“Yes.”
“Then tell me what comes through it. What’s worth risking Amber?”
I looked at him. He looked at me. Two men who had spent years reading each other’s silences and now were finding them consistently unreadable. “I cannot.”
“I thought so.” His voice had gone to something quieter and more dangerous than it had been. “You want my clan to take the queen’s punishment for a plan you won’t explain. You want Cara to walk into a volley of arrows. And you’re standing here waiting for me to thank you for the privilege.”
“I’m standing here having a conversation you requested. What I want is for you to understand that this is not a gamble. She will be claimed.”
“By whom.” His eyes didn’t move from mine. “If you’ve prepared for it, say by whom.”
I said nothing.
He exhaled. “There it is. You arrogant fucking prick who will risk Cara, will riskmyclan?—”
“You don’t need that information to do what’s necessary. Sharing it adds additional risks.”
“I don’t need or want your trust,” he said, with emphasis that matched mine, “but you are asking me to trust the plan of a man who has never once told me the full truth about anything at the cost of my clan’s safety.”
He held my gaze, as if he could force the answer out of me by sheer will. “Give me one reason.”
“You won’t like it.” If I mentioned Corbyn, he would want to murder me. If I mentioned Lightbringer, he would make the leap to Corbyn anyway.
“I haven’t liked one of your plans in a decade.” His gaze narrowed, and my whole body tightened as if preparing for an attack. He’d figured it out. “Lightbringer. She’s a Clan Amber dragon.”
“Look at that. You don’t need me to give you reasons. You come up with them on your own.”
He ignored my condescension, but then he had practice. At one point, Ander and Tesa and the others had made a drinking game out of my patronizing. I had perfected my social skills since then, but Ander brought out an older side. “You still have this obsession.”
“I’m steadfast.”
He scoffed. “Have you seen Corbyn?”
There was no reason to deny him this truth, especially when it was likely to rebound on me viciously in the near future. “Not for years.”
His brows arched. “You’ve kept Cara from him?”
“I don’t even know how to get in touch with him.”
“You’re usually resourceful.” His voice was full of scorn. “He’ll see you suffer for that if he can.”
I put aside the Corbyn situation. He would be a problem, but he’d be a larger problem if the leader of the rebels pulled my wife from my arms.
“I asked her when she was under the healing spell if she would allow me to manipulate and lie if she knew it would serve her wishes. All she wants is to protect Tay and resurrect Lidi’s magic.”
“That’s not all she wants, you fool.” Ander calling mefoolsounded familiar too in a way that was unsettling. But he sounded calmer now. “And ‘you gave me permission to lie, deceive, and trick you while you were drugged’is not going to mean as much as an excuse toheras it clearly does to you.”
I focused on the first part of his little speech.That’s not all she wants.“You’re correct for once. Cara wants the chance to make things better for mortals.”
His gaze fixed on my bed. On the bedposts, from which hung a tangle of gold necklaces. Eventually, Cara would return to Bismyth and to my bed.
“We have made her a good nest,”Shadowbane said, pleased with himself.“She will be delighted.”
I did not enjoy Ander seeing this impulse of mine. I smiled at him tightly anyway, refusing to be embarrassed.
“You would not put her there if you believed she would die,” he said, slowly. Testing it for the weight of whether he believed it.
“No. This plan does protect her, and I will help you protect Amber. I swear on that.”
