Here we were, wasting time and energy, when all I had to do was tell them the truth. Yet some stubborn part of me held back, unable to trust them.
Unwilling to lose my advantage.
“Next time you’re hurt, say something sooner,” Varian murmured quietly. “None of us heal quickly here, and even a minor injury can be life-threatening if not treated. You can’t keep acting like we’re the enemy, Lyrae. We have to trust each other, at least until we’re back on Valarian soil. Then you can go right back to despising us both.”
Yesterday, I would have laughed in his face for lecturing me.
Today…he was right.
I nodded. “I’ll be more careful. I didn’t expect…I thought, given the enormous, life-threatening ward, there would be plenty of magic here.”
“That’s because you skipped the meeting where we told Zephryn everything we knew about this place.Here.” He shoved some bread and meat wrapped in paper into my hands. “Eat this and keep drinking water so you don’t get dehydrated. We’ll stop in a few hours to refill our canteens and rest. How are your feet?” His eyes slid down until his gaze narrowed on my dusty, hastily laced-up boots.
He dropped to his knees and ran his hands down my calf, then unlaced and re-laced my boots in a complicated pattern, fingers quick and deft as he tightened them back up. The difference was astounding, my wobbly ankles felt stronger.
“If you get blisters, tell me. If you twist an ankle…tell me.” His face took on a harder set. “This place can kill you in about a hundred different ways. Once we get through the forest and hit the sand, there are poisonous spiders and vipers, so keep your eyes open. Don’t touch anything with red leaves, and for fuck’s sake, don’t eat any berries.”
“Hmm. I didn’t peg you for a nag.”
“You know Varian, he’s always been a worrywart.” Ryland brushed roughly between us. “Get used to it. Now that he has you to fuss over, that’s all he’ll do. But don’t expect me to fall on my knees, Antares. That’s not my style, not anymore.” He left me staring after him, wondering if I’d detected…jealousy in his voice?
Varian rolled his eyes, like he’d already had enough of us both, even though the day had barely begun. But when he rose up over me, I couldn’t help noticing how much he’d changed from the gangly boy I remembered. No, this Varian was quiet and careful, and built, layers of lean, supple muscle over his lithe frame, a new sharpness in his dark eyes.
He’d always been handsome, but now, even in his dustycoat, with tired circles under his eyes, there was a haunted quality to him, something that called to me, something that made me want to wrap my arms around him and hold him close.
Even beneath the grime, he smelled good. Like amber and fire, all warmth and comfort.
Like home.
Dangerous. This was all so fucking dangerous.
“Look. It’s a full day’s hike to Ebonhollow and the terrain is rough,” he explained, his pinched gaze fixed on Ryland’s retreating back. “We need to get there in one piece if we hope to kill the prince and stop…whatever this threat is.”
Like me, Varian had to be questioning the lack of an army, the absence of any visible threat. He and Ryland were flying blind, relying on me to parse out information to them in meager little bites.
And even so, his first impulse was to take care of me, to treat my wounds and keep me safe.
While mine was to keep everything from them and kill them both the second we were safe.
“We’re not going to Ebonhollow. The prince isn’t in a city,” I admitted. “We’re looking for a frozen lake or a moat with an island in the center. There’s a fortress…or a castle, I’m not sure, but that’s what we have to find.”
“That has to be Frostveil Keep,” Varian murmured. “Come, let’s catch Ryland. He’s heading in the wrong direction.” Varian’s lips quirked. “Or we can just let him stalk off and see how long it takes him to realize we’re not following behind him like a couple of lost puppies.”
“Can you imagine how pissed he’d be?” I smiled, despite myself, before remembering none of this was funny. “In fact…why aren’t you angry? I kept the truth from you, wasted your time, and you’re making jokes.”
The smile fell off his face as fast as it had mine. “Because it seems like you have every right to be angry with me.” He shook his head.
“You blame me for what happened to Ariel. I can’t imagine what life’s been like for you…thinking she’s been dead all this time. But I’m telling the truth, Lyrae. There was something about our capture that wasn’t right. How they kept Ariel, then turned me loose, without so much as a fine.”
“They executed her, Varian. In the city square.”
I hung onto the only truth I’d known for fifty years. Ihadto, because hoping Ariel was alive…no, if I had to mourn Ariel all over again…I wouldn’t survive it.
The Oracle herself told me they’d hung my sister at dawn, executed for stealing from the king himself. Then she’d given me a curl of white hair and Ariel’s favorite ring.
I still had that lock of hair, pressed inside a poem book back in my rooms at the palace, the only piece of Ariel I had left—or so I thought.
As for the ring…I toyed with the slim band on my finger, spinning the blue stone around and around.
