“Don’t get used to it.”
“Too late. It’s an expectation now.”
Hale moved then. One step closer to Kieran. If Kieran’s knees failed, the floor would not get him first.
Quill saw it.
“Together, then,” he said. “Under direct witness.”
Magnus frowned and Caspian met his gaze.
For one breath, something passed between father and son that had nothing to do with me and everything to do with what awaited us in the Tower.
Then Caspian broke off the look.
Caswell entered the passage with the lamp. Two stewards followed.
Kieran pushed off the wall.
Pain took him badly enough that the green-gold line snapped bright through my wrist.
I reached for him with my free hand.
He caught it.
The contact was brief.
Too brief.
His fingers were cold.
“Still here,” he said.
“For now.”
“How can such a pretty girl be so cruel?”
“Stay alive so you can complain about my manners later.”
His eyes met mine.
Green, bright, stripped of everything except survival.
“Bossy,” he murmured.
Then he let go.
Hale went to his other side and looped his arm around his midsection without asking permission from anyone. Kieran didn’t object.
Caspian kept hold of my left hand.
Four of us.
One passage.
Quill gave a nod.
We went through the door with no handle.
