“Fine,” I said harshly, jogging past him. “Keep lying to me. I’ll figure out why eventually.”
He caught up to me in a stride, which made a mockery of my angry march. He let out a breath as if he were confessing. “The queen wants to control the dragon shifters, and part of that plot means keeping our numbers low, by sending us to our deaths against the monsters, and by having us fight in the Trials.”
His words made my stomach drop, as if I were a child hearing once again that wish-flowers and solstice-gifts were lies.
“Imagine if mortals could be shifters too.” Passion lifted his tone, though I was sure he was deliberately letting me see it. “There could be so many of us. Enough to change the tide of power. Enough to free low Fae, high Fae, shifters and mortals alike.”
“How? How could mortals be shifters?” I glanced at his face and caught the briefest flash of guilt. “Do you know?”
He shrugged. Clearly, he was not going to tell me.
“You fucking asshole.”
“The insults don’t have much bite. I could’ve brought you here togrant all your wishes, to make it soyoucould restore your sister’s magic and save your brother, and you’d still call me afucking asshole.”
I scoffed. It felt as if he were pressing on bruises he’d given me when he rattled off those dreams of mine so lightly.
“Would you follow my plans?” He regarded me curiously. “In the cold daylight, I have to wonder…would you followme? If I could make those dreams come true. Tay restored to health and Lidi restored to her magic.”
“Of course.” What a stupid hypothetical.
His lips tugged in a ghost of a smile, as if that were an admission that meant something to him.
“We should fly,” Fieran told me as we reached the street. From here, the shop-lined street flowed downhill to either side of us. In the distance, a castle rose from the mist that crowded the shores of the lake, looking as if it were something half-remembered in a dream.
“Can we walk?”
“It’s close, but you won’t like walking.”
“Why?” My first instinct was always to argue with him, but he was the one who knew this world. I wasn’t going to argue with him if it was going to make my life harder.
“There will be curiosity about you.” His sideways glance was knowing and amused and would have made me instantly irritated if I hadn’t been already. “You don’t seem like you’ll handle attention well.”
My jaw tensed at the accusation, since it was entirely accurate, and then at the logistics of flying. “I don’t want to touch you. I don’t want you touching me. I would rather walk.”
He rolled his shoulders as if he were shaking off my hostility. “Then let’s walk.”
As we went down the street, there were curious looks. A few kids who had been playing began to trail us. Two of them had tails that lashed behind them, one curling ram’s horns, but the way they jostled each other and grinned when Fieran looked their way was no different from boys in our village.
“I wouldn’t get this attention without you, would I?”
“People would assume you’re a servant here, just like within those walls.” He glanced back at the castle we’d left.
“So I could disguise myself.”
He gave me a warning look. “Don’t come out here alone.”
“Why?”
The look intensified to a blistering level.
“I’m not arguing with you. I’m asking you. I never went beyond the mountains, and I’d like to understand this world you’ve dragged me into.”
He bowed his head as if he were acquiescing. “Mortals hold no power here. Their safety comes from being seen as possessions. Those who know I value you won’t harm you. But if someone sees you and thinks they can get away with taking you…”
His shoulders tensed. Given how I’d seen him perform with Maura, even his body lying as if falsehoods were his native tongue, this protectiveness might be another act.
That stung, just a little, and my tone was stinging in turn. “Maura must have beenstunnedyou cared.”
