To act as nonchalant as any prince would, when faced with a recruit.
“I’ll be seeing you, Ravenminder,” he told her.
Still, he hadn’t caught her name.
“Eagleminder,” she said back.
He carried her words with him.
He carried her image like a promise.
She was here.
And someday, no matter what it took...she would behis.
15
He was glad for the icy wind as he soared back towards the Citadel, clinging to Indriya like a damned child.
You fool,Kinlear told himself, as they soared through the Forest Gates and into the wards’ protective embrace. Still, the snow chased after their backs.What the hell is wrong with you?
For starters...he washim.
He’d screwed up his initial meeting with the woman by offending her about her birds. Ofcourseshe wouldn’t have wanted them to be called omens. And to make matters farworse, he’d left her with a damnedwinkin the end.
And Arawn, of all people, standing at her side like he owned her.
He used to do the same with Soraya...like he thought she alwaysneededhim.
But this woman?
She needed no one.
Especially not me,Kinlear thought.Not yet.
No, he could sense already...he’d have to earn it.
Indriya landed them inside the Eagle’s Nest. The cold was sapped away at once as the glass dome ceiling snapped shut, and just like that, Kinlear was in a whole different world. He’d never loved the inside of the war mounts’ domain, for it reminded him a bit too much of Touvre.Toobeautiful to be made by anything but his mother’s kind of magic.
“Thank you for the ride,” Kinlear told Indriya, a bit too blunt, as he slid down from her eagle’s back.
“Aren’t you going to come with us?” Indriya asked. “To see Arawn again? It’s been far too long.”
Gods, everyone adored his brother.
Even if Arawn’s magic had fizzled to ash, after losing Soraya, something that very few Sacred ever experienced. It was heartbreak, Kinlear knew...because Arawn loved his Matched.
He couldn’t deny it.
Arawn didn’t even try, for to do so would be a lie, and Kinlear doubted Arawn capable. He hadn’t paid penance in years, not since...
He bristled at the memory.
At their broken bond, and a shattered promise made long ago, between young brothers...that they wouldalwaysfight for the other.
Not anymore.
Arawn hadn’t been the same since Soraya left, but peoplestilltreated him as stronger than Kinlear. They still acted as if he was better to the core, as if they didn’t see that when it mattered most...
