Just one.
Eres and I both sprint toward the front gate as it peels open.
The horse is galloping hard down the approach path. One rider slumps forward in the saddle, limp. The other sits behind, arms wrapped around him, posture rigid with exhaustion and determination.
Even at this distance, I know the shape of Lyra’s shoulders. I know Darian’s dark hair, and relief hits me so hard my vision blurs.
The rage floods in right behind it.
Lyra gallops through the gate as if a thousand Lightbringers ride on her heels. Her horse lathers at the sides, breath steaming in frantic bursts. Grabbing the reins of her horse and steadying it, I sweep my gaze over them. Lyra’s face is pale, her cheeks chapped. Her eyes are bright and far too focused for someone who should be on the verge of collapse from everything she’s put her body through today. “He’s unconscious. Help me.”
Darian is slumped in front of her, held upright only by her arms. His weight is solid and familiar and fully fucking infuriating, now that he’s safe. When I shift him, he groans faintly, eyelids fluttering.
“Idiot,” I grit out, voice rough. I’m tempted to drop him. Instead, I lower him slowly to the ground, but I don’t let go.
Lyra slides off the horse and nearly sways. Eres catches her elbow, his eyes scanning her face and body for any hint of injury. “Are you hurt?”
“No. Some scrapes.” Her gaze flicks to Darian. “He was hit several times. And he had a dimmer.”
“A dimmer?”
She shakes her head. “A quill.”
And now, I suspect we know how the Lightbringers got hold of them in the first place, since we issue more of them to our shadowscouts than anyone else. My gaze locks on Lyra, but she avoids my stare.
“I see it,” Eres is already checking Darian’s scalp, his fingers gentle. “Bump. Cuts. Scrapes.”
Darian’s eyes crack open, unfocused as he attempts to struggle upright while I’m still holding him. “Kaelen,” he rasps, and the sound of my name in his wrecked voice makes something in my chest twist painfully.
I should be yelling. Ishouldbe shaking him.
Instead, I lift him into me, clutching him tightly in case he disappears again. “You’re a damned fool, Dare.”
Lyra’s gaze flicks to me, braced for my anger. And Erevan knows, Iamfurious. I want to scream at her for doing this, for risking herself, for thinking that she was worth any less than Eres and I. I want to grab her shoulders and shake her and demand she never do it again.
But when I look at her—really look—at the way she’s trembling with exhaustion, at the way her eyes keep flicking to Darian’s face—
Something else slides beneath my anger, cooling it. She risked her life for him. For us, and my throat tightens.
“Inside,” I order, all too aware that if I stay here another second I might say something I can’t take back. “All of you. Now. Eres, take Darian.”
I don’t want to let him go. But there’s something I need to do. Eres and I pull him upright, and Eres pulls Darian’s arm over his shoulder as he shakes his head. “Still dizzy.”
“That’ll be the bump. Youidiot.” But Eres’s face is filled with relief, his eyes shining.
I watch them leave before I turn to Lyra. Her arms are wrapped around herself, but her shoulders straighten more with every step I take toward her until she’s glaring at me. “I’m not apologizing.”
I stop a hairs-breadth away, and she doesn’t flinch. “You locked me in a cage.”
She hesitates. “And I stole your horse.”
My brows draw together. “My—,”
Fucking hell. Shedid. Shestole my damn horse.“I’m surprised he let you. He doesn’t like strangers.”
She licks her lips. “We came to an agreement.”
“You could have died.”
