“Yeah, it’s a real blessing having a food bill three times the size of yours.” I rolled my eyes as I stretched out onto my cot. “The grass isn’t always greener on the other side, you know.”
“I do know.” Annia opened her eyes as she rolled onto her side to face me. “I was just trying to lighten things up a bit. You’ve been pretty down in the dumps recently. Is it because of the dead end with the Chief Mage’s necklace?” she asked, keeping her voice low in case someone outside was listening.
“That’s a big part of it, yeah.” Folding my arms beneath my head, I stared up at the ceiling, tracing the old wooden beams through the darkness. “I thought for sure we were gonna find him at the other end of this necklace, so it’s pretty discouraging that the plan didn’t work out.”
“True, but at least we know the Chief Mage is in this area, right? We never would have been able to narrow it down that far without your charm.”
“Yeah, I guess so.” Reaching beneath my shirt, I pulled out the two serapha charms and gazed at them. They blazed to life instantly beneath my scrutiny, like two tiny stars clutched in the palm of my hand, and a rush of longing hit me, so intense it was painful. “It’s just…I want him to be here. With me.”
There was a long, pregnant pause, and color rushed into my cheeks as I realized I’d said too much.
“Naya…do you have feelings for him?”
“We’re master and apprentice,” I insisted, stuffing the charms back down the front of my shirt. “It’s not like I could help growing closer to him after all the time we’ve spent together.”
Annia snorted again. “Yeah, but it doesn’t seem like the kind of relationship you had with Roanas.”
“No one can replace Roanas.” A pang hit my chest at the mention of my dead mentor, the lion shifter and Shiftertown Inspector who’d taken me in after my aunt Mafiela had kicked me out of the jaguar clan. “He was the closest thing I ever had to a father.”
“My point exactly.”
I let out another huff. “What do you want me to say, Annia? That I wish I was a full mage, or that Iannis was a shifter, so that I could actually do something about my attraction to him?” My fists curled at my sides, and I itched to use them.
“You don’t have to have either of those things to get what you want, if you want it bad enough.”
I narrowed my gaze at Annia. “There’s no way Iannis and I could ever be a couple. I’m the embodiment of why mages and shifters don’t breed, and besides, masters and apprentices aren’t supposed to have romantic relationships. Iannis would never break the rules just to be with me, especially as the Chief Mage.”
“I dunno, Naya. He’s already flaunted convention more than once on your behalf. When he made you his apprentice he was practically snubbing all the other mages to their faces, which they couldn’t have been happy about. If he wants you badly enough, he’ll figure out a way to make it happen.”
“Yeah, well I’m not gonna bank on that. I don’t really know how he feels about me.” But warmth stole through me at the idea that maybe, just maybe, Iannis and I could be more. There were sparks between us, no question about that. On one or two occasions, those sparks had been hot enough that I’d been sure something was going to happen between us. But it never had, and I wasn’t sure how much of that was because of my reservations or because of his. Just because Iannis found me attractive didn’t mean he was going to act on it. Truthfully, if we were both smart, neither of us ever would.
“Sunaya?” Fenris’s voice echoed in my head, drawing me away from my melancholy thoughts. “Are you awake?”
“Yeah.” I sat up, instantly on alert. “What’s up?”
“I’ve managed to figure out the shift schedule for the guards watching the prisoners. If we time this right, I think we can get you in to talk to the prisoners, so listen close and follow my directions…”
An hour later, I was creeping down the dirt road leading from the town to the mineshaft where the Resistance housed their prisoners. I wore the illusion of Private Remis, the soldier Fenris said was due to replace the one on duty, or at least I hoped I was. Fenris had described him in great detail, and I remembered handing him a trencher at both lunch and dinner, but there had been so many faces it was possible I could have made a mistake. To be safe, I was careful to stick to the shadows and remain as inconspicuous as possible.
The moon was over half full, providing plenty of illumination, and after about a ten-minute brisk walk the mine came into view. It was a large, vertical shaft carved into the base of the mountain, accessible only by a wire cage that could be hoisted up and down via a pulley system. Unfortunately, I wasn’t going to be able to use the thing as the mule used to pull the primitive elevator was stabled for the night, but thanks to Fenris I had other options.
As Fenris had assured me, only a single guard was posted outside the mineshaft. He was leaning up against the wall, his stance relaxed and his eyes wandering, but he straightened abruptly at the sight of me.