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“No need,” I promised her. I was very familiar with the trick of opening this door when it was locked; when he was young, Jaik had been a heavy sleeper, because his dreams had been haunted by memories he didn’t remember in the daylight. A moment, and I threw open the door for her.
“You’re endlessly useful, Damyn,” Honor told me as she passed, which shouldn’t have pleased me as much as it did.
Camet’s things were thrown everywhere, turning the room into disarray. She rifled through the closet, then drew out one of the dresses Jaik had ordered for her, a velvet forest green gown trimmed in gold that contrasted with her red hair.
This room assailed me with memories of Jaik and Caldren as boys. I hadn’t wanted to like Pend’s sons, but they had won me over, become like my own younger brothers. I’d told them to always keep weapons, and…
I pressed a button in Jaik’s chest of jewelry, and a drawer sprung open that still contained two small daggers. I pocketed one and handed the other to Honor, who took it with a smile. “I love gifts.”
“It’s on loan. It’s Jaik’s.”
“I love stolen gifts best of all.”
She was incorrigible, so I gave up and offered her my arm.
Then we found our own way to the ballroom, following the bright music.
For a few long seconds, the two of us paused, looking at the party underway. Servants circulated with trays of food, though I was sure they would rather be home with their families in the current crisis, and there shouldn’t be food wasted in the midst of a siege.
“Dance with me,” Honor asked, holding out her hand gracefully. “I need a moment to process how disgusted I am. That they’re partying during the chaos outside. No matter how Camet justifies it… it’s wrong.”
I was as furious as she was. But I bowed my head as I refused. “If you and I dance together here, it will give the wrong impression.”
“Damyn…” she sounded exasperated. “Have I ever cared? It’s not that long ago that Talisyn made a spectacle dancing with the maid…it’s all stupid.”
“Just because society’s expectations are stupid doesn’t mean we aren’t stuck with them.”
“Or—hear me out—we could stop giving a fuck.”
“That doesn’t take away the consequences for ignoring the rules.”
She let out an exasperated sputter and walked away from me. I would’ve been amused I was the one person who could leave Honor speechless, if not for the ache in my stomach. I didn’t want to reject her. The mark on my shoulder where she’d bitten me burned like fire, and I pressed my fingers against it, trying to quiet the pain. It was like my body couldn’t stand when I rejected her.
“Camet, you brought the little troublemaker here,” one of the royals said.
She was a little troublemaker, and warmth glowed in my chest, even if they didn’t mean it as a compliment. She was shaking up the world. She doubted herself—I’d seen that clearly in the way she’d looked at me—and yet she kept taking the next step necessary into a new world.
“Ah, yes. And she was thrilled to come,” Camet said, making the others laugh. He might be scared of Jaik’s wrath, but around the other nobles, he’d dropped the pretense that he hadn’t known she was taken against her will. Perhaps he didn’t expect Jaik to survive.
None of them noticed me. They were watching Honor. I appreciated my ability to move in the shadows.
“I’m sure she’ll run back to Jaik and Caldren again as soon as she can though, the little slut.”
“We’ll see,” Camet demurred, as if she might not be free.
“I’ll never understand how she won Jaik’s attention.”
“Did you hear the rumor she was always prophesied to destroy the kingdom?”
“I could believe it was true… the Elders are all dead and the young Royals soon will be too.”
“And so will she. They’ll never survive Kallus’s forces without their magic.”
Camet was so confident he’d become king if he just stayed sealed up in Rylow. King ofwhat, I wasn’t sure.
Then understanding hardened in my chest. He planned to hand Honor over to either Kallus or Ebba, I was sure of it.
I melted back into the shadows. I needed Branok and Lynx and their work as spies. They’d be able to ferret out Camet’s exact plans, because if the man was so foolish as to speak in front of me, I was sure he’d speak in front of others too.
