Ronan pushed off the tree, jaw clenched. “Say it then. Say what you’ve been holding back. I deserve it.”
“You deserve worse,” I snarled.
The tension snapped.
He lunged first, which was almost admirable, but I met him halfway and was twice his size. My fist connected with his jaw. He staggered, wings flaring, and threw a blast of wind upward to steady himself. He swung at me, not with full force, but enough to bruise. Good. I wanted bruises. I wanted a target.
Kieran leapt between us, catching Ronan’s wrist. “Not now!”
“He put her in danger!” I roared.
“And she’s alive!” Kieran shouted back, finally losing the monk act. “She’s alive because she’s Wren! Not because you can punch the past out of Ronan’s skull!”
Ronan’s chest heaved, shame radiating off him like heat.
I stepped forward again, fists clasping, ready to knockthe apology out of him, when the door to the treehouse snapped open with abang.
Enya stormed out, eyes glowing, hair braided back for battle, but not the kind we were waging outside on the platform.
“If you three idiots do not SHUT UP,” she hissed, “I will throw you off this platform myself.”
We froze.
Enya continued, voice like a whip. “She does not need your guilt, ego, andmalenessvibrating through the wood. Fix your mess.”
I opened my mouth.
Enya pointed at me without looking. “No.”
My mouth closed. I whirled on Ronan.
“This is your fault! She wouldn’t have taxed herself if she would have been where she wassupposed to be?—
Ronan flinched, but didn’t fight me. He just turned and stumbled off the platform, wings flapping in frantic retreat.
“Where are you going?” I called after him, badly wanting a fight.
He turned midair, voice cracking. “The library! To research Veskor and the missing draken lineages! Maybe that will actually help someone today since I’m a waste of space!”
Then he was gone, swallowed by the night.
Kieran glared at me.
Enya turned to Kieran. “You may stay. You are the nice, calm one.”
Kieran smirked. She rounded on me last.
“You—” she began.
“Let me guess,” I said. “Go jump off the cliffs?”
“No.” She crossed her arms. “Go hit something that won’t hit back.”
I blinked. “What?”
“She’s right,” Nerissa said, appearing up the staircase, rising from the shadows like an avenging ghost. She leaned casually against the railing, her blades gleaming. “You’re vibrating like a man who needs either a duel or a scream. I vote duel.”
Kieran brightened. “Oh, absolutely. He’s unbearable like this.”
