Everyone lives in the world differently. I have very good eyesight, while Sunwoo has a prescription of -5.5 dioptres. Without her glasses, my face appears as a round blur. Even with contact lenses in, her vision is still worse than mine. Whenever I saw water marks on the mirror or stains on the table, I used to grumble, ‘Why can’t she just wipe them off?’ But that was because while I saw these blemishes so clearly, Sunwoo couldn’t see them at all.
Her çiçeğin bir mevsimi, her kitabın bir zamanı vardır. Haziranın tadını yeni hikâyelerle çıkarın.
It is Good To Be Rogue when there is An Assasion
“Your Highness,” one of them shouts. “Thank the gods you’re not hurt!
There’s been some sort of attack. Magical explosives. Both your quarters
and your father’s were the targets, apparently.”
“What happened to the king?” Talan’s voice echoes off the walls.
The guard shakes his head. “Luckily, he was in the library and not in his
room.”
“Any signs of the assassins?”
“Already gone, Your Highness. We’re sending trackers to hunt them
down.”
“Find them alive. I want their confession. Because they didn’t just try to
kill me. They tried to kill my wife, a mistake I will make them regret.”
Nausea rises in my gut, and I lean against the wall, head pounding and
my stomach twisted in knots.
The assassins never needed me to open the window to let them in.
The window was a signal that I was in the room with him.
“Thank the gods you’re alive,” she murmurs, her voice tight.
“Do you remember when you told me to have faith in Avalon Tower and
not to worry about the details?” I hiss. “I’m not sure I trust your judgement
at this point.”
“Obviously, I didn’t think explosives would be involved,” she snaps.
“The whole bloody point was for you to open the window for assassins to
sneak inside.”
“But what if there was a different reason they wanted me to open the
window? To let them know I was with Talan? They blew the room up right
after I opened the window. Within minutes. If they didn’t want me dead,
surely they would have waited a while longer. They were supposed to strike
when Talan was sleeping. They could see me in the window if they were
looking.”
Nivene shakes her head. “That couldn’t have been the instructions from
New Task
On the other side of the hall, the portrait of Merlin clicks, and the entire
thing creaks open. A man steps through it, looking like a warrior who
traveled through time. He has a long gray beard, and his face is lined with
age. Unlike the rest of the people in the room, he’s dressed in actual chain
mail armor with a silvery breastplate. And emblazoned on the breastplate is
the Merlin Court coat of arms I’ve seen around this tower—one with an
owl, stars, and the cycle of the moon. His armor groans as he crosses the
large hall.
For a moment, I wonder if the rumors are true, if Merlin never died, and
maybe he’s returned to us through his own portrait. But this man looks
nothing like Merlin, and he wears a silver torc.
“Who is that?” I whisper to Serana.
“Sir Kay,” she whispers. “He is the leader of MI-13.”
He crosses to an empty chair set at the round table and takes a seat.
“Thank you all for coming on such short notice.” His deep,
commanding voice resonates around the room. “What we’re discussing
today is of the utmost secrecy. There will be no sharing of any of this with
anyone at the academy. Or, obviously, outside it.”
I exchange looks with Tana and Serana. What are the three of us even
doing here?
“As you all know, MI-13’s efforts are held back by the veil,” he
continues. “We make do with our Sentinels opening the way to small task
forces, but it has limited our options.”
Nivene raises her eyebrow at me and nods.
“The veil is maintained by the Fey’s magicians,” adds Sir Kay. “Up
until two months ago, there were ten. However, one of them was sent to
assassinate one of our Sentinels and was killed.” He glances for the briefest
second in my direction. “And another veil mage was sent to take out our
entire cadet force, and was also, luckily, stopped and killed.” He
The Test Scores
My breath catches. They’re about to announce the torcs.
I watch as the trio of judges confer for a few minutes in a tense huddle.
Viviane is pulling out papers, pointing to them.
I swallow hard.
At last, Viviane turns to the arena, and the wind whips at her blonde
hair. “Tana Campbell,” she bellows. “Silver!”
Darius grabs my arm in a death grip, grinning. “She’s a knight! She’s a
fucking knight.”
“Serana O’Rourke,” Viviane calls out. “Silver!”
I feel the grin splitting my face from ear to ear. “Holy shit. This almost
makes up for the fact that Tarquin and Horatio got gold.”
“They’re going to be insufferable. Well, they didn’t earn theirs, did
they? Tarquin lost to you. But these torcs actually make sense.” Darius is
bouncing in his seat, and he reaches down to pick up a blue paper bag. “I
knew it. I fucking knew it. I mean, I didn’t realize it would be silver, but I
knew they’d pass. Obviously.”
Burning with rage, I pull at my magic, and it fuels the hot crimson
inside me. I don’t bother searching for a weak spot. I hurl my magic at the
veil, my teeth grinding together. To my right, the veil mage stumbles, then
falls flat on his back. The buzz of the veil sputters and dies, and silence fills
the hall. I hear only my own pounding pulse.
When the mist is completely silent and no longer buzzing over my skin,
I stride inside.
Pearly white fog wraps around me. My foot kicks something, and I hear
it spinning across the floor. I reach down for the wand and grip its gnarled
wood.
I march out of the veil and toss it at Wrythe’s feet. It clatters noisily.
“There you go,” I say. “Your wand, sir.”
The veil mist slowly dissipates, and the mage seems to be unconscious.
The Culling Test
“Wow, demi-Fey? I’ve never seen one. What did they look like?”
“Fucking weird, pardon my language. The man had pointy ears,
obviously. Dark hair. Tattoos on his arms, eerie silver eyes like metal.
Beautiful blonde woman with him. You know, I don’t mind the women
demi-Fey quite as much. I’d give her one,” he says thoughtfully. “Pardon
the expression.”
I toss a horseshoe, and it clatters to the floor of his stall. A thought starts
to blossom in my mind. “Did they have anything with them?”
He shrugs. “I don’t know. Why do you ask?”
I open my eyes wide. “Well, like you said, they’re dangerous. And you
know the saying, if you see something, say something.”
He holds up a finger. “Do you know what, love? The fella was carrying
something. It was in a box, like a musical instrument or something. They
never brought it out again.” His eyes widen. “Do you think they could be
planning something? You don’t think it was a bomb, do you?” He scrubs a
hand over his mouth. “With all these people here? Should I call the police?”
I toss both horseshoes one after the other, so off the mark that one
nearly hits one of the prize dolls. “It’s probably nothing. I doubt demi-Fey
even know how to make a bomb. We don’t want the police shutting the
whole fair down over an empty box.”
What I know at this point is that Raphael and Vivian came in earlier and
left a package here, then left.
The Excalibur replica.
“We will obviously need to reschedule the shadow trial.” Wrythe sighs.
“Ms. Melisende can do it properly with the rest of the cadets.”
“No,” Raphael says.
Wrythe frowns at him. “Right. You think she should be expelled after
all?”
“She won’t do the shadow trial again. She’s shown her leadership by
sending cadets to call for backup,” Raphael says. “She followed an enemy
agent through the fair