“They must have.” Faldir’s fists clenched, a look of hurt in his eyes. “Brand would never be so daft as to go into danger without his twin shadows, otherwise.”
“How dare you?” Lunara breathed. “He was devastated—we werealldevastated—overyou.”
He looked away from her, a muscle ticking in his jaw and pulling on the twisted scar down his cheek.
“Losing one of you was bad enough,” Brand rasped. “I wouldn’t endanger anyone else, and I was the only one who could make a safe way down. Lunara insisted on shielding me, with good reason. She repelled the shadows. They’re volatile. Alive, even, like in Meliora’s?—”
“What the fuck did you just say?” Caius’s voice was no less furious for its hushed tone.
Oh, shite.
“I told him some of it. I had to. If you’d been there…”
His glare was just shy of outright murder.
Brand explained about the shadows and ooze, the others listening with bated breath and slack jaws. “That’s when we found the army of fledgeling Forgotten. When… when Lunara…” Brand scrubbed a hand over his face. “It doesn’t matter. We ended up?—”
“No, Brand.” Lyriat’s nostrils flared. “I said to leave nothing out, and I damned well meant it.”
“Some things are not necessary for you to hear. It affects nothing of substance in the end.”
Nothing except the trajectory of your entire life, but who’s keeping track anymore.
If Lyriat’s eyes burned any hotter, he’d be setting them on fire. “I don’t appreciate you being cagey about this.”
Brand jerked back. “I’m not being bloodycagey.I’m trying to be sensitive, and you’re being an arsehole.”
The two were ready to come to blows, aggressive power radiating off of them in waves.
Don’t even think about it, you?—
“Please, Your Majesty.” Lunara swallowed, trying to ignore the fluttering pulse in her throat. “He’s only protecting me. Perhaps it would be in everyone’s best interest if?—”
“Perhaps it would be inyourbest interest to keep quiet for now, Lunara.” Lyriat cocked his head to one side, considering her. “Or maybe he’s protecting you in the same way you protected him—which is to say, not at fucking all, and that’s just a convenient excuse.”
Magnus stood abruptly, a finger pointed at Lyriat. “Now wait a fucking second.”
“Maybe his silence on the matter benefits you because you’re hiding something. You’re good at that, aren’t you, Lunara?”
Her stomach soured and flipped over, threatening to dispel its contents.
“Say one more fucking word to her, Lyriat.” Brand’s voice was little more than a snarl. “I dare you.”
“See, on top of the mystery surrounding Baldrir’s assailant, there’s now a pretender in the Montrealm.Myrealm.” He leaned back and crossed his arms again, his gaze never leaving her as golden patterns lit up and danced over his skin. “Someone. Somehow. Faldir is there and here at once? Both dead and alive? Hedda swears on the Sisters she never spoke to him that night, butheswears on the souls of every lost loved one it washerwho commanded him to procure help.”
Where in the starry shite is he going with this?
“It hasn’t gone unnoticed that everything was relatively bland in Straelon until you showed up.”
Run. Run, run, run.
“You’re saying it’sLunara?”Rage was etched in every hard line of Brand’s face.
Lyriat’s horns began to curl, his fangs dropping down. “As I’ve tried to impress upon you from the beginning, I’m saying it could be fuckinganyone, and I know her the least.”
“She saved my mam.” Thad was looking at Lyriat like he didn’t know him. “I trust her with my life.”
“Shetriedto save your mam,” Caius rasped. “She didn’t though, did she? Even though Brand swears to have seen her repel the very shadows she now claims were in Meliora.”
