Silas absorbs that before suddenly flinching to one side as if avoiding a blow. He swears and rubs his face. “Forgive me. I see things. No, I wasn’t talking toyou.Shut up.”
He’s talking to the voices in his head again as Everett strides back into the courtyard. My elemental slows his approach, taking in Silas’s obvious bout of insanity before he sighs and looks at me.
“Are you sure you want to bring them? It might be dangerous where we’re going.”
He’s right. I know that. Silas and Baelfire’s conditions are rough to see, but gods, Ijustgot them back. The thought of going somewhere where I won’t be able to check in on them easily is an immediate no. I just can’t.
“Good thing we’re all dangerous, then,” I reply.
Everett accepts my answer with a simple nod before he turns to face the courtyard, rolling his shoulders back. He concentrates, lifting his hands before the ice surrounding the couple hundred frozen ravens in the courtyard cracks or melts away.
Some of the ravens begin crowing and freaking out as they wing quickly away. Others slump dead out of the ice, and a few immediately flutter over to me, tipping their heads and checking in on me with their beady black eyes.
“There. You have your spies back,” Everett mutters, shooing one of them away from him before fixing me with a serious look. “But if any of them shit on me, they’re dead.”
When one of the braver ravens flutters to land on my shoulder, Silas squints at it. “Is there a raven on your shoulder, or is that in my head?”
“It’s real.”
“How do I know if you’re you?”
I can see that he’s starting to slip again, but his question is fair. Reaching up, I brush his jaw with my fingertips and hold his blood-red gaze.
“You’ll know I’m me because nothing will stop me from keeping you. Not even the tricks in your head. Whenever you’re not sure, just ask and I’ll remind you that…tha galeath.”
I love you.
I expect saying it to be awkward, but it’s surprisinglyright.
Silas’s pupils dilate as he lets out a breath. “You, saying that…this is in my head.”
“Nach,”I shake my head. “Tha galeath.”
“Which means?” Everett prompts with a frown, looking between us.
Silas ignores him completely as his voice drops to the barest whisper. “Tha ba’galeath thu semprah.”
I have and will always love you.
Despite the madness plaguing him, this moment feels pure as we stare at each other. It’s a lifeline for him—a way that he can know this is real. And for me, it’s what I wish I had told him before I fell on that battlefield months ago and left my ruthless necromancer to the hellscape of his own mind.
“Okay, that’s it,” Everett grumbles finally. “I’m learning fae.”
“By all means,scútráche,” Silas replies without taking his eyes off me.
“Hey!” Douglas calls from the archway leading back into the castle, tapping a nonexistent watch on his massive, puffy green coat. “How about you gaze into each other’s soulless eyes later? Your pet dragon is wrecking the library and we don’t have all day, so let’s get a fucking move on.”
Silas frowns past me at the bounty hunter before looking at Everett. “You hired him? Why?”
“He’s loud but useful. He’s also right, this time. Come on, let’s go get Maven’s unhinged freak.”
Gods, I can’t wait.
Whatever Syntyche did to him, I’m getting my Nightmare Prince back.
17
SILAS
