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“You were taken on Camet’s orders. I don’t think they wanted me.” He seemed as easy to talk to and confident as ever, even though we’d just woken up surrounded by nobles who were somehow still my enemies when we had death at our door.
Maybe I’d imagined the spark between us a moment earlier. The warmth and heat in his voice when he’d murmured my name, as if he was waking up from a dream where the two of us were intimate. I’d replay that moment once we were safe.
“How did the moth manage to shift?” That was my first, most important question. I had to know if there was a way we could access our magic and fight Kallus’s men.
Damyn exhaled.
“Do you think maybe moth shifters kept their powers?” It wasn’t a very kind thought, but part of me wondered if because they were so small and seemed weak according to other shifters, that maybe they had somehow maintained their powers. That would be ironic. Although given what moth shifters could accomplish—if they weren’t splattered by a newspaper—no one should see them as weak. “Or maybe many shifters who hadn’t yet used their last vestiges of magic were able to lend it to the moth shifter?”
“You have so many questions for someone who was just kidnapped.” Damyn rubbed his temple as if he had a headache. “And none of them are about your kidnapping.”
“Well, Camet worked pretty hard to get us here… and he has to know what he just risked by taking me from Caldren and Jaik. There are pretty limited options.” I raised fingers to tick off as I went through them. “Camet wants me dead and decided to go through all this effort to get me that way.”
Damyn’s lips tightened when I said the worddead, fury coming over his face, and I rushed on before he could break down a wall and strangle Camet. I ticked off my second finger. “Camet wants to hand me over to Kallus as a bargaining tool.”
“That’s not happening.”
“I don’t think my uncle would hurt me,” I said. “I think going to Kallus is exactly what I need to do.”
Damyn’s brows arched. “That’s not happening either.”
“Damyn, hear me out.”
“Can we focus on not being kidnapped first?” Damyn rubbed his hands over his face. “Branok and Lynx may have made it into Rylow.”
“Then really, I already feel sorry for Camet,” I said lightly.
A shadow passed over Damyn’s face that I couldn’t understand. He rose to his feet, wincing as if his head throbbed, and made his way to the window.
“Or we could wait and see what Camet wants. The city gates are sealed and I don’t intend to unseal them. If we can find our way out, Kallus can find his way in.”
“No, but we can find Branok and Lynx. I’m sure they’ll realize where we are soon; those two have spies everywhere.”
“If they aren’t still trying to get in. We can’t take the tunnels out anymore.” I said. “I want to hear Camet’s plan.”
Just then, the doors opened, bringing with them a rush of music…and guards. Four guards moved swiftly in and barreled straight toward Damyn, who looked bored as they shoved him against the wall. I was pretty sure Damyn would always be a threat if he chose to be, but he let himself be pinned. He gave me a look, as if to say,you wanted to hear what Camet had to say…
The man swept in just then behind his guards. “Honor! Thank you for coming!”
He glanced behind me at Damyn and looked disconcerted, even though Damyn was doing absolutely nothing. Damyn seemed to have that effect on people, as if they thought he was violence personified.
“I didn’t have a choice,” I said drily.
He looked horrified, though maybe it was a bit over-acted. “I'm so sorry. I told my people to invite you to enter Rylow, although I just wanted to keep it quiet to make sure Kallus’s forces didn't see an entry point. I'm so sorry if it seemed you were being coerced.”
“I didn’t feelcoercedso much as literally kidnapped. By the moth shifter? How is that possible?”
He waved off the question. “Everyone still has some magic left.” He gave me a worried look. “Honor, what happened? How did we lose our magic? The rumors say that you are at the center of that loss... that you are the reason we are losing to Kallus...”
Damyn tensed as if he were going to come off the wall and punch Camet, and I gave him a smile and a flutter of my fingertips, trying to calm him down. I had this situation in hand. I wanted to talk to Camet.
Damyn’s look told me he didn't like this, but he subsided.
“We're not losing to Kallus,” I said evenly. “We defeated Kallus before he could reach Rylow.”
“He's been rampaging through the land...”
“Yes, he has. While how many nobles have taken refuge in Rylow?” I cocked my head to one side, still hearing the strains of music. “What is happening out there, Camet? In Jaik’s ballroom?”
