Teia took a step forward. The plush rug under Teia’s foot sank pleasantly, but then—
Click.
Oh shiiiiit.
“I would hold very still, were I you,” Tisis said, laying down the quill and raising her gaze, studying the emptiness in the air as if she might see through Teia’s invisibility. She took a deep breath as she realized she really couldn’t. “Trouble with being a Shadow: your eyes have to be visible to gather light, so you like to only look up in little glimpses, huh? Keeps you from studying ceilings carefully.”
Gathering the folds of the master cloak between her eyes and Tisis, Teia looked up to one side. Half a dozen muskets and crossbows pointed at various angles toward her and around her, in case she jumped away from the trap she’d just stepped into. All of them were behind a sheet of glass thick enough to defeat paryl from penetrating it, but thin enough that a bolt or musket ball would have no such difficulty. She assumed the other side had another half-dozen as well.
“I’m not here to hurt you,” Teia said.
“Teia, I presume?” Tisis asked.
Teia shimmered into visibility and took down her hood. “ Benhadad’s work?” she asked, pointing a thumb to the death trap. Thanks for telling me about this, Ben. Jackass.
“His design. An underling did the work. That’s why it’s not armed yet.”
“It’s not armed?”
“I know how bureaucracies work. I figured that if someone ordered an assassination by a real Shadow, getting permission and then setting it up would take at least until this evening, whereas you might come immediately. But that was just a guess. I’m glad I was right. Nice to, um, see you.”
“I’m, uh, real glad to see you again, too,” Teia said. Because getting caught in a stupid trap like a moron is exactly how I wanted to re introduce myself to Kip’s gorgeous and competent wife. “So I can step off this?”
“Of course,” Tisis said.
Bobbing her head to look down at her feet, Teia stepped off the pressure plate.
A thwang and the sound of breaking glass made her head snap up. Shards of glass fell from its frame in front of the weapons to the floor, shattering. One crossbow had discharged.
Teia’d heard too many tales of men being fatally wounded without realizing it to feel relief immediately. Had that been a breeze she’d felt on her neck?
She reached up to the back of her neck. It was dry, mercifully dry. But something tickled her neck. She pulled it into view: a clump of her hair, cut by the crossbow quarrel.
If Teia hadn’t dipped her head to look at her feet . . .
Their gazes locked.
“I am so, so sorry!” Tisis said, horror writ on her features. “I swear to Orholam that wasn’t me trying to . . .”
“Murder me and pretend it was an accident?” Teia asked.
“Orholam’s hairies,” Tisis said, “this is so not how I wanted this to go.”
Teia heard running footsteps summoned by the sound of the breaking glass. She dove and rolled out of the way, shimmering out of visibility and throwing her hood up even as the door banged open.
Three people she didn’t recognize dressed in cloaks of the Mighty burst into the room—along with one person who made her heart leap. Cruxer!
“A malfunction,” Tisis said smoothly. “And a potentially lethal one. Commander? Do you have an answer for this?”
If Cruxer were chagrined, he gave no indication. The man had turned into a slender version of Ironfist in his time away. “I’ll look into it at once, milady.”
“Send someone to do it. I wish to speak with you privately.”
Cruxer’s back stiffened. He gave a hand signal to dismiss the other Mighty without even picking up the glass or the bolt embedded in the wall.
After they were gone, Tisis said, “Adrasteia?”
Teia stood and at some distance, and slowly—she knew Cruxer’s reaction speed—she shimmered back into visibility.
His face blossomed open with such intensity of joy at seeing her that she almost started crying. He stepped across the room in two steps with those long legs of his and wrapped her in an embrace.
And then she did weep, with body-shaking, unstoppable sobs. She could only bury her face in his chest. For some reason, she’d thought Cruxer would disapprove of her, would judge her, would despise her for what she’d become.
It took her a while to pull her shit back together.
Orholam’s balls. Crying in front of Kip’s wife. Let me go hop on that pressure plate a few more times.
Finally, after what felt like hours but had probably been less than a minute, Teia cleared her throat and stepped back.
“So . . . I guess Kip’s not around?” Teia asked. “Breaker, I mean.” She was still trying to get used to the idea that she was accepted into the Mighty, so she had the right to use their Mighty names.
“He’s at the Chromeria,” Tisis said. “From the secrecy of your visit, I assume you’re in danger?”
“Why are you in danger?” Cruxer asked.
“He doesn’t know?” Teia asked Tisis, indicating Cruxer. About me infiltrating the Order? About Ironfist becoming King Ironfist?
“Kip said your mission was your secret and your burden—he only shared it with me because I needed to know to help him rule—but he wouldn’t extend that circle further until we got here, where it might affect Cruxer’s work. Commander, I would have told you a few hours ago, but things have been . . .”
He dismissed it with a wave of his hand. “I’m not entitled to all secrets, and I trust my Lord Guile completely.” He frowned momentarily. “Which is not to say I don’t want to know now, although I was just about to head to the Chromeria. I heard Commander Ironfist was seen heading there from the docks, with like a Parian honor guard or something?”
“Ironfist?” Teia asked, her voice strangled. “He’s here?”
“Yeah, I know!” Cruxer said. “I’d heard he’d left the Jaspers, and there were crazy rumors he’d been fired—like how there always is,” Cruxer said. “I wish it hadn’t taken a war to get us all back together, but I can’t tell you how many times as I’ve led the Mighty I’ve asked myself what Ironfist would do in a certain situation. I can’t wait to thank him. And . . . well, even ask his opinion of a few things. I mean, I’ve missed him almost as much as I’ve missed you, Te—what’s wrong, Teia?”
She couldn’t seem to get her voice to work right. Her stomach was in full riot. “You . . . you really don’ t—you don’t know?” She looked over to Tisis, who seemed just as clueless. Which meant Kip didn’t know, either.
Tisis said, “I mean, we know he lost his position here. Kip meant to speak with his grandfather about that, and see if he could be reinstated. He’s been furious about it.”
“It is so much too late for that,” Teia said. “You . . . didn’t hear about Paria?”
“What about it?” Tisis asked.
“Who cares about Paria now?” Cruxer said. “He’s here. He’s all right, isn’t he?”
“We were deep in Blood Forest,” Tisis told Teia, “and the river was blockaded. We had no news, no messages at all for several months, and few before that.”