“It’s not false hope,” I say.
He bares his fangs at me, his claws digging into the straw. “You cannot force me to do this.”
“I’m not forcing you to do anything,” I say— and despite everything, my voice is soft, because I mean every word. “I intend to ask Igaa.”
For one silent, piercing moment, his sudden rage is like the moment between a lightning strike and a clap of thunder. He doesn’t move, but the temperature in the barn drops twenty degrees. Thirty. Forty.
I shiver and tuck my good arm against my abdomen.
Finally, he speaks through the air, and as usual, it’s not a sound, but somehow it’s so loud that it hurts.
— She. Will. Not. Do. This.
I cringe, but I keep my seat on the stool. “She will,” I say. “I think she will.”
No. —
“Yes. Because she loves you, Nakiis. She loves you, and she wants to stop Xovaar. And so dowe.”
— You cannot stop him. Her magic is not strong enough. You will call them here, and they will destroy you.
“Isthatwhat you’re afraid of, or are you afraid that binding my magic to hers will allow me tocontrolher?”
He makes a sound full of rage and tries to surge off the ground, but it’s clear he’s really hurt, because his arms and legs give out, his wings flickering limply against the straw. He collapses there, panting. The ice that’s formed on the posts and the walls begins to melt in the summer heat.
“So this is how you will trap me,” he says, and his spoken voice is ragged. “This is how you willtrickme.”
“I’m not trapping you,” I say, and a spark of anger colors my voice. “I’m doing whatever I can to protect as many people as I can.”
He says nothing. He just breathes against the ground like he hates me, his claws flexed like he really would tear out my throat if he could.
In a flash, I remember the moment I lay in the dirt at Grey’s feet, right after I went after him for keeping me in Syhl Shallow.
I was furious at him for all the same reasons: trapping me there, forcing my hand, keeping me away from Jax. It felt spiteful. It feltdeliberate.
When he said he was just trying to protect me, I didn’t believe him.
But I suddenly understand why he did it. It’s the same reason we’re all doingthis. Protection. Loyalty. Love.
“I’m doing the best I can,” I say quietly. “Please, Nakiis. You once made me swear to help you—”
“Not like this,” he growls.
“Fine,” I say, because Mal and Sephran truly do need to be relieved, and we only have a matter of hours before we need to act. “Stay here. I’ll ask Igaa, and she can decide.”
From outside the barn, her magical voice carries on the air.
— I already have.
Nakiis turns his face to the straw, looking away from me. His eyes clench closed.
I rise from the stool and head for the doors.
He doesn’t say a word, and I don’t look back.
CHAPTER 28
ALEK
