‘I …’ Gods, where had all her words gone? She nodded and placed the stone in her inner cloak pocket. ‘Why?’
‘I just thought, with the danger of your mission … you need someone you can trust. Someone … to perhaps help you feel not so alone.’
A twinge of something new unfolded within her.
She felt … strangely light.
A bit panicked, too.
She felt like running far away from here, if only to give herself a second to breathe and clear her mind.
‘Thank you,’ Ezer said instead, because he was looking at her far too intently. ‘It’s a lovely rock.’
‘Speaking stone,’ he corrected her.
‘Right. A lovely Speaking stone.’ She nodded up at him.
He shifted uncomfortably.
It was so silent, she swore she heard him swallow.
‘Well. I’m off to attend to my duties,’ Arawn said.
‘All right,’ she said.
Gods, her mouth was dry.
He nodded. ‘All right.’
And with that, the Crown Prince of Lordach turned on his heel and left.
She stood there alone, the weight of his gift in her pocket as she watched him slip through a side door, ever the brute soldier.
And yet …
She’d just unpeeled another hidden layer of him.
And it frightened her how much she enjoyed what she’d found.
16
‘Good morning, Prince,’ Ezer said, breathless as she finally made her way through the outer doors of the Aviary.
She wiped sweat from her brow and kicked snow from her boots, feeling for all the world like a wet cat. That insufferable walk up to the Aviary cliff had nearly killed her, both from how difficult it was to breathe to the fear of falling that sent her anxiety into a spiral, time and again.
But she’d done it, and she was proud of herself at least for not turning back.
Kinlear stood past the saddle racks beside the black door, waiting for her as promised with a chained stopwatch in his hand.
‘You’re thirty-five minutes late,’ he said, and tucked the watch into his pocket.
Ezer shrugged. ‘My schedule should be of no concern to you.’
Kinlear raised a dark brow in challenge. ‘It is my mission. Therefore, it is my schedule. And I do not like to be kept waiting.’
‘Well, it is mylife,’ Ezer said back. ‘For which you seem to have little concern.’
At that, he chuckled. ‘You challenge my patience. It’s a wonder you bond so well withSix.’
