Quill of Thieves

Chapter 44

Her Icicles no longer dogged her every step like vexing, lost shadows.

Two possibilities existed that Astrid could think of to explain it: either Astrid had done a really shoddy job at training them, which she refused to take responsibility for, or perhaps Astrid had never been Davina's intended target.

Maybe it had been Matthias whom Davina wished to keep eyes on.

According to Matthias, her mother had served as his portal anchor for his crossing from Soleita. It made little sense on all accounts. The first being that Davina held no connection to the elements, and thus couldn't have been a magical anchor. It was why Rainier's queen had despised Soleita since being a young girl; the Soleitian Academy had refused to allow her admittance when it was what she had been destined for. Prophesied. But her mother's destiny had been denied.

Davina fashioned herself into our saviour.

Astrid cursed Serah's voice in her thoughts and shook her traitorous head furiously. 

Regardless, what would Davina have wanted from a young Matthias? What had made him special enough to her?

What should Astrid believe? Who could she believe?

Trust always hovered so far out of her reach.

Holding post outside Sebastian's room stood Melvin, clad in his full guard regalia. Before he spotted her, Astrid hesitated and then pressed back into the wall around the corner. Confusion and fury over what had transpired with Matthias showed in the residual tremors of her fingers. She couldn't let bumbling-happy-go-lucky Melvin, of all people, see her like this. Besides, she would not allow rumors of this visit to get back to Queen Davina until Astrid had decided on some answers for herself.

So, Astrid clamped one hand over her tightening cuff and a fist against her stomach and screwed her eyes shut.

Air. She forced the threads into existence. Air!

The element responded slowly at first, like some molten sludge from an alchemist's test tube. It had always been her worst element to manipulate despite the fact its threads were constantly everywhere. Her cuff grasped the skin above her elbow like a ring of pointed nails; it bore the semblance of her mother.

"Blasted device!"

She pressed against her abdomen harder, directly over the spot she had normally felt Sebastian's magic stir against her own. Nothing responded to it. Nothing pushed back. Now you're quiet, you arse? Astrid clenched her jaw, bearing down upon the angry whirlwind inside her and willed Air's wispy threads surrounding her to move.

Air rushed to her, fell around her like a blanket that brushed against her booted toes. It hid her; she became part of the shadows. For a moment, she marveled at the sight and grinned to herself, examining the skin of her hand as it blended into the various gray shades of the dimly lit hallway. It wasn't until she pushed away from the tapestry-covered wall that she felt the tingling numbness of her arm.

The cuff was suffocating her.

A little quicker, she crept down the woven runner of the hall, invisible to Melvin and--where was Abel? No matter. It was hardly the time to worry about that husky street girl. Melvin failed to so much as flinch when she moved around him. That was, until she emitted an audible gasp as her skull cleaved apart.

Melvin spun to the spot where Astrid stood. "Who's there?"

Astrid froze, trying to hold onto her pained breaths. Her brain throbbed. The restraint of the cuff continued to drain her, alarmingly fast. Her vision erupted into tiny black stars as if her soul already drifted among the emptiness of night.