I feel him tense behind me. I don’t need to ask what he’s thinking. I already know.
“I’m sorry I got you into this,” he says against my hair. His voice is rough.
“You didn’t get me into anything. I made my choice.”
“I’ll find a way to get you out. I don’t know how yet, but I will.”
I don’t answer right away. A thin rain has started, fine as mist, dampening my coat and collecting in droplets along the thornback’s bone ridges.
“Maybe it will be I who gets us out.”
His chest vibrates with a silent laugh. “You’re so right. You’ve saved my ass more times than should be allowed.”
We ride in silence for a time.
“So, one tumble and you’re in love with me,” he says into the shell of my ear.
I freeze, my face heating.
“Am I that good?” he whispers. I can hear that he is smiling.
Heat moves through me, settling low between my legs. Hard to believe that I can become aroused in a situation such as this, but there it is. I am.
I push out a soft laugh and shake my head slowly. “I was trying to keep you from doing something stupid. Don’t let it get to your head.” My voice is husky.
“I know, and I’m grateful.” He gently kisses the side of my head. Or perhaps it wasn’t a kiss but a touch of his head to mine, and just my wishful thinking.
I lace my fingers through his, where they rest against my stomach. His hand is bigger than mine, rougher, and warmer. He squeezes back.
I’m pretty sure that we’re riding to our death. I’m glad I had the confidence to take the Shadowfae King to my bed, even if it was just our clothes on the ground. I would have regretted it otherwise.
Despite everything that has happened, I’m glad it’s all out in the open. I might not live for too much longer, but at least I can live as me. As Isla, daughter of Elistral from the House of the Dark Daggers. Wielder of magic.
I can hold my head high instead of hiding in the shadows.
27
Sebastian
I may have wished to go after Snow, but not like this. Not with Isla right here in the thick of it.
It was supposed to be me. My fight. My death, if it came to that. A king’s reckoning for what was done to his kingdom.
Not this.
Never this.
Isla sits in my arms, her back warm against my chest, her fingers laced through mine where they rest on her stomach. The thornback rolls beneath us with each lumbering stride, and every step carries us closer to the very thing I tried to keep her from.
I tighten my arm around her. She doesn’t say anything, but her thumb traces a small circle over my knuckle.
The formation has been moving at a steady pace for some time now. The hy-weres run in loose columns along the flanks, back and forth in a tireless fashion. Two dragons fly toward us, their wings turning in slow, sweeping arcs. As they reach us, they swoop low.
The wind from their descent hits us in a wall of displaced air. Isla ducks instinctively, pressing back against me as they hover just above our marching column. Their scales are a deep, oily black. Each one could swallow a horse whole.
They make a sound I’ve never heard before. A series of rapid clicks followed by a guttural rumbling deep in their throats. The noise vibrates through my ribs.
The female hy-were who shifted earlier appears from somewhere to the side of the column. She slows, lifts her head toward them, and answers with yipping sounds. The cadence is deliberate. There are pauses, inflections.
