“He doesn’t have a name, but he couldfly, Tycho! He gave me a leaf made of ice, too. It was socold—”
“Silver hell.” I run a hand over the back of my neck and swear under my breath.
She looks at me crossly. “Mama says those words are only for the battlefield.”
I drop to a crouch in front of her. “Sinna—how did he fly?”
Her face screws up. “Withwings, silly.” She kneels up on the window seat and presses a finger to my lips. “But we can’t tell Da.”
I make a choking sound. Of course they wouldn’t find tracks around little Sinna. Nakiis wouldn’t have to leave tracks when he could fly out of sight.
I don’t know why he’d come after the princess, but I do know how he feels about Grey—about any magesmith, really.
They’ve been suspecting Truthbringers or some kind of plots against the throne, but whoever lured Sinna into the woods was someone I let out of a cage.
I scoop Sinna into my arms. “I need to bring you back. You can’t be here right now, Sinna.”
She howls and wiggles and tries to climb over my shoulder. I ignore her thrashing and head for my door. When I throw it open, there are already guards in the hallway, and I hear voices down at the other end calling Sinna’s name.
“I have her,” I call. “Sinna snuck into my room.”
“Let me down!” She kicks her feet. “Tycho, you let me down!”
Lia Mara appears before me, and she takes her flailing daughter into her own arms. “I have had enough of your sneaking—”
“I want to look at the woods!” she says.
“Sinna.” Grey’s voice is sharp, like the crack of a whip, and the toddler jumps.
So does Lia Mara. “Grey,” she begins softly.
“She cannot keep doing this,” he says, and his expression is like thunder.
“She’s fine,” I say. “She wanted to look out the window at the woods—”
“No!” Sinna shrieks. “Don’t tell him, Tycho!”
There’s an audible gasp among the guards. Every head in the hallway turns to look at me, and I nearly flinch.
Grey takes a step toward me, and he looks like he could burn me to ash without thinking twice. “You hadbettertell me.”
“Of course I’m going to tell you,” I snap.
There’s no gasp this time, just the brittle tension of a dozen held breaths.
I force my hands to unclench and fall back a step. “Your Majesty.”
He points at my door. “Inside. Now.”
I expect him to slam the door once we’re inside my room, but he doesn’t. He eases it closed, then leans against it, arms folded.
“Talk,” he says.
I swallow. I’ve never been on this side of his anger. I told Jax thatI would take a knee and swear fealty again if Grey demanded it—and I meant it when I said it. I would do it right now.
But for the first time, after what transpired in the throne room, I find myself wondering where Grey would stand if I neededhishelp.
His eyes are dark and unyielding, and I’m worried I’ve already learned the answer.
