Puss nonchalantly chomped on the bread, getting a bit of raspberry jam smeared on his nose.
Angelique stared at his black ears. I always loved Puss—Roland, that is. But I don’t think I ever appreciated him enough. “Thank you.”
Puss licked his chops clean of warm cheese. “You can show your thanks by practicing your magic.”
Angelique helplessly flung her arms out. “How? Or rather, what do you think I should practice?”
Puss finished another bite of the cheese-jam-and-bread concoction. “Your core magic.”
Angelique took a breath, ready to object, but Puss plunged on, ignoring her attempt at interrupting.
“I know you used it on behalf of the elves—Quinn told Gabrielle and me while Elle was fixing your disguise.” Puss looked up from the bread and met her gaze. “She said King Themerysaldi took you around to destroy the second band of goblins.”
Angelique nodded. “He wanted me to practice activating smaller portions of my core magic so I wouldn’t set off my price.”
“I think we should continue with that, but more along the lines of control,” Puss said.
Angelique mashed her lips together.
“What is it?” Puss asked.
“My control has historically been horrible—even when I was a student in Luxi-Domus.”
“No, your control became shaky after your instructors treated you with suspicion and acted as if you were a budding black mage.” Puss went back to gnawing on the bread. “I am an old companion of yours, Enchantress. You cannot fool me!”
“Fine, my control has been bad for years,” Angelique said.
“Which is precisely why we must address it,” Puss countered. “Your control needs to be smooth and seamless—not brutish and ham-fisted.”
Angelique knew the smart-mouthed cat wasn’t wrong. But she’d avoided her magic for so long, and now more than ever she knew just how deadly it was.
“Evariste is stuck inside a mirror, Angelique,” Puss said. “You’re going to need your powers to free him. The Veneno Conclave certainly isn’t going to get around to it given their recent shows of incompetence.”
Angelique sighed. “You’re right.”
“Of course I’m right.” The black and white cat abandoned the bread and jumped to the ground. He twined around Angelique’s legs, arching his back as he leaned into her. “Besides. Once you get control over your powers, you really will have no reason to fear for others. Though I suspect the Elf King has already done plenty to drive that home.”
“Quinn told you about his suicidal-idiot moments when we were hunting goblins, too, I take it?”
“Yes. Frankly, I was unsurprised. Since joining in Gabrielle’s adventures, I have come to find that most royals are doltish and empty-headed.” Puss rubbed his cheek on Angelique’s boots. “But while his execution should be questioned, he did prove his point. You have great magic, Angelique. But I don’t think you understand just how precise and careful it is—much like yourself.”
Angelique bit the inside of her cheek.
I still don’t like my war magic. But…I believe in Puss’s knowledge, and Emerys’s understanding of magic. And, most of all, I want Evariste back. I’ll sacrifice whatever is necessary to free him. Even if that means mastering my magic.
Angelique crouched down so she could rub Puss under his chin. “Thank you.”
“For?”
“Everything. For being my friend and for thinking of me over all these years.”
Puss purred. “Naturally. I’ll fight with you, Angelique. No matter how far apart we are.” Standing on his back legs, the cat rested his front paws on her bent knee and leaned up, bumping his nose to hers.
Angelique smiled, and for the first time since blurting out the name Acri, she felt peace.
“Now, practice!” Puss ordered, more than a little gleeful. “I have so many drills and exercises I have been stocking up for all these years, and now they shall finally be put to use!” He hopped back up on the bed and circled around so he could resume eating the bread. “Now, let’s begin. Fetch your sword and unsheathe it—we will start with practicing control!”
As Elle had promised, two weeks later they returned to Nefari’s “cottage,” all decked out in their disguises.
Angelique knocked on the door, grimacing at the black magic that brushed at her senses.
Her magic, or maybe her grasp of magic, felt bruised and a little stretched—a byproduct of the very thorough exercises Puss drilled her in every single day during their two-week wait. But on the positive side, she could now create pieces of art with pins. Puss had started her on two hundred sewing needles and then eventually added in pins and broaches—any small and sharp object they could find. Now she could handle nearly six hundred pins and could precisely control them.
The practice had taught her a great deal—that the weight and size of a weapon didn’t tax her magic more or less, but the amount of weapons and the length of time in which she handled them all greatly impacted her mental strain.
I learned that after losing five sewing needles on my third hour of practice and stepping on them before getting sick. I never imagined taking out a goblin army in a few minutes would be easier than rearranging needles for hours on end.
She’d handled a lot of weapons before—the goblins in Alabaster Forest were the most recent and obvious example.
But in having her create images and patterns, plus move the pins/needles/small sharp objects around the room like flying birds, Puss had helped her hone her abilities.
Magic momentarily swirled on the cottage door before it was flung open.
This time it was Nefari who greeted them, not his servant girl.
He was still unsettlingly pleasant and normal looking. Today he wore a hunter-green tunic with another white cloak with gold swirls around the throat latch. His smile was welcoming as he bowed.
“Mademoiselle Mystrim, welcome back.”
Gabrielle scowled and stared at Nefari as the wind howled and flung snow into the air.
“Mademoiselle Mystrim is uncomfortable and wonders when you will invite her inside,” Elle said through chattering teeth—which Angelique suspected was real and not falsified.
Winter had settled into the area with a bitter cold that Angelique felt in her bones—especially without her charmed dress, which contained a heat charm so strong, she’d once been able to ride across the uninhabitable Chronos Mountains with Pegasus.
“Of course.” Nefari flicked his eyes to Quinn and Angelique, but they had already unbuckled their sword belts and together leaned the weapons against the cottage’s outer wall. “Please, come in.” Nefari stepped aside and beckoned them in.
Gabrielle sailed in, flouncing down the hallway with confident steps. Elle scrambled along behind her, and Nefari followed them at a pace that was so quick, it could just barely be described as a walk, leaving Quinn and Angelique to close the door and slowly amble behind.
Elle is absolutely right—he’s set against leaving us with his merchandise. That bodes well for our plan.
“I am pleased to say that I moved mountains for you, Mademoiselle Mystrim, and finished your spelled pendant,” Nefari said.