“Now? Now we call for a meeting of all the clan leaders. Now they all know the queen wants Obsidian dead. Hopefully they’re smart enough to know that means she will turn on them in time.”
I studied her, and she was the one who finished my thought. “Now we fight.”
“But first, we try to make allies of the other clans.” The smile that touched my lips was rueful. “Which is the hardest fight.”
The pyres were still smoking when the first of the other clan leaders appeared on the horizon.
Forty-Three
Cara
We set up lodging for the night in one of the buildings left standing. Bismyth and Amber took it over together, which meant uncomfortably close quarters, as far as I was concerned. There was no way we could keep Tesa and Ander apart forever.
But for now, Tesa seemed to be in hiding. Fear and Ander set up a command center together in the main room, from which they sent out patrols.
One of Obsidian’s first three, a woman named Akia, came in, though she tried only to talk to Ander. Still, she was too wise to be impolite to Fear when he pressed the issue.
“We will take care of the patrols up and down the coast,” Fear told her, and she expressed her gratitude.
Fear and I went up to our rooms long enough to wash and dress. I hated the thought of standing at his side and meetingwith clan leaders, knowing that they would all judge me and find me lacking. But I would square my shoulders and do it anyway.
“What happened to this city during the Trials?” I asked. “Were they able to defend it on their own?”
The thought had nagged at me the entire time we were carrying the dead and watching mortals repair the city.
“They evacuate for the duration of the Trials,” Fear told me. “Though, I do have my questions about where the monsters come from. And how.”
“What are you thinking?” I had dressed in fresh clothes, and now I pinned my bracer to the doorframe, so I could try to strap it onto my arm.
Fear’s fingers wrapped around the bracer and my forearm. I was far too attuned to the feeling of his warmth against my skin. He began to strap it on for me. It was easier if we served each other this way; I told myself that was all it was.
He explained, “I question sometimes if she controls the rips or the monsters in some way.”
That would be both evil and unsurprising. The only thing I questioned was: “How?”
“I don’t know yet.”
Fear helped with my other bracer, then stepped back and cast a critical eye over me. I had already combed through my hair, and now I began to rebraid it. But I also met his gaze evenly.
“Embarrassed to be seen with the mortal?”
Really, I wondered if he was embarrassed to be seen with the mortal who could not fly.
“Never,” he told me. “I want to make sure that our audience, who hasn’t had the privilege of standing at the edge of your blade, can recognize your power.”
I shook my head. “You don’t want me to be powerful. You want me to be part of your plan.”
He tilted his head, studying me. “Do you really believe that?”
He sounded more curious than defensive or angry, and it opened a strange hollow in my chest.
I wasn’t sure what I believed about Fear.
“What do you need from me in there?” I worried what he needed was Lightbringer.
She had gone silent again. I felt her coiled in the back of my mind, able to help and yet unwilling.
When I pictured her that way—when hurt washed over me that my dragon rejected me—I felt as if something shifted underneath my skin, as if she were listening and wanted to respond, but held herself back.
