, once we’re in an alcove and out of sight. His hands rest possessively on my upper arms. “What happened? Where did Liam—?”
“I can’t explain right now,” I say, forcing myself to step back from him. “Roan, where is Ina?”
“Ina?” Roan frowns, seriousness creeping on to his face.
“Is she safe?” My sister. My sister. What does the Queen want with her? What does she have planned?
“Safe? I just left her,” Roan protests, but his face goes slack. “Why wouldn’t she—?”
“I can’t explain right now,” I say hurriedly. “But she’s in danger, Roan.”
Suspicion spikes through me—does he know that the danger is the Queen, Ina’s adoptive mother, her only family? “Roan, please believe me. Get her out of her room and go to yours. Stay with her until I tell you it’s safe.”
Roan stares at me mutely, his expression fearful.
“Please, Roan,” I beg, my voice cracking. “Ina is my friend. Nothing else matters now. If you care for her at all, go stay with her and lock the door. Just until I come. Please.”