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But they only murmured words of encouragement before I walked into the shadows.
I shadow traveled to the place where Joachim had asked me to meet him: a random farmhouse outside the city. Every light blazed inside.
I walked in to find Joachim. He looked as if he were alone, but I didn’t think that was the case.
Joachim didn’t try to hide the fact that he was gloating. “Honor. You’ve seemed intent on ruining my life. It’s a pleasure to return the favor.”
“Do you think perhaps you ruined mine in the first place, murdering my parents?”
“Oh, I doubt you would have liked Lysander and Amily very much as parents. They were so wrapped up in each other… they weren’t capable of loving anyone else. They didn’t really love you, when you were a little girl. You were a distraction from their true love, which was always just for each other.” His mouth twisted bitterly. “They weren’t capable of loving anyone else.”
“That’s not true,” I answered.
“You have no idea what’s true. You were just a little girl—with a cracked-open head. I still remember you sitting in that cage, staring at nothing with your mouth hanging open, looking so stupid we thought maybe you really couldn’t lead us to Lysander’s hidden treasures.”
Fury rose in my chest, but I raised my chin. All that mattered was reaching Lynx.
He seemed to enjoy my angry silence, since he went on. “Youarejust a little girl with a cracked-open head. You have no way of knowing what’s real and what’s fantasy.”
“I’ve talked to Amily.”
He scoffed at that.
While I knew Joachim was cruel and arrogant and dismissive, I had this sinking fear that maybe he knew something I didn’t.
Zehr must think the same thing, because he said into my ear,“Just how sure are you that you’ve been talking to Amily?”
Joachim lied all the time. But the pleased light in his eyes worried me.
“I’m pleased to see you kept your word, Honor.” He rose from his seat at the table, and the chair legs screeched across the wooden floor. I stiffened as he came near me, looking me over with bald curiosity. “You look surprisingly unharmed. I didn’t think you were capable of keeping any secrets.”
“I would do a lot for your son. It’s too bad you don’t feel the same way.”
He sneered. “I did everything for my sons. I remade the world so my sons could be its kings. Isn’t that enough?”
“Maybe they didn’t want to be made into kings if it meant making everyone else into servants.”
“Yes, I’m quite sure now that crack in the head left you permanently a child. Everyone wants to be a king.”
He raised his hand, giving a signal, and his guards surged into the room, carrying glittering dragonsbane.
“You said you would free Lynx. Unharmed.” I shouted at him as the guards fell on me, wrapping me in the terrible material. It burned against my skin and my knees buckled as weakness flooded through my body.
“Yes, and I will. But I didn’t promise any particular timeline on when I’d release him.” Joachim’s gave on mine was hateful. “Though I’m not sure how much his memories may dog him right now, reminding him of his other well-deserved punishments.”
I noticed there were only two knights in the room, and two shifters. The rest of them must be on their way to find my men.
“Search her,” Joachim said.
I glanced around, noting how few shadows were in the room. I had to break a lamp; then there would be shadows everywhere from the remaining lights.
Rough hands groped along my clothes, then under them. I yanked away, and one of them punched me in the gut. My breath rushed out of me and I doubled over, pain lancing through my stomach.
“Nothing,” one of the guards said, yanking away from me.
“Put her on the table,” Joachim said. “We need to find where those stones are hidden.”
I whirled and slammed my bound hands onto the lamp on the table. It crashed to the ground, sending up a tower of flame as the oil caught the fire. One of the guards cursed and stamped it out.
