Page 80 of Heart’s Rescue

Rowan

The Long Con

The world’s gone fuzzy. I pull in a breath, hold it, let it out. My body feels strange, disconnected and numb, and my eyelids are so heavy I’m not sure if I can open them. I breathe again, slowly.

Because I have to open my eyes. Someone needs me. Someone is counting on me, damn it, for once in my life someone needs—

Arryn. Breath catches in my throat. Arryn needs me. I wrestle my eyelids open. Soft, gray light fills my vision. My magic is here, snaking through the ground beneath whatever bizarrely soft and warm thing I’m on.

“Touch your magic and I’ll knock you out again,” someone says.

I groan because I know that voice. My eyelids slam shut. Back to breathing, in and out, slow and steady.

Knock me out. Again. That explains it. That explains a lot, actually. I’ve always wondered who in the king’s court had the magic to take out Captain Orryen, to knock him unconscious after he lost his heart, and then to keep him sedated for this many years.

I turn my head and crack open my eyes. Aloserin is sitting next to me, his legs crossed, his fingers steepled in front of his chin. Good old Acting Captain of the Royal Guard Aloserin. That sneaky bastard. I never would have guessed he had sleep magic. His face is moving strangely, pulsing in and out like he’s underwater, but I can still read the scowl on his lips.

“I mean it,” Aloserin says. “We just redid the floors in here. I don’t want your magic ripping them up.”

I open my mouth. Close it. Swallow. Try again to form words.

“You got it,” I rasp.

My magic pools just below the ground, hot and fluid. Waiting. My vision begins to clear, things falling into their appropriate places in the universe, and the messy jumble of memories churning in my brain begins to calm down. My heart thuds against the inside of my chest as if it’s angry at me; the back of my mouth tastes bitter.

Did Arryn get away? How much does Aloserin know? How can I ask about her without asking about her?

“Stars, Rowan,” Aloserin mutters under his breath.

He stands and walks across the floor to stand at a window, his boots tapping on a neat pattern of white and gray tiles. Then he turns back to face me, and I realize the man looks utterly exhausted. How long was I out? How long was he sitting there waiting for me to wake up?

“Do you have any idea what this looks like?” he asks.

I blink and painfully turn my head, taking in the tile floors and the bright, open room.

“An infirmary?” I guess.

Aloserin makes a noise in the back of his throat that suggests he doesn’t find me in the least bit amusing. He spins away from the window and walks back to the bed I’m sprawled across, tap, tap, tap on the tile. Then he crosses his arms over his chest and looms over me. It’s probably meant to be intimidating. I hate that it’s working.

“You tried to bring a monster from the Worlds Above into the king’s inner towers,” Aloserin says.

My throat goes dry, and my pulse starts banging so loudly Aloserin can probably hear it. I try to move my fingers, but my hands have apparently decided they’re no longer taking orders from my brain.

Aloserin saw Arryn. He knows she’s from the Worlds Above. But did he catch her? Did she get away? Voids, I have to get rid of Aloserin. I have to get out of this stupid bed, send my magic out. Find her.

“I don’t suppose you’re going to tell me why?” Aloserin continues, raising an eyebrow.

I swallow hard. “Hey, Aloserin,” I begin. “How long’s it been since you got laid?”

Aloserin stares at me like he can’t quite understand the sounds coming out of my mouth.

“Because you really look like you need to get fucked,” I finish, with a grin.

Aloserin gives me an expression of unmitigated disgust. “Voids, Rowan,” he replies, making my name sound like a curse. “Get your damn life together.”

“Why? So I can be the king’s little pet, just like you? Get trotted out on the royal leash?”

Aloserin’s face turns an interesting shade of crimson, and there’s a neat little vein pulsing in his neck.