First, he was doing everything to run her off, and now he offered her half-baked concern? She knew she was technically on his team, his responsibility for the moment, but it was still unsettling. It wasn’t like Darish would have cared if she got herself killed.
But she couldn’t have Pyetar trying to stop her. “I am doing the best I can, and I am trying not to make things worse for anyone. I don’t want Karvek to get any more power, either. I don’t want him to start a war between the other brigades. I’m just—you just have to trust me.”
Pyetar’s eyes flashed, and they were the color of the sky before a summer storm. “You really expect me to believe you? Totrustyou?”
“I think you already do.” Her voice was quiet, but she felt sure. “You risked exposing yourself at Midmarket by protecting me from Karvek. No one knew you were there. Just me. YouknewI wouldn’t tell him.”
She met his gaze. Held it. “You’ve warned me about how dangerous he is. If you truly thought I was his pawn, you wouldn’t have risked it.”
Something had shifted. She didn’t know when, not exactly. Maybe it was when she’d seen him taking charge, protecting the soldiers from the dakii when they’d been replacing spikes. He hadn’t hesitated to form his sword. Or themoment he’d pulled her out of the way in Midmarket, risking himself to stop Karvek from discovering her.
Or maybe it was smaller than that.
When he stood between her and Gintar, shielding her entire team and protecting them. When he held her on the dance floor, and admitted he was just as trapped as she was. When he’d tried to keep her from coming at all.
He may not show it or admit it, but she could see it behind his actions. He protected those he could. Had protected her.
She didn’t hate him anymore. Hadn’t for a while now.
Iryana rubbed at her face with her good arm, exhaustion and emotion weighing her down.
She could trust him. Not completely, but enough. Enough to believe he’d keep her secrets.
Pyetar’s voice cut through her spiraling thoughts.
“I just don’t understand what you’re trying to do,” he said. “You say you didn’t know he was taking over the 18th, but you still helped him.” He sighed, dragging a hand down his face. “And now you’re running off alone, doing gods-know-what. I—” He exhaled sharply. “I don’t know what to do about you. You are making everything harder.”
That should have sent her bristling, coaxed a sharp retort from her.
But Iryana said nothing. She was too focused on his nearness. The space between them, his voice, and the fact that she didn’t really want to fight with him.
Her thoughts were pulling in too many directions at once, andhewas too close, too steady. That tight feeling low in her stomach twisted again. It made it hard to think, and that shefeltanything at all just made her angry.
There was only one thing she knew with absolute clarity.
She needed the well.
She didn’t know what Pyetar planned to do about his brother. But they weren’t enemies, not anymore. Maybe they hadn’t ever been. And they had to stop working against each other.
“I wasn’t lying,” she finally said. “Karvek didn’t send me.”
Pyetar’s lips parted like he meant to speak, but he didn’t. Instead he waited, watching her warily.
“If you ever tell anyone any of this,” Iryana said, her voice flat, “I will kill you.”
And she meant it.
“If I were going to betray you, I would have done it already.” His voice was as hard as hers. He almost sounded insulted.
Tension tightened between them, thick and almost painful. She didn’twantto trust him, but she already did. Not enough for what she was about to tell him, but she was running out of time.
“The Kleesolds can’t hold on to our post anymore. Half of the family is air-forged now, which isn’t enough against the dakii. The duchess is going to surrender the valley before winter, divvy us up between other posts.”
She let out a slow breath. “If I am initiated, I’ll be metal-forged. I will know where the well is. If those of us coming of age can be metal-forged too, we have a chance to keep the post.”
Pyetar was quiet for a long moment. “What you’re trying to do is almost impossible, and dangerous. You’re risking a lot for a family you didn’t seem all that close to.”
She squeezed her eyes shut.Thiswas why she disliked Pyetar so much. He didn’t let anything slide. Where Karvek quietly accepted her broken pieces, welcomed them even, Pyetar poked at them.
