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Bodin flicks Legion a glance, then clears his throat. His voice is so much deeper than the others. It rumbles like thunder.
“Did Fox confess this,” he asks, “when you were... intimate with him?”
“Intimate?”
A flash of Fox’s blood covering my hand enters my mind. “Why would you say that?”
“You wear his clothes.”
Legion gives him a trying look. “He was specifically forbidden to take her as a lover.”
My jaw drops. Sputtering, I don’t even know where to begin explaining.
“I only took his clothes because our rooms moved during the night, and the exit doors opened to each other. He couldflickerout. He left me alone, and with no clean clothes to wear for the day, I had access to his.”
“You stole his clothes.” His eyebrow twitches.
Bodin sips his drink and mumbles into the cup, “Fox was right.”
“You know I can hear you, right?” I gesture at my ears. “I might be mortal now, but my shifter senses work just fine.”
Legion clears his throat. “Regarding your earlier inquiry, an infantile dragon is a target. There are those at court who would just as soon kill him to eradicate our position altogether. The dragon-bonded draw power from their beast. By revealing ours is so small, we’ve announced our weakness.”
Fox didn’t look weak... but I suppose the rest of them do. They’ve lost their memories, don’t seem to eat actual food, and I haven’t seen them use magic except for that little display of shadow power at the fort. “You’reallin danger?”
Why does my tone sound concerned?
He stares at me, eyes sharp and scrutinizing. The attention makes me squirm, and when he idly taps his finger on his stack of papers, I know he’s thinking about me—things I want to know.
“Why did you do it then?” I ask. “Why put everyone at risk to bring me here? I’m a Nothing, right? I’ll weigh you down and cause delays.”
He grunts in agreement. “This is a fact. However, you carry a trapped wisp around your neck. Are you aware they’re sacrilegious to keep?”
I’m starting to realize how adept these Sluagh are at avoiding questions.
Put aside the fact it’s Tinger’s, they should be able to harvest wisps—manabeeze—from every living Well-connected fae in this place. Even from the monsters they fight during the war against the subterranean. “I call wisps manabeeze. Where I’m from, they erupt from bodies at the moment of death. Don’t they do that here?”
Bodin’s astute gaze narrows. “Where are you from?”
I groan. This is going to be weird.
“I’m from Elphyne.”The same place as you.
“Where is that?” he asks.
“Across the oceans.”We know each other.
“Another realm?” Legion’s eyebrows lift. “How did you cross oceans when they’re fraught with sea monsters neither Dream nor Nightmare? Too many unattended watergates in the deep block free passage between the realms. The Mer Folk refuse help to the Folk of the air and land. Only the Tidal Hunt can ensure safe passage across the sea. Since Lady Nivene does not know who you are, I ask again—how did you get here?”
“You don’t use portal stones here?”
Bodin whispers something to Legion, who turns to me and says, “The city guard mentioned you arrived through a burning circle of light. Was that created by the stone you speak of?”
“Yes.”
“Like a flowstone or an enchanted charm.” He taps his finger. “How did you make it?”
“I didn’t. I stole it too.”
