“We have very little time.” Asrael’s hand rested lightly on the hilt of his sword, not as a threat, but a habit. “The queen will expect us to be visible in the fighting.”
“You owe me a conversation, husband.” The wordhusbandsat strangely on my tongue.
“I will tell you everything.”
Fear’s eyes met mine, and it was only because Asrael was at his shoulder that I happened to catch the flicker—brief, already gone—that crossed Asrael’s face at those words.
Fear never told anyone everything.
“How are we going to protect her?” Kiegan demanded. My half-orc friend was frowning, more than his usual natural glower. “The queen will want her dead. What’s the plan?”
From the passage behind us, the distant sounds sharpened—something that was not quite a scream, something that was not quite stone breaking. Battle. Moving closer.
Asrael’s gaze cut briefly toward the sound, then back. “You’ve brought her into danger by your attention, Fear. More so now. We’ll guard her with our lives, but?—”
“But the queen cannot kill me.” The thought arrived with a giddiness I didn’t fully trust. “Not now. Not my brother or sister either.”
“Not once you finish this.” Anayla’s voice was careful.
I looked to Fear for clarification—finishmeaning what, exactly? I was not opposed to certain interpretations.
He caught the look. The corner of his mouth moved.Not now.
“I’ll protect Cara during the Hunt,” Fear said, addressing the group but watching me. “While the queen knows my marriage is blocked, we’ll keep her from realizing it’s Cara. She’ll suspect. I’ve planted other rumors.”
Fear and I had bargained that we would not be forever to each other. We were allies in a marriage that could not be faked, and so it must be real. For now. But something still nettled me about the indignity of existing alongsideother rumors.
“That leaves her without formal protection.” Anayla’s gaze cut to the passage where the sounds were growing, then back to Fear; the threat in her voice doubled by the threat in the dark. “If one of the queen’s court moves before the Claiming is complete?—”
“Not as long as one of Bismyth draws breath.” Dairen’s hand came to rest briefly on my shoulder. “She’ll have protection.”
“You know what I mean, Dair.” Anayla’s voice softened, though it didn’t lose its edge. “The queen needs to knowshe can’t move against her. That’s the only protection that holds when none of us are in the room.”
“The marriage bond means the queen cannot order harm to Cara—or do it herself—without the magic turning back on her.” Fear’s tone was measured in the way of someone who already saw the outcome and was waiting for everyone else to catch up. “It doesn’t matter if the queen realizes my wife’s identity. Hiding her in Amber will delay the queen.”
“She won’t be safe enough,” Kiegan said. “Not without us. Not inAmber.”
Fear’s jaw tightened in a way that told me what name he was going to speak. “She’ll be under Ander’s watch. Ander’s protection. The Claiming will protect her from the queen at one level of protection, and the second will be that the queen will expect my wife to behere.In Bismyth.”
“She’ll be safer with us,” Anayla said. Quiet, but immediate. Final in the way of someone who has already decided and is simply informing the room. She had stepped closer to me. “Ander will protect her, but not like we would. Nixi? Revin? You think they’ll look after her as we would?”
“I know what the queen will expect.” The edge in Fear’s voice was barely there. “And I know how to use her expectations. I’ve kept us alive this far, if you recall.”
Dairen exhaled slowly. “You always do love a good gamble.”
“This isn’t a game.” The snap in Anayla’s voice was unfamiliar enough that it made me look at her. Kiegan’s chin dipped in agreement before she finished, low and certain, “She’s ours.”
The word landed somewhere for which I didn’t have a defense.
Ours.
This strange clan that had acquired me like a stray and apparently intended to keep me. I thought of what Maura had lost by going against Fear. Of what it must have cost her to be cast out from something likethis.
And then I noticed, not for the first time, that Fear let them disagree with him. He had only cast out Maura for betraying him. For hurting me.
“She’smine,” Fear corrected. The weight of it was possessive. Final. And not enough, somehow, to do whatourshad done.
Anayla’s chin lifted. “She’sours.”
