In the Ravenous Dark by A.M. Strickland

Author:A.M. Strickland
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Imprint

20

Over the course of the next week, everything carries on almost as usual. Other than a royal luncheon where Kineas refuses to speak to me or meet my eyes, I’m not forced to see him. Lydea and I continue to exchange secret glances and discreet touches in the hallways, and much more in private. I spend as much time as possible with both her and Japha. I even manage to decipher some of Japha’s notes and shakily scrawl a few of my own. We all long for freedom and adventure, and have the financial means to pursue whatever dreams we can think of—a strange new reality for me. But none of that changes the fact that we’re all still engaged to other people, bound to our guardians, and trapped in the palace.

As usual.

My guardian won’t help me, and I can’t be rid of him. Discovering that all guardians are royal hasn’t brought me any closer to figuring out how they’re bound to their wards, despite the cost of that discovery—my near death and the lives of two guards lost in a “drunken brawl.” I can barely think about the latter. And I haven’t managed to decipher the puzzle of those special sigils my father left me in his office. I even double-check his office to see if I missed something, perhaps another sigil, when I find a spare moment between social engagements and lessons. Nothing works—neither looking for more pieces to the puzzle nor further experimentation with the sigils in private. They don’t seem to do anything.

Even though Ivrilos hesitantly tries to talk to me about what happened in the royal gallery, I ignore him. He wants me to forget about it, after all—for everything to go back to the way it’s been. As far as he’s concerned, I’m obliging him.

But some things have changed. And for me, there’s no going back.

I have to struggle not to gape whenever I pass a ward while walking down the spiraling hallways of the palace a full week later, heading to one of my lessons. Ever since that strange night, I can peer into shadows like never before. All shadows, including those that lurk near every bloodmage. In that once-murky darkness, I now glimpse faces, flashes of hands against dark armor, the gleam of weapons.

Guardians. I can see them now, after what Ivrilos did to me. After what he gave me. A week later, it hasn’t faded.

I don’t entirely mind. It’s something different, powerful … and I like that. Even if it’s dark and dangerous.

“Rovan, my dear.”

The words make me flinch.

I turn to see Crown Prince Kineas, my wretched betrothed, striding down the hallway, attendants fanning behind him like a fluttery flock of birds. I’m pretty sure a few of them actually have birds perched on their shoulders. One has a milky white snake with yellow stripes wrapped around their neck. There isn’t time to try to slip away and escape attention, though I find myself wishing I could open doors in solid stone like Ivrilos.

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