He closed the rest of the distance between us in a few quick strides, and suddenly I felt exposed. The two of us were visible standing alone between Amber and Bismyth while the rest of the shifters knotted together in their clans.
His gaze roamed my face. “Are you all right?”
It was a question he had to ask me far too often since I entered his orbit with Fear at my side. “I will be.”
Ander accepted this optimism, which seemed generous. “Not many are after dealing with the queen.”
I laughed, a bit shakily. “One more Hunt. And then you’ll all be free.”
His gaze softened, threaded with worry. “Do you still have the bracelet I gave you?”
“I do.”
“Then you can always call on Clan Amber, and we’ll come.” He hesitated. “I know you did not spend much time with us, and what time you did spend was not always…ideal. But you are part of Clan Amber, just as much as you’re Bismyth now. We will come if you need us.”
Maura rose to mind, cast out of Bismyth. The thought was accompanied by a stabbing in my chest. If I killed Fear…I would go home to Stonehaven. And Bismyth would hate me.
They couldn’t know. I’d make up a story…but then the queen would surely want to ruin me. All of that roared through my mind. I wanted to tell Ander, but the heralds were already playing the music for the queen’s arrival.
“Thank you.”
He nodded. “I’ll see you later, Cara.”
He clapped my shoulder in a goodbye—more gently than he would have done with another shifter—and moved past me, and in that movement, I could see beyond him to Fear.
Fieran’s gaze caught and narrowed on Ander’s touch. For a moment the world narrowed to the two of us: his presence, my pulse, the dagger at my hip.
Fear started toward me as if he had been launched from a bow.
Twenty-Seven
Cara
Fear reached my side just as the arena filled with light.
The queen.
The crowd’s attention shifted, requiring me to look at the dais rather than at him, which was the first helpful thing that had happened all morning.
I was too aware of him, as always. The warmth of him at my left shoulder, the faint scent of smoke and soap, the sense of height and solid muscle and what had once felt like safety.
I stared at the dais and thought about the bond between us and whose hands had been in my nightmares and what would keep my brother alive.
“Ander told me the queen took you.” His voice was low, pitched under the crowd noise.
“I’m fine.” I kept my eyes on the dais. The queen was alone up there. No Tay. No Lidi. No Mam. Not yet. “She knows something about Lightbringer.”
He stilled beside me.
“How much?”
I couldn’t even think through exactly what the queen had said and hadn’t. She hadn’t named Lightbringer. But she knew about a bond.
That sensation of being trapped was stronger than ever, coiled around my chest, squeezing. “She has Mam and Lidi at the castle now. With Tay.”
He did not respond for a heartbeat, then another, and both were full. I could read him by now: he was thinking fast and showing me nothing of it.
“They will be safe.” His voice was careful and certain in equal measure. “The queen has no interest in harming them. To her, they are currency to control you, and if she spends them, it’s over. My people will watch the palace. If they’re in danger, I’ll get them out.”
