Storm Bringer (The Drowning Empire Book 3) by S.M. Gaither

Author:S.M. Gaither [Gaither, S.M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-07-08T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

“On a scale of one to ten, how much trouble are you in?”

Aven turned and saw West sauntering toward her, his hands in the pockets of his coat; it was always impressive, how relaxed he managed to look despite the sky and everything else that was falling around them.

A thousand different emotions fought for control of her heart as she watched him come closer.

Him.

The one she’d been thinking of all day. All week, really. The one that she had begged the gods to let her keep—a plea that had fallen on deaf ears, apparently.

Her painful, temporary thing.

“Just another casual day of work for us, right?” she remarked, trying to siphon some of his casualness and inflect it into her tone. “I don’t know about your scale, but I’d say this bit of trouble is somewhere between shadowroot poisoning and a near-death by sea monsters. And far below being responsible for the murder of a reigning emperor, so…” She trailed off with a shrug as he came to a stop and very nearly reached for her, prepared to take her in his arms until he realized—as did she—that they were not entirely alone; she caught glimpses of people in the balconies overlooking the space, and she heard unfamiliar voices coming closer.

“Want to go for a walk?” West asked, nodding toward a black metal gate. A path awaited on the other side, one that she was fairly certain led to the deeper, wilder parts of this garden that stretched at least a mile in every direction from where she stood. That path was lined with more hedges like the labyrinth she’d already wound herself through; some sort of evergreen hedge capped with frost that had formed so thickly and evenly that it looked like a blanket had been draped over it.

But despite that thick frost, and her relatively thin—and armles— gown, Aven realized that she was not cold. There was magic at work in every corner of this garden, she suspected. From that shimmering, beautiful permafrost; to the flowers that shouldn’t have survived in this climate flourishing around them; to the pockets of warm air that occasionally settled over her even as she stood in place—all of it hinted at a place not governed by the typical laws of their created world. It made sense, she supposed, that a queen with Energeia ancestors would show less restraint in employing their talents for something as frivolous as groundskeeping.

She looked from the sparkling hedges, and back to West, who was still waiting for her reply.

And she was tempted.

By West, and by that old, mysterious magic humming around them, and by the thought of ignoring everything inside of that palace looming over them.

“If you’re worried about being seen, I have something for that,” West said, reading her thoughts as he so often, so easily did.

She had a sneaking suspicion that this something was likely sham magic. Which, in spite of everything she’d been through, still frightened her. She still didn’t like it. But if

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