I could hear that laugh now, always a mix of defiance and delight. I’d grown up chasing that sound through gardens, through echoing hallways, always trying to catch up.
“She smelled of sun-warmed apples,” the healer said, her eyes distant now, chasing her own memories.
I’d braid Addie’s hair as she read letters in bed, the scent of apples curling from her skin after she’d lazed in the orchard all afternoon. She’d adored the fruit; ate them every single day. It was a challenge for the cooks to find new ways to prepare them, but they did, always hoping to draw out her infectious smile.
Fates, it had been too long since I’d smelled that scent on anyone.
“She was bonded to one of the most remarkable companions I’ve seen,” the healer added.
“Addiebonded?”
But then, she would, if she’d been a recruit and gone through the Rite of Bonds.
“A dragon. In small form, also a dragon, all lean muscle andsilver-scaled wings. He always kept one wing between her and anyone else. He was as protective as a mother wolf.”
The image lanced through me. I could see it without trying: Addie striding through the halls, her small companion sitting on her shoulder, one gleaming wing curved enough to shield her from harm. It was so close to the way Trew’s cinderhawk always seemed to settle between him and the rest of the world that my pulse stumbled.
The healer chuckled. “Once, Trew gave her permission to join a patrol in one of the villages along the border. She teased him so much about the hesitation in his voice that he couldn’t look at her without smirking for days.”
The thought of Addie and Trew sharing smiles like that sent a strange, tangled ache through me.
“She was such a happy person,” the healer said.
My chest tightened until I could not catch a breath.
After Father had promised her to Velmire’s king, her laughter had gone silent, replaced by the straight-backed sadness of someone who was being forced to do something she hated. Of someone who felt she had no choice.
Had she found a new choice here?
But none of this fit.
“How…” I had to swallow before I could finish. “How did she end up at Syllavar?”
The healer tipped her head, frowning. “She came the same as the rest of you. Walked in with her head held high, daring the Rite to take her down.”
“That wasn’t long ago.”
She frowned. “I’d say…four weeks or so? Once you bond, things go fast.”
The words tightened something deep in my gut. I remembered Lexie insisting the rebels never traveled beyond the border. An ugly rumor, she’d implied, planted by someone wanting to make this court look like monsters.
I hadn’t believed her. I was so certain I knew the truth and that I’d expose it, that I hadn’t truly listened.
“She loved it here,” the healer said with an easy smile.
The idea struck like cold water on my face. Shocking, painful. Addie had been meant for a gilded cage, not a place like this.
And yet…
What a dangerous, dangerous thought. Because the truth was, if I was honest, I was starting to like being here myself.
I crushed the thought, shoving it somewhere deep and turning the lock.
“She was close to Fenmark,” the woman said, her face taking on that knowing look. “He’s so handsome. Cousin to our beloved king. Those two ran around together all the time as boys. Competed in the same Rite. Bonded almost at the exact same time.”
I barely heard what she was saying over the rush in my ears. Every word turned into another pinprick in the story I’d been clinging to for weeks, that Addie had been stolen and murdered.
“Thank you,” I strangled out, my voice sounding like it belonged to someone else.
