Page 41 of City of Snakes
“We’re friends? I don’t recall ever agreeing to that,” I teased with a smirk. It was nice having someone seem genuinely worried about me—flighty as she was.
Elsedora had a wild energy that made me feel like she would walk over flaming glass to keep someone she loved out of harm’s way. If she was around that day.
She scooted up and let herself flop down onto the pillows beside me.
“We might not be friends yet. But you had a part in bringing my brother back to me. You sent Asterie after him—I owe you more than being unreliable and horny. But we’d been traveling for so long...I hadneeds,” she said as she threw her hands up toward the ceiling.
I tried to laugh but coughed instead. Recovering, I asked, “Was he worthwhile?”
“Not in the least.” She raised her eyebrows and tipped her head toward me. “He called out hisownname when he reached release.”
“No...” I hurt everywhere and winced against my laughter.
Elsedora returned her gaze to the ceiling, smile fading. “I wanted to go down to the dungeon and play target practice with my daggers, but Krait wouldn’t let me—killjoy he is.”
Sobering from the humor of the moment, I realized that I still needed to know who wanted me dead this time. And I also could go for a cup of tea.
“Do you have bluebell vine tea here?” I asked Elsedora.
She scrunched up her nose. “You drink that? It tastes so medicinal.”
“Don’t judge my choice of tea,” I said as I gently smacked her arm.
“Well, no, I can’t say that grows here,” she contemplated. “I don’t know anyone who would put that in tea.”
I tilted my head. “My healer, Mortag, used to prepare it, with other herbs for taste; it’s good for inflammation.”
Elsedora, ever perceptive, narrowed her gaze. “Why would you need that?”
I stilled for a moment, realizing my slip. Elsedora had such a warm energy that it had just spilled out of me. I rolled my eyes, trying to think of a logical excuse. “What? Do immortals not get their cycles? It’s a painful business.”
At that, Elsedora shook her head. “Not typically after a female immortal’s hundredth or so year. It becomes much harder to conceive after that.”
“Why does it always have to be the woman’s scourge to bear?” I huffed. The thought of children sounded nice but only in the distant future. Yet my body would unjustly dictate the timeline for me.
She smirked. “It’s not impossible for us. But my birth was practically a miracle. My parents liked to joke that I was their ‘happy accident.’ Being a hundred years younger than your sibling has its challenges.”
“I can imagine. Especially when that hundred-year-older sibling is a dallying idiot sometimes.”
Elsedora nodded. “Most men are.”
That much she and I could agree on.
My heart tightened to think of the one man who had never wandered. I missed the feeling of his strong arms around me.
I feared his reaction when he learned that I was to be married to another. Again. He’d seen this play out, and I’d skirted the altar more than once.
Which begged me to consider whether I would be able to go through with it this time.
Chapter 15
Krait
While relighting some candles in the bell tower quarters, my blood pounded in my ears. With a shaky hand, I used a soft cloth to polish the stand of her statue. Thick gray curtains were drawn, and no sunlight leaked into the space. Only twinkling flames lit the small room and the stairway, which led to the bell.
The weight of having found Sybilla—of what that meant hit me. Even the thought of her name while standing in this space felt wrong.
I set the cloth down and moved to the desk, whereTheBook of Isolde, the First Reverist’s prophecies, lay safe in a glass case. No one else was allowed in this room, where I preserved the book from hands, dust and sunlight.
