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Amara gave a reluctant smile. “Your brother may be a powerful mage—officially or unofficially—but he is still a young man, and I know how young people view old fogies like me. Don’t worry, I wouldn’t say it to him directly.”
“Old fogey?” Hayes leaned his head into our little circle. “Speak for yourself. There’s never been a more youthful or in touch master mage than me. Just ask all of Colton’s apprentices from back when I was his second and did most of their training.”
Gia instantly went off into peals of laughter, regaling Luna with tales of how the apprentices had really viewed Hayes. Amara just smiled silently, her eyes meeting Hayes’s with both humor and something warmer and more personal. I turned hurriedly away, feeling like an intruder in something private.
“Are you worried?” Renley asked me quietly. “The kingdom is in danger of being split in two, a whole people are blindly walking into the worst kind of subjugation, and you’ve just volunteered to take an enormous risk on your own, and here they all are—laughing.”
I grinned back at him. “Isn’t it excellent? How awful it would be if everyone was shuffling around in depression. When I think of everything that has been happening since the moment I got activated…” I shook my head. “Just think what a negative year I might have had if this group of people wasn’t able to carry everything lightly!”
“That’s the spirit.” He smiled. “I know it can take some time to adjust to this crowd, though. I remember my own period of adjustment very clearly. But having a serious air isn’t always the mark of those who actually take matters the most seriously when the moment of action comes.”
His words reminded me of Clay, who would have been right at home in the center of this moment. Since the first time I’d met him, he had always been smiling and laughing, a cheerful presence in any situation. For the first time I wondered how much of that was his natural personality and how much was a purposeful approach to a life that was often unfair and difficult. When I was as experienced and skilled as him, would I still approach each new moment with the same relaxed good cheer? If not, I hoped I could at least match Renley, who lacked Gia’s exuberance but was never a dampening presence. He was like the steady foundation that allowed her wildness to shine.
Gia’s stories were still going, but I slipped away from the rest of the group. Descending the stairs, I entered the cold darkness of the stable. The quiet sounds of the horses surrounded me, the occasional swish of a tail, the munching of teeth, or the shifting of hooves. None of them stirred at my arrival, though, and I walked easily down the central aisle, peering into each stall as I passed.
The occasional lantern illuminated some more than others, and when I finally spotted Nik, he was inside Acorn’s stall, sitting in near darkness. He looked up, meeting my eyes.
Jumping to his feet, he vaulted over the half door and landed in front of me in the light of the closest lantern.
“You’ve finished pacing up and down, then?” I asked with a small smile.
He ran a hand through his hair and gave me a rueful smile in return. “You know me too well. I thought I was going to lose my mind cooped up in that tiny room with so many people.”
I refrained from pointing out that the rooms we had been given were hardly tiny. Instead I slid my fingers into the hair on either side of his head.
“I could see you were about to lose it in there.”
He sighed, leaning his head slightly against my right hand.
“Do you know how many times I’ve wished you weren’t the sort of person who considers the greater good before your own safety?” he asked. “And do you know what I always think next?”
“No, what?” I asked, playing along.
He slipped his hands around my waist. “I remember that I love you for the person you are. So how can I wish for you to turn into someone else?”
I ran my hands down the side of his head, cupping his face in my hands. “If you could take my place in this and go in my stead, would you?”
“In a heartbeat,” he said instantly.
I smiled. “In that case, now that we’ve established we’rebothselfless people—in our own ways—shall we move on to more practical matters?”
“Practical matters?” His eyes had dropped to my lips, and he only seemed to be half listening.
“Yes. Namely, how are we going to infiltrate Miro’s law keepers’ hall?”
“We?” Nik’s eyes sprang back to mine, his full attention restored. “When you say we…”
“You will come with me, won’t you?” I asked. “I might be willing to risk myself in a situation as dire as this one, but I’d rather not go in there without any backup.”
“Delphine!” He pulled me flush against him and pressed his lips to mine.
I leaned into the kiss, ready to let the rest of the world fade away for as many moments as he wanted. But all too soon he was drawing back, his eyes a little wild.
“Do you really mean it? You want me to come with you?”
I nodded, and he squeezed me close again, burying his face in my hair with a shudder.
“I’ve been down here trying to work out how to not lose my mind while you were off attempting to take on Grey and his minions on your own.”
