Malin sets down his cup and looks ready to follow her. I can’t decide if this is the worst idea of all time or if it’s a match I wouldn’t mind seeing.
“I’ll just plan to collect you from the infirmary later,” I say.
“So the beautiful soldier is going to try to kill me? You say that like I’ll mind.”
I give him a look.
“What?” He hits me lightly on the arm. “We don’tallhave a blacksmith waiting on the other side of the mountain.”
My heart twists when he says that, but it makes me smile. “You don’t know who she is?”
“Should I?”
I want to grin, but I notice Grey waiting for me by the doorway to the training fields, so I don’t. I clap Malin on the shoulder instead. “That’s Nolla Verin. Sister to the queen.”
Then I turn to find my fate, leaving Malin to face his.
CHAPTER 28
TYCHO
It’s fully dark when I stroll across the training fields with Grey. The Queen’s Guard have begun their exercises, and swords clash in the arena behind us. Malin and Nolla Verin have disappeared into one of the groves with a torch, but I have no doubt we’ll hear clashing swords from their direction, too. The breeze is stronger out here, and Nakiis’s magic is in the air again. Nothing about it is a relief, because Grey would definitely not be pleased to find him here.
My shoulders are tense, waiting for him to talk, to tell me whatever Jake found so I can carry news back to Rhen. A few weeks ago, I dreaded the idea of being sent away, but now I long for it. The tension is almost unbearable. It’s notallbetween me and the king, but I can’t fix any of it.
But Grey doesn’t give me orders. He doesn’t say anything at all.
Eventually, we reach the far corner of the training fields, where it’s very dark, the sounds of distant swordplay very muffled. We’re closer to the soldier barracks than the palace now, and a long-buried memory comes to me. I was a recruit, and General Solt—then an armycaptain—caught me sneaking back after skipping drills. I hadn’t been doing it maliciously; I was just hiding with Noah. But Grey found Solt cornering me and he knocked him away.
I was ashamed of the reprimand—but the more potent part of the memory is remembering how Grey had my back. Knowing he would defend me when itmattered.
I haven’t felt that way in a while, and I don’t know when I stopped.
A small fence divides the training fields from the paths to the barracks, and that’s where Grey stops. He leans against the fence in the darkness.
“We’re far enough from everything, Tycho.” His voice is mild, and not without emotion. “Say whatever you mean to say to me.”
It’s not how I expected him to begin, and I fall back a step before I can stop myself. “Your Majesty—”
“Don’t do that.”
I close my mouth and go still. Insects sing in the trees around us.
Eventually, he’s the one who speaks. “The last time we were alone, you wanted to punch me in the face. Do you still?”
That was weeks ago. I remember the burning rage in my chest when we were racing to save Lia Mara and Sinna—and I was trying to stop him from killing Jax.
But fine. If he wants to startthisway, I will.
“A little,” I say. “Are you offering again?”
“No.”
“Do you want to punchmein the face?”
“Tycho.”
“You seem like you do,” I say. “I rode hard to get here. I risked my life towarn you, and you chastised me in front of Malin.”
