“Marsh.”
“Yes, yes. Named. Removed. Witnessed. Terrible verbs all around.”
I stepped away from the wall.
The room tilted.
Only slightly.
My shoulder punished the first step. My ribs helped. For a moment, the green-gold line in the basin burned so bright that I tasted apples and blood.
Astra noticed my pain through the bond.
The whole room between us, and she still saw.
I gave her the smallest bow I could manage without falling over.
Her eyes narrowed.
Quill lifted his hand toward the west door.
The stewards formed a line around all four of us. No hands on anyone, I noted with the only pleasure I could conjure from the situation.
Ashford noticed. Hale noticed. I noticed.
Astra noticed last, because she was busy staring at the west door as if she could set it on fire with her glare.
They were moving us as a set.
The Tower had said all named Marks.
The Council obeyed.
Ashford stepped away from the basin only when Astra did.
Their hands separated.
The bond between them did not.
Everyone saw that too.
Astra came down from the raised circle with silver water on her fingers and her mother’s wren over her heart. She did not look like a girl being escorted from a formal.
She looked like a girl being taken from one battlefield to another.
I had missed her. I wanted her by my side. I wanted to kiss her again.
Ridiculous thoughts, since she had just been bonded to Caspian Ashford in front of a hundred eyes.
The four of us reached the center aisle at the same time.
Ashford took her right. I took her left. Hale walked three steps ahead, because the stewards did not quite know whether he belonged with us or against us.
Astra turned to me.
“You look terrible.”
“Not everyone can manage to look as ravishing as you while facing their doom.”
