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I grabbed her wrists and clung to her. “Stop it, Honor.”
She pried my fingers away from her wrist, trying to escape me, but I clung to her. I wasn’t going to lose her. “You felt fine with the idea of having Arren do this. Why shouldn't I?”
“He was just another Scourge. You wouldn’t have mourned one ofmypeople.You Royals act like you’re special—you’re not.”
“Except to me, which was why you targeted him,” she answered. “But this has to be done. You will be dead soon otherwise. And I need someone to work with me to stop the Scourge.”
Those bright blue eyes were on mine. She was unguarded at the moment, and I could catch glimpses of what she had seen before—the children with their stones, my father’s plea. Honor’s pity was written across her face, but it was in her feelings too, and fury spiked through me. I’d rather she hated me than pitied me.
“I did what I had to do,” I said coldly. “I had no other way to stop the Scourge. I needed someone who shared a bond with me, and Arren and I are cousins.”
“You and I share a bond,” she reminded me, and she wrested the bone crown away from me.
I scrambled off the bed, lurching—my legs were unsteady, and it was surreal to almost fall when I had just been standing in my dreams—into her. The two of us slammed into the wall. She dropped the bone crown as she struggled to push me away.
“That is both crown and cage,” I told her fiercely. “You’ll never escape. Until death.”
Her eyes flashed up at me. She tried to push me away, but I summoned the last of my magic, the last of my strength. My fingers wrapped her throat, pressing into the arteries to either side. Her hands rose to grip my wrists, and she drove her knee upward, slamming it into my upper thigh as I moved to avoid the blow she’d intended. I kept my grip as pain exploded in my thigh, digging my fingers deeper.
She would hate me for this. But the blood choke would render her unconscious, and I’d find a way to save her damned life, no matter how little she cared about it.
In the back of my mind, I saw a flicker—Honor’s red hair, but someone else too, someone in the shadows. And then as her eyes lolled back, as her body fell, as she dropped into my arms, she rose defiantly in my dreams.
“You can’t stop me,” she said, and I turned to her in the darkness, finding her already seated on the damned bone throne.
For the first time, I glimpsed one of her men in the back ofhermind. The connection between her and I sizzled, heated now that both of us were barely clinging to consciousness in the daylight.
I tried to keep her upright, easing her toward the bed. She wouldn’t be unconscious long. I had to move.
“Help me,” she called in her dream life.
“Helpme!”I shouted at the dragon royals that rose in her mind. “Stop her from damning herself!”
But they didn’t listen to me. In my mind, she looked at me, her gaze triumphant even though I was holding her unconscious form.
“You deserve to live, Zehr,” she told me.
I shook off the dream and carried her toward the bed. With each step, it felt like I grew stronger, and I lay her down on the pillows without stumbling. I went to find the bone crown where it had fallen on the ground. Electric magic tingled around my fingertips.
I was stronger than before. Far stronger. It didn’t make sense, but I had no time to understand now. I had to get this crown away from her. I should shadow travel if I could.
Honor was already stirring. She sat up, blinking, and I reached again for her throat. I needed time.
The next thing I knew, two bodies barreled into the room, so fast they were a blur, and slammed into me. Talisyn ran to check on Honor, but Damyn scrambled on top of me. He punched me over and over, his blue eyes icy with fury. The last thing I saw was his fist, then the world went red, and then black.
Darkness rushed up to meet me.
In the dream world, her gaze met mine and she smiled. She raised the bone crown in her hands.
“Don’t do it, Honor,” I leapt forward. “We’ll find another way.”
“Your father used you to escape,” she said, her voice soft. “For all your faults, here you are trying to stop me. Are you really even a monster?”
I leapt toward her in my dreams, but she settled the crown on her head as she faded. She was waking.
I tried to rouse myself, but I couldn’t break out of the dream world.
But I could see glimpses through her eyes as she smiled at Damyn and Talisyn, who faced her with heaving chests. Damyn’s knuckles were covered in blood.Myblood.
