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I rose to my feet. “Now? After she…?”
Tal hesitated. “I think so. It’s hard to be sure. I think her feelings leak through; I don’t get her thoughts.”
I moved toward him swiftly. He took a step back, looking startled, but I grabbed his collar and ripped his shirt down.
A mark glowed on his skin.
“She marked you.” Jealousy drove like a stake through my gut, even though I had no right to it.
“And I marked her.” Talisyn’s voice was calm and level.
“Fine. You could have told me.” I forced myself to let go of him, to walk back to the chest and continue cataloging. “I’m sure we can find a better use for Joachim’s ill-gotten gains.”
“I’m sure our queen will have lots of ideas,” Talisyn said, but I could feel him watching me, as if he were uncertain about our entire interaction.
I couldn’t stand being here any longer. “It’s not here. Let’s fly back.”
Talisyn and I winged our way over the mountains only to find Honor’s castle surrounded by Scourge. Panic swept over me.
Had the Scourge come to worship her… or kill her? Had they rejected her attempt to take the Bone Crown? Or maybe she hadn’t taken the crown at all, and we had a chance to protect her… from herself and from the Scourge.
“We’ll fly over them land on the castle,” I said to Talisyn. “We have to reach Honor. There’s too many of them; we need to fight as dragons if we have to fight. But it’s best if we fly.”
Tal looked grim. He knew as well as I did this was far too many Scourge for a fight. It was than an entire army, more than I’d ever seen before. It was a nation of Scourge.
The Scourge seemed to sense us—they despised dragons as much as they feared us—and they turned as one, moving eerily to face us. As we soared over them, safely out of reach, I glimpsed hybrids amongst the crowd of zombie faces.
And then I glimpsed red hair.
I called to Talisyn through the bond and the two of us dropped, landing suddenly on either side of Honor. The Scourge scattered back as we breathed fire across them all.
Honor looked annoyed, not grateful. Snapping eyes met mine. Her lips parted as if she had something to say. I, too, had a lot to say, but I couldn’t manage to think of where to begin with this damned girl.
Her lips closed tightly. She stormed back toward the castle, leaving us—and the Scourge—behind.
The Scourge growled and hissed and surged toward us. I sheathed my sword, ready to shift.
And then she stopped and looked back. “Stop it!” she shouted, as if she were scolding a dog barking in the early hours of the morning.
The Scourge hissed but stopped moving. Their eyes tracked us, a thousand eyeballs—more or less, given how many had lost some—but they didn’t attack.
I had a thousand questions as Talisyn and I followed her into the castle.
Not least of all as Honor held up a finger, telling us to pause, then offered her arm to a girl in a brown dress. The girl looked exhausted, worn, as she looped her arm in Honor’s.
Then Honor disappeared into the shadows.
That was one way to win an argument.
Honor was back in a moment. “Now you may return to yelling at me.”
As if I needed an invitation.
“What the hell is going on?” I demanded. “Why are the Scourge camping on our lawn? Did Zehr call them?”
“I’m trying to send them back to the bone mountain,” she said.
“You’retrying to send them back?” My voice came out soft and dangerous. I wanted to confirm she’d really done what I thought.
