“He did this on purpose, sending me all the way out here,” Lark says with a huff I know all too well.
“Good. Hopefully you’ll learn something,” Howell replies.
There’s a short march of metal footsteps and each step closer is a stab of fear.Please don’t find us.
“About what? How many trees this forest has?” Lark shoots back.
“Just be grateful the prince lifted your suspension after the way you acted.”
As always, Howell is levelheaded and calm. And also incredibly skilled and experienced. There’s no way we can fight past him.
A brush of wind against my cheek brings my face in the direction of Will. He’s staring at me, wide-eyed.
You okay?he mouths.
I shudder a breath. How can I explain? I gesture to myself, then Lark, then cross my forearms to make an X in hope that it gets the message across.
“I should be out there looking for Fliss, not babysitting a bridge,” Lark complains.
“We all have our part to do, and as a Guard of Alrick, no job is unworthy if it protects our people. It’s your duty to be here, Lark,” Howell says. “We must trust our colleagues are doing their best to search for Felicity. Besides, it was good for you when your relationship ended. This situation has you slipping back into bad habits.”
Will quickly drops my gaze to spy on the guards. I watch him study Lark up and down, and when he turns back to me, he tilts his head to the side with a pinch of smugness. The edges of his mouth tug and he hovers his hand side to side, as if to saynot bad.He points a finger to himself then to the sky, and mouthsI’m better.
Stop,I reply, but he’s cracked my anger, drawn out a laugh, and when Lark speaks again, his voice is a blunt edge.
“How was it good for me?”
“You were such an arrogant ass when you were in training,” Howell says. I peek around the tree again to see him pace to the edge of the bridge, alert even when conversing. “A rookie from a small southern village thinking you knew best. Having an in with the prince through Felicity made your ego even worse.”
Lark faces his senior, arms folded. “I wasn’t that bad.”
“You were. That’s why I was so hard on you. You needed to learn that teamwork and loyalty would take you further than pride. It was only after you and Felicity broke up that you knuckled down and threw yourself into training seriously. You proved yourself with hard work. That’s the only reason you became a full-fledged guard. The captain wouldn’t have passed you otherwise.”
“Well, what else was I supposed to do? Everyone knew what happened at the party. I saw the looks I got. People hated me.”
It’s been almost a year since our attempt to talk about what happened, and we’d both been so emotional, so angry and hurt, that predictably, it had ended in tears. In all the months since then, I’ve been doing my best to avoid him. But it’s a lie that I haven’t been curious about how much it impacted his life. I’d noticed the side-eyes and whispers in my direction. The gossip that the truths I’d yelled at the party had been too harsh, too disrespectful, andPoor Larkfor even giving her a chance, what a scene she’d made.He thought everyone hated him too? Maybe, but none more than me.
I wonder where that hatred went.
I wonder when it softened from a blaze to a breeze.
Howell’s gruff face turns stern. “You learned the hard way that prioritizing reputation and status—personal gain—won’t do you any good in this line of work. It’s a lesson you sometimes forget, which is why the prince and captain give you jobs like this, in the far corners of the kingdom ‘babysitting’ bridges. There is more to being a guard than being best friends with royalty.”
“Prince Bastion hardly talks to me these days anyway.”
“You have no one to blame but yourself.”
Lark falls silent.
“Take that frown off your face,” Howell says.
“What more can I do, Howell?”
“You can shut up and do your job with dignity. Do you see me complaining about being here? No. Because I do not look down upon it. It’s an honor to serve.”
A short birdcall echoes three times from farther within the forest,something I wouldn’t have noticed if Will hadn’t straightened so suddenly. He waves a hand to get my attention and points back the way we came. I push off the tree and follow him, my shoulders curled inward. Am I glad I heard all that? I don’t know…I never thought I’d move on from the pain Lark caused. I thought it would be a thorn in my chest forevermore.
A hand catches mine and Will interlocks our fingers. I never thought I’d be able to love again. Love someone more. Gods, I’d been so very wrong.
