The furniture. The comforts. The Resh’Agar sending for these men. Merchants traveled for coin, and they must have had a promise that there was coin to be made here. But the Reskala didn’t need these gowns and shawls and bedside tables.
She froze.
Not weapons. Not armor. For me.
Her heart lurched. “These wares aren’t for soldiers,” she whispered.
Thessia paused beside her. “No,” she admitted, arms folding across her chest.
Auryn turned to find her violet eyes boring into her own. Intense. Razor sharp.
And knowing.
“They’re for me,” Auryn said.
The Lioness didn’t answer. She didn’t need to.
Auryn’s breath shook. Her hands curled into fists at her sides. “He means to send me away.”
Thessia sighed through her nose. “Better Maradryn than Krystopolis, don’t you think?”
The words hit like a slap. “Isn’t that my decision to make?” Her voice rose, carrying down the empty courtyard, sharp enough that handlers turned from their work.
"Moonbeam, what do you know of that place? He means it when he says it's dangerous."
Auryn's lips thinned into a stubborn line. "So is traveling on the Moores. Yet I survived that. With him."
Thessia's hand settled on her shoulder. "It isn't your strength he doubts. No one could doubt that. He fears something more. Something neither of us can see." She paused, giving Auryn a chance to speak. When she didn't, Thessia went on. "I don't know anything about the Crystal City, but I can tell you that the Resh'Agar is legend for a reason. A bloody one."
Auryn frowned at her. "I'm not a child, Thessia. I know his hands are far from clean."
The Lioness's eyes hardened to a hue Auryn hadn't seen before. Cold. Like amethyst.
"Auryn, that place is death. Rumors say blood magic. Sacrifice. Don't know what's down there, but it isn't a place for you."
"Heis my place," Auryn said. Faltered. "He never meant to take me with him…"
Her eyes stung. Terrified that Thessia would see it, Auryn spun on her heel and strode away, boots striking hard against the stone. She didn’t stop until she reached the stables, and the moment she did, she ripped her boots right off her feet and tossed them into the hay. Her toes flinched against the cold, but she didn’t care. She needed to feel the ground beneath her feet, to be sure it wasn’t falling.
The horses shifted restlessly around her, their breath steaming in the cold air. Astenos was gone, likely with Kailorien, but the others stamped hooves and tossed their heads, unsettled by her trembling hands as she reached for a brush. She moved down the line, stroking manes, tugging knots too roughly, her breath coming faster with each pass.
Her voice broke into the dark. “I thought he meant to stay. I thought—” She swallowed hard, pressing her forehead to a stall door. “Why does he keep saving me only to throw me away?”
Because I’m weak? Fragile? Small? Because I haven’t proven I can stand beside him?
Kailorien’s words slammed into her.
Maybe it was a mistake.
Auryn stumbled from the force of it. The mare before her shifted, ears flicking back at her unsteady touch. Auryn bit down hard, hoping the sting would halt the sudden burn of tears. With unsteady hands, she ran the brush down the horse’s flank, her knuckles white on the handle.
A firm hand caught her wrist. “Moonbeam.”
Thessia had followed her in—silent as a shadow until now. Her grip was steady, grounding, even as Auryn’s whole body trembled.
“Let me go,” Auryn rasped, yanking once.
But Thessia held firm. “No.”
