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“I suppose so. Now there’s no pretending we aren’t hers.”
“Some of us never wanted to pretend.”
Branok cast a sideways glance at me. “Is something bothering you, Lynx?”
I reached the ladder onto the rooftop of the house adjacent to the place where Joachim was staying, and began to climb. To our right was the city wall, and once I had climbed high enough to see over it, the river carved away on the other side, like a natural moat. It was bright blue and blinding.
It was easier to speak to my brother when I didn’t have to look at the face that was just like mine… even though underneath, Branok and I were nothing alike.
“Did you know she was going to make a deal with Ebba? Did you know she was going to take the Scourge crown?” Honor had confided in my brother, but not in me, and that bit into my soul.
He hesitated. “Our relationship with Honor is different. All of us have a different relationship with her.”
I reached the rooftop and clambered over, turned and faced him. He joined me, looking uncomfortable, though I wasn’t sure if it was because Branok secretly hated heights when he didn’t have wings or because he hated this conversation. Perhaps both.
“And you’re the one she tells her secrets?” I demanded.
He smirked. “Gods, no. She would tellyouher secrets. You’re the one she trusts with that kind of thing. No, she tellsmeherplans.Because she knows I won’t try to stop her.”
“You aren’t as protective of her as the rest of us.” It had rankled at me for a long time, because it felt like Branok didn’t care about her as we did.
“I believe in her,” he said simply.
“So do I!”
“It’s different,” he said. “I can’t hold her too tightly, because she’d stop being who she is. And that’s what I love about her most—who she is, wild and reckless.”
“Which is great, until she’s dead.”
Branok spread his arms. “I can’t argue with you about this, Lynx. We see her differently. There’s a reason she needs both of us.”
His words blistered. I couldn’t shake the feeling we were all careening toward something terrible, something that would steal Honor away from us forever and drag her into the underworld.
All I wanted was for my twin to be at my side, making sure she was safe. Instead I didn’t trust him to protect her from her own selflessness.
“Can we stop arguing and focus?” I asked as the two of us lined up at the edge of the rooftop. Joachim would expect us to attack as dragons; we could peel the roof off the building. But we would slip in like common thieves and set a trap for him while he was out.
Branok sighed, and I knew he wanted to point out he hadn’t begun the argument in the first place, but he said, “Of course.”
The two of us leapt and landed lightly on the rooftop. We made our way across it to the door that led downward, knowing our father would be on the top floor, as close to the sky as he could be.
Then Branok was abruptly knocked back. Magic flared around his body as his limbs jerked, and he slammed hard into the ground. Over his twitching body, I caught a glimpse of my father.
Joachim stepped out of the shadows and spread his arms to either side. He had camouflaged himself with magic. “You found me. Now what do you intend to do with me?”
“I'm not here to kill you,” I promised.
“Oh, I know you aren't.”
Dragons knights surged around me, carrying dragonsbane. It made them weaker too, but it meant none of us could shift and there were a lot more of them.
I stumbled, fighting desperately, and sent one flying into another. Joachim rushed forward, spinning his magic, and I slammed into him. As we fought, the three of us all fell over the edge of the rooftop.
We slammed into the water—it knocked the breath out of me—and then I was underwater. I fought my way up. Branok was floating face-down, and I grabbed him, dragged him into shore.
Joachim slammed into me, knocking me back into the water. He grabbed my head and forced me under.
The dragon knights flew over us and plucked us both up out of the water.
