Page 26

Angry tears burned behind my eyes. From exhaustion, from resentment, from knowing that Roark’s belief that his soul brightened when it came near mine had destroyed his life. “And? Now what do you say?”

“I say I’m glad to see him again,” said Brynn. “I always told myself I would defend his bond should he find one, but I won’t mince words—I don’t trust you. You seem to resist him, and after all he has sacrificed by going beyond the gates of the Jorvan keep, I don’t care for it.”

“The man I fell in…the man I knew was a warrior loyal to the Jorvan prince. Not a prince himself and not Skul Drek. Two sunrises ago, everything I thought I knew unraveled. Forgive me if I seem untrusting of everyone, it is only because I am.” Each word slid through my teeth, sharp and lined with venom.

“Do you want me to sympathize with you and your broken heart, Melder?” Brynn tilted her head to one side. “It pales in comparison to him losing his freedom, his soul, and nearly his life.”

“You think I don’t understand all that?” A tear fell onto my cheek and I furiously swiped it away. “Do you think I don’t know exactly what he has lost because he keeps choosing me? I hold that truth heavy in my heart. But Dravens are not the only ones who’ve suffered losses. My family was slaughtered during the raids; my brother is trapped at Stonegate, likely being tortured because of me; and I am here, a captive of the clan who would revel in my death.”

For a long moment no one spoke. When it felt as though the silence would crush me into the floorboards, Gunter finally broke.

“Fair enough.” He shoved off the wall and strode across the room, pausing two paces away. “You may not trust us because we are Draven—no, don’t deny it.” He held up a palm when I began to protest. “We don’t trust Jorvans and Myrdans because of their blood either. But what you can trust is that the souls in this room are loyal to Roark Ashwood. If he says he is bonded to you, then we honor that and will do all we can to defend you like we will defend him.”

Bitterness was there, an urge to see them all as ruthless for allowing such brutality to befall their supposed playmate. But in truth, they’d all been young ones. Likely frightened, confused, and mourning losses from their clan as much as the rest of the kingdoms.

Gunter had protected Emi as he had vowed.

Brynn was expected to despise me, to want to be rid of the woman standing in the way of her royal title, but she had led me here. Safe.

My heart ached and I did not know when it might stop. Fadey knew he had everything to leverage against me. He had Kael, and no doubt he’d turned Thane and Yrsa against us by now. Hilda and Edvin were taken to Stonegate because they had the misfortune of living in the same village as me when I was taken. What would become of them and their families? Fadey could torture anyone I’d ever cared for.

I had little I could use to threaten Fadey.

Unless we found the bones of the Wanderer.

Battles were brewing and my army was made of a few people who had been raised to seek out my destruction.

Pride, fear, resentment—I needed to place them all to the side. I would never reach Kael without a bit of trust for Emi and Roark. To secure even a tentative alliance with a few more Dravens filled with loyalty complexes might not be so wretched.

I let my shoulders relax for the first time since the Dark Watch ambushed us in the wood.

The moment I parted my lips to offer a bit of reluctant trust, glass cracked and shattered. The hiss of an arrow sliced across the room. I had no time to think before screams rattled the chamber walls.

10

Lyra

Brynn was on her knees, cursing the gods and inspecting her brother’s wound. The arrow narrowly missed my throat and rammed into the meat of Auki’s upper thigh.

He gritted his teeth, back against the wall, but still reached for the blade at his waist.

Gunter rushed to my side and pushed one palm on my head and another on Emi’s, forcing us to hunch over. “Stay down.”

The words had barely crossed his lips before a second arrow cut through the shattered window. Gunter fell over the top of us, the point narrowly missing him.

“Damn the gods,” Auki said in a low growl. He cried out when he snapped the end of the arrow, point still stuck in his leg, and eased away from the wall,

“It would appear our folk are too impatient to see if we’ve sent the melder to Salur,” Gunter said with a touch of bitterness.

Fear thickened in my throat, but not for me. Drawn to the forefront of my mind was the fear that if Dravens were attacking me, what had they done to Roark?

Brynn crouched next to the window, her head tilted to peer through the edge of the broken glass without stepping into the open. “Best guess, a single archer in the oak. They’ll send more assailants before the queen intervenes.”

I had few doubts the queen was the one who sent them.

The familiar roar from craft echoed in my skull and sparked in my fingertips. By my side, Gunter crouched on one knee, but a flicker of gold filament gathered around the dagger sheathed at his waist. Threads of light billowed as though underwater.

“Gunter,” I whispered in a low hiss. “Is your blade made of bone?”