Dorian stood, his features and shoulders tense as he, for the first time, seemed to stand over his sister. “Someone should,” he said, though his voice wasn’t as strong as he meant it to be. “You protect all of us. Someone should protect you.”
A quiet scoff left her, and she shook her head, gaze washing out over the stadium. “I have Lex,” she said.
“That’s not what—“
“I know that’s not what you meant,” Aydra almost snapped.
However, Dorian didn’t back down, and Aydra sighed heavily in response, her shoulders slumping. “Protecting you and Nyssa is what I was born to do,” she said softly. “And I will do that job for as long as I can.”
“We’re not your job,” he said. “We’re your family. We can protect you, too.”
Aydra reached forward and cupped his face in her hands. “No one can protect me from the decisions I will make—from the ones Ihavemade. One day you’ll have to make those decisions too. Do you remember what I have always told you?”
Dorian swallowed, feeling a glisten in his eyes. “Protect Nyssa.”
“Stand by her,” Aydra corrected, a choke in her tone. “You stand by her, and you help her take this fucking world.”
“Where will you be?”
A forced smile flickered on her lips. “I’ll be watching.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
DRAVEN HUNG BACK a few feet as he, Nyssa, and Bala hit the market, hearing Nyssa ask questions about Nadir and Bala answering them in a manner that seemed to help dwindle expectations of the Commander.
As expected, stares followed them through the street, and he realized all that the Princess was risking, even just showing them to the seamstress. It bothered him, and at one point, he almost told her not to worry about showing them around, that they would figure it out, but as he started to say something, Nyssa disappeared into a shop.
Draven caught Bala’s arm as she started to follow inside, telling her he would meet her back there in a few hours, to which Bala nodded in response.
He was used to the terrifying looks people gave him when he walked in those streets. Even though he’d been walking in them for years and had never hurt anyone, people still treated him as though he would light a match to their kingdom at any moment.
He’d just stopped beneath the canopy of a flower vendor, checking in on the goods to see if Nadir would have something to say about them the next day when he saw Aydra’s ginger hair move in the sunlight.
He stiffened upon seeing her, making sure to stay in the shadows and out of sight, pretending to be admiring a black linen as he watched her walk with Rhaif, Lex, and Bard trailing behind.
Always striking, and yet, somehow, there beside her brother, she looked like a different person. She looked on edge and somewhat smaller than when she walked beside him. Her eyes stayed solemn, with none of the brightness he’d come to love seeing in her gaze. She hugged her arms over her chest, evident that she was hardly interested in the flowers Rhaif wanted her to choose from.
And when she plucked the black flower from Rhaif’s hand, and Rhaif watched her, Draven’s fists curled on instinct.
Draven didn’t know what was happening between them, but he knew it was something more significant than what she was letting on. The look on Lex’s face read as plain as the sunlight basking the ground: she didn’t trust him, and there was no way she would let Aydra out of her sight around him.
How had he never noticed the way she appeared at her brother’s side? How had he dined across from them for so many years and not realized there was something more going on…
Rhaif said something, a small smile lifted his lips, and for a brief moment, Aydra smiled back. But it was gone within seconds, and Draven was left wondering if he had imagined it. A pain worse than before stretched in Aydra’s gaze as she turned away from Rhaif.
“Hey—“ A hand landed on Draven’s arm, and he turned to find Bala and Nyssa beside him.
Draven exhaled audibly as he turned to face the pair. “That was fast,” he forced himself to say.
“Maye is bringing it back up later,” Nyssa replied.
“Should we find you something to wear?” Bala teased at Draven.
A quiet scoff left him, and he looked back over his shoulder to where Aydra and Rhaif had just been, but they were gone.
“Draven?” Bala called him back.
“Yeah,” he said as he faced them. “Yeah, I have nothing extravagant enough for this affair.” He looked to Nyssa. “Do you have ideas, Princess?”
