sorcery and science 04.5 - masquerade Read Free Page A

craziest. Seeing nothing but unhappy futures would do that to a person.
    “The future is not set,” he told her. “Surely, you were taught that.” A thought hit him. “Who trained you?”
    The Doom Seer stood up straight, puffing out her chest proudly. “I am an Elition of Pegasus. I graduated from Rosewater.” She set her hands down on her hips. “It’s true what you say. The future is not set. But when I see a hundred different futures all with the same outcome, I cannot ignore reality.” Her eyes narrowed, hatred swelling up around her. “The Selpes are evil. We must stop this before it begins.”
    She dashed forward, drawing and swinging her sword toward Emperor Selpe in one, fluid sweep.
    And as quickly as she’d started, she stopped. The mad glow in her eyes gave way to fear, and she stared down at the knife jammed into her chest.
    “Why?” she asked Silas, looking younger than he’d thought.
    “I promised to protect him,” he replied. He lowered her gently onto a blanket of moss.
    A tear slid down her face. “And that promise will be the death of us all.”
    Emperor Selpe crept up behind Livia, taking a cautious look down at the young Doom Seer. “Is she dead?”
    “No,” Silas said.
    Livia crouched down beside him, her eyes panning across the girl’s wound. “We should head back to Rosewater.”
    “Yes,” he said. “Do you want to pull out the knife or should I?”
    “That depends. Are you going to lick the blade?”
    He rolled his eyes. “I’m not that sort of Phantom, Livia.”
    Her hands were small enough to comfortably fit both on the hilt. She slid the blade out of the girl’s chest, smirking as she wiped the blood off on Silas’s pants.
    “Nice.” The blood didn’t show up on the dark fabric, but there was enough of it that it had started to seep through to his skin. And Prophet’s blood tickled, probably from all the manic energy buzzing around inside of it.
    “You’re welcome, Silas.”
    Well, no one could say the high priestess of Rosewater didn’t have a sense of humor, wacky as it was. Silas flashed his teeth at her, going for scary—and hopefully a little sexy. She laughed in his face.
    “Tone it down, Silas. We have company,” she whispered.
    “Fine. Then I’ll just save my smoldering looks for later tonight.”
    “You’d better. I do love a good Silas smolder.” She stood up, raising her voice to say, “I’m afraid we won’t be able to make it to the Gold Forest today. We need to get these three Elitions back to Rosewater right away.”
    “How is she still alive?” Emperor Selpe’s eyes tracked Silas as he lifted the Prophet off the ground. “He stabbed her in the heart.”
    “Not in the heart. Just next to it,” Silas said, considering the remaining two unconscious outlaws. Two hands, three bodies. What to do, what to do…
    “Elitions can heal many injuries that would kill a human, Your Majesty,” Livia reminded him.
    “Yes, I’m finally beginning to believe that.” He turned his frown up into a half-smile. “And I asked you to call me Ambrose.”
    “Forgive me. That will take some getting used to.”
    “Why?”
    Silas looked back at them. “Because Elitions don’t call someone we just met by his first name. That’s what our power names are for.”
    “She calls you Silas.”
    “Livia and I have known each other for years. You’ve known her for all of two hours.”
    “I suppose that’s true,” he admitted, his eyes drinking in every breath that she took.
    Well, that’s quite enough of that. Silas stepped between them, holding the Prophet out to Livia. “Do you mind?”
    Emperor Selpe swooped in. “You can’t have a lady carry a bloody body. I’ll do it.”
    Silas set her down in Ambrose Selpe’s open arms, holding back a chuckle when the emperor nearly collapsed under the weight.
    “Oof,” he croaked out, his whole body shaking.
    Livia took the girl from him, holding her easily.
    “She’s heavier than she looks,” he said,