My voice sounded faraway. The urge to fall on Fear and beat him with my fists rose up like a wild thing. He had brought us here, and no matter how righteous his cause—no matter how Tay would have suffered without him—it was hard not to blame him.
“Listen to me. There’s a way to help him.” His voice was certain, and some of my fear fell away under the power of that tone.
When I pulled back to study his face, his hands stayed at my shoulders. The man who had let me grieve into him a moment ago had been replaced by the prince who always had a plan. His handsome features were calm.
“Tell me.”
“There’s a knife that can unmake any enchantment. Even the queen’s. She intends to steal it, and so do I.”
“When do we leave?”
His mouth set the way it did before he delivered news I would not like. “I’m leaving today. You’re staying with Ander.”
“Charmingly protective as usual, but no.”
“I’m stealing from the low Fae, against an opposing clan, in orc territory, in defiance of the queen,” he said, and his voice was reasonable, as if surely I would agree once he laid out the facts like so many cards. “You’re still mortal. And if we were delayed and you missed the Claiming, it would be catastrophic and?—”
“Don’t.” I despised his practicalities when this was my brother at stake.
He rode over my words without stopping. “Create risk for everyone involved. You’re safer here, and I’ll have what we need to help?—”
“It’s Tay.” My hands clasped the front of his tunic. I didn’t remember reaching for him. “It’s my brother. You don’t get to take this from me and tell me to wait here.”
His hand cupped my cheek, with something unexpectedly tender in his golden gaze. “I’m not taking anything from you. I’m protecting you.”
“I know that’s what you intend. But if I can save my brother, I can’t sit here and wait for you to be my hero!”
He could have pointed out that as clan leader, he had the right to decide who to bring on a mission. Instead, he hesitated. Victory soared in my chest.
“You’re everything to this plan. If you die, the rebellion will be lost.” His gaze searched mine. “Iwill be lost.”
Something softened inside me at his words, and I steeled myself against it. “If I cannot save my brother, I will not forgive you.” I held his gaze. “And I won’t forgive myself.”
“That,” Ander said from the corridor entrance, “is the most honest thing I’ve heard when I’ve been around Fear in a long time.”
I had not heard him arrive. I was not sure if that was his skill or my preoccupation, and I had no particular interest in finding out which.
Ander leaned against the wall with his arms crossed and the expression of a man who had heard enough to have already formed his conclusions and was now waiting for the other parties to catch up. His gaze moved from me to Fear with the cool, specific attention he used when he was deciding how much to say.
Fear looked at him without expression, as if he hadn’t just been caught by his rival discussing knifing Obsidian in the back and leaving them to face the queen’s wrath. “This is a private conversation.”
“She’s part of my clan—which I’ve allowed as a favor to you—which means there is no private conversation.” Ander pushed off the wall.
“It’s a favor to Cara. You wouldn’t do me any favors,” Fear disagreed.
“Wrong. You just wouldn’t deserve them.” Ander’s voice had leveled out to something flat and deliberate. “You’re leaving her behind.”
“I thought you wanted to see her protected,” Fear said, with the patience of a man declining to be provoked. “Shouldn’t you be above eavesdropping?”
“I should not,” Ander returned with certainty.
I interrupted. “You said we need to move fast. Who are you bringing?”
“Myself,” he said. “Either Asrael or Anayla—I need the other here to guide the clan. Kiegan, given the territory.” He held my gaze. “Three is ideal for speed. More introduces risk.”
He had come to me today with a truth to comfort me, not a mission for me to protect my family myself. “I’m going.”
Fear’s jaw tightened, slightly.
