“I’m a target right here. So are you.”
His frown deepens, and I wonder if the king is going to snap at me the way he just snapped at Rhen. Before he can, the prince says, “There’s no need to go alone. Take some soldiers. Or some guardsmen.” He pauses, his tone turning pointed. “We should not hide, Grey.”
The king’s expression looks like thunder, but he considers this. “Take Malin,” he finally says. “He’s trustworthy. Have him choose a few others, too.”
There was a time when traveling with Emberish soldiers would’ve choked my heart with tension, but Grey is right— and Malin has more than proven himself. After he helped save the king’s life, he earned anew stripe on his sleeve— and a host of new responsibilities to go with it. I’ve hardly seen him since I got back, but we grew close in Syhl Shallow. If I have to leave again, I wouldn’t mind his company.
But . . .Jax. Riding to Gaulter will mean an absence of nearly a week, if not longer. If I have to keep leaving, whatever has broken between us might never recover.
I wish Noah were here. I could desperately use his counsel. I wonder if he and Jake are returning with the army regiments from Syhl Shallow.
Not like it matters, if they’re sending me away for a week.
Rhen follows my gaze, and he looks out the window toward the Shield House. “Perhaps you should take Jax, too.”
My eyebrows shoot up, and my head snaps around.
Back at the beginning of the summer, Jax and I curled up in the hayloft on the night before I was ordered to depart. We were tangled in some blankets spread over the hay, his eyes gleaming in the starlight. His hands were so warm and his breath was so sweet and his heart seemed to beat in time with my own. I whispered against his skin that I would be back in a matter of days.
And then I disappeared for months.
My heart gives a kick as I consider this. It pains me to admit it, but just now, I don’t even know if Jax would want togo.
I don’t even know if I want him to.
When I say nothing, Rhen adds, “Jax hasalsoproven himself trustworthy— and he’s earned a chance to do more than swing a hammer in the forge. I don’t think he’s left the grounds since he joined the soldiers on that ill- fated trip to the creek.”
When half a regiment of drunk soldiers were attacked by scravers— and Jax was with them.
My jaw feels tight. When I tried to ask him about that, he brushed it off. I’ve heard a full report, however. Several soldiers were killed. Therest of them were close. If Jax hadn’t acted quickly, more would have died.Hemight have died. He has ragged scars across his chin from the attack.
Prince Rhen glances at the king, who says nothing. But Grey’s eyes are on me now. I wonder what he’s thinking.
I don’t like thatthisis what pulled him out of his morose reverie. A familiar tension grips my spine, reminding me of the way we faced off on the training fields in Syhl Shallow. We spent months at odds, and while we’ve moved past it in some ways, I know it wouldn’t take much for us to end up in the same place again.
Much like the weird tension between me and Jax, I don’t quite know what to do with this either. Maybe he feels the same, because he doesn’t say a word.
When we’rebothsilent for an eternity, Rhen sighs. “Silver hell. Find Malin, Tycho. Give him our orders, and have him select two others. Take Jax— or not. The choice is yours. You can leave at first light.”
Grey is still watching me. That tension refuses to let go. I don’t know if he’d see Jax as an asset— or a distraction. Like so many other moments between us, this feels like a test. I don’t want to fail.
When I say nothing, Grey’s eyebrows rise just a hair, and then he inhales with the weight of a commanding officer about to give an order. I brace myself, expecting him to take the choice away from me, and there’s a part of me that hopes he will— even though I’ll probably resent him for it.
But all he says is, “I think you’ve been dismissed.”
That hits me like a fist, but I was a soldier long enough to know how to keep a scowl off my face. I straighten, then give him a nod. “Yes, Your Majesty.” I nod to Rhen as well. “Your Highness.”
But as I move through the doorway, Grey’s voice calls me back. “Tycho.”
I stop and turn. For the first time all afternoon, his eyes are clear, and he truly seems to see me. “Be safe.”
It’s only two words, but both syllables carry the weight of unspoken emotion that’s different from before. It’s trust, it’s concern, it’s regard, it’s . . .something. A reminder that we might have been at odds, but we don’t have to be now.
So I nod again. “I will,” I say, and any edge has slipped out of my voice. “You too.”
And then I’m gone.
Months ago, I would have been galloping across the fields, desperate to bring these orders to the forge. When Prince Rhen first told me that Jax was invited to take residence here as a blacksmith, I could barely wait a single minute before I went to tell him.
