“They’re burning the villages.” Eres flicks through the pages in front of him, scanning the dossier. Distress bleeds through his words. “The Veilspire has always been neutral. That was their choice. This is beyond any of the Lightbringer’s previous tactics.”
“Neutrality was their only choice. Perhaps there is no tactic.” The dry voice that interjects has me stiffening. “Perhaps they’re just assholes.”
“I’ll go with Nythen.” At Eres’s short words, I straighten. He avoids my glare. “We’ll take a small contingent, it’ll be less visible. This needs to be assessed, Kaelen.”
But not by you.The words rise to my tongue, but I swallow them back. Valcor is watching me. Waiting.
To see if I meant what I said. To see if I’m happy to send loved ones to the battlefield, as long as they’re not my own.
“It makes sense,” Eres pushes. He rakes a hand through his hair. “If they need help, I’m best placed to provide it.”
“Is this about information or help?”
“It can be both,” he shoots back at me. “If they need help, then information can follow. I’m going.”
“That’s not your decision to make.” My voice raises.
“I’ll go with him.”
For fucks’ sake. If anything, the tension ratchets up at those words. Slowly, I turn my head. Every word fills with derision. “Forgive me if that offer doesn’t particularly fill me with confidence,Veyr. I’ll go.”
“Absolutely not.” Nythen shifts. “You know that is an impossibility.”
“Agreed.” Darian’s words are as tight as the fist in my chest. Squeezing, choking. “You’re needed here.”
The silence stretches out.
“I will go.” My head lifts at Valcor’s clipped tone. He gestures to Eres. “I’ll accompany the healer.”
“As will I.” Nythen nods, a frown between his brows as he studies the dossier he likely knows by heart. “We’ll ride quickly, under darkness. In and out.”
I consider it, with all of them watching me. “Take Eldritch with you. Two shadowscouts for support.”
Pushing my chair back, I pause. “In and out.”
I don’t wait for their agreement before I turn, striding out of the chamber before my temper can overtake my mouth. Thefootsteps that follow after me are familiar enough that I wait until I’ve turned the corner of the hall to let my anger loose. The shadows erupt, wrapping around the male who follows and pushing him against the wall.
Damnhim.
“Eres—”
I step inside the darkness. But it’s not my healer’s deep blue eyes that greet me. These eyes are a glittering, hooded amethyst. Darian slips his hands into his pockets, leaning back against the wall as my shadows wrap around his damned neck. “Well, this is cozy.”
The shadows are not enough. My arm follows, pushing into the warmth of his neck, forcing his head back. “What the fuck was that in there?”
He doesn’t push back. Darian tilts his head further, the corner of his lip tilting up as if he’s mocking me, and it only enrages me further. “An offer of help.”
“I neither need nor want your help,traitor.” I hiss the words at him, watching them strike against the paleness of his skin.
If I didn’t know him, I would have thought he was unaffected.
If I didn’t know the sound of his footsteps well enough to mistake them for Eres. Shadows still surround us, blocking any sight and sound of us from anyone else who approaches. But I get a full view of the cloud that sweeps across his carefree expression, the faintest flinch beneath my arm before he meets my gaze so steadily that I wonder if I imagined it. “It was a genuine offer. I would have kept him safe, Kae.”
Once, I would have believed him. Would have looked to him for this above all others. He would have been the only person in that room I would have trusted to go with Eres, even if it would have torn me apart to watch them both leave.
Once.
“Forgive me if I don’t believe you, Veyr.”
