Except for me. I can’t make myself move.
“The sixth pillar was empty until I came along. If you really needed six fighters for this kind of thing, you would’ve filled it from the beginning.”
“I didn’t want just anyone, Sunshine.” He grips my waist and lifts me down from the pillar. Startled by the unexpected touch, I brace my hands on his shoulders, some heat sneaking back into my frozen limbs.
“I’m the only one gravely injured on a regular basis. I’m a liability, not an asset.” I let my hands drop away from Bale.
“If I thought that, I wouldn’t let you fly out.”
Bitterness and fear stir inside me again. “I think it.”
He lightly squeezes my waist. “That doesn’t make it true.”
“Doesn’t it?” We’re only as strong as we believe we are, and right now, I feel like one hit could shatter all my bones. I back out of his hands, the weight and heat of them imprinted on my sides. “No fire. No flight.” I laugh like daggers cutting into skin. “And now I’m worried about my own neck like never before.”
“Stop. You’re good. You’re fast. You’re worth fifteen vampires in a fight if you can just get your head in the right place.”
“Maybe if you’d tell me the truth about things when I ask, I could get my head in the right place,” I snap.
He doesn’t move, doesn’t flinch, doesn’t even react. My heart beats heavily, waiting for something to give it hope. The thudding weight sinks into the pit of my stomach at Bale’s silence.
“Do I have to drag you out of here?” he finally growls.
“Try it,” I growl back.
“That’s when you’ll fight? Against me?” He looks shocked, almost sick. “So ready to turn on me. Just like that.” The angry snap of his fingers echoes loudly in the war room.
“What are you talking about?” Bale is our rock. Our starborn king. The constellation we circle, and my dread only grows at seeing him look so unsteady.
He reaches out again and grips my shoulders, his urgent gaze blazing into mine. “If you’re loyal to me, then you’ll get on Fyrestar and fight.”
I shut my eyes to block out the fire in his. I want to lean into him and take comfort in his arms as much as I want to savagely lash out, and not only because I’m scared.
“I know you lied to me.” I open my eyes so I can burn him with my gaze.
“Don’t make this about something else.”
Fuck him and his evasive nonanswers. “I’m not like the others. I don’t fight like them. I don’t eat like them. I don’t fly like them.”
“What are you saying?” His fingers tighten, drawing me in.
His warmth and strength are almost too hard to resist, but I turn away from him. “I don’t think I belong here.” My voice hitches. “Maybe I never did.”
He turns me back and grasps my chin, lifting my face to his. His eyes like a volcanic eruption, he thunders, “If you go, I will chase you down and bring you back. This is your home. These are your people.”
Tears sting my eyes. “Lying to me again?” I spit a laugh at him and wrench my chin free. “I have no people.”
“And Fyrestar?” His seething gaze swings to my warbird. “Rimblaze? Embersol? They’re where you belong.” His short, harsh laugh is vicious enough to rival mine. “You love them so much the rest of us are fucking jealous!”
I blink at that. I’ve never seen any jealousy from the team over my phoenixes. Not even from Kellan.
My throat thickens with impulsive words that surge up and spill over. “You’re right. They are my home. I want to go and take them with me.”
Bale takes a sudden step back as though I’ve slapped him, his eyes flaring, though I didn’t raise a hand. “None of you are going anywhere—except to the Silver Moon Range.”
“You don’t dictate what I do. You can’t stop me.”
“Get on your phoenix and fly,” he orders, low and hard.
