"Wait, wait, wait, wait!" Misty said as she gripped her anchor tight.
The word tripped over itself four times and caught on the stone. The chain at her wrist trembled, a nervous rattle that did not belong to metal. She had gone pale to the lips. The little gold at her throat picked up the cold light and looked like a thing trying to shine through ash.
Ludwig watched the way her eyes fixed on him and then slid off and then walked back, as if whatever shape she saw could not be held in the mind for long without making the hands shake. He frowned. He had not thought she would balk like that.
For a breath he wondered how he looked to her in this state. The violet cast that sometimes clung to his skin had not fully burned off. The heat in his bones had not settled. The amulet lay cool on his chest and did what it could to smooth the edge from his thoughts. It could not soften the way she flinched.
