Geryll’s eyes widened. “Why not?”
“Protective measures,” Zandyr said diplomatically.
“The kind that can rip you apart,” I said. Sometimes, Geryll could be too curious for his own good.
He gulped. “Got it.”
“Fantastic.” Zandyr clapped his palms; even that boom lacked his usual fire. Then he looked at me, exhausted but undefeated. “We leave at dawn.”
I tightened my jaw. “At dawn.”
To a war neither of us wanted, but which we had to lead. Leave everything behind and throw ourselves in the way of deadly weapons and monsters which shouldn’t exist.
And we’d do it.
So that Geryll could read those archives in peace.
Nadya could drink her tea in the evenings without looking over her shoulder.
So that Allie didn’t have to face a rain of poisoned arrows ever again.
As soon as Zandyr left, Geryll turned back to his animated self; the one he rarely showed past the thick walls of the fortress.
“He’s so awesome,” he said, so amazed and wide-eyed, it would’ve pricked my pride if I’d been a lesser man.
But there was a reason they called me the Shadow. I didn’t need praise. I needed to do my duty in peace. But his excitement made something in me tighten.
“He is,” I said.
He ran a hand through his hair. “He’s much nicer than Nadya said he’d be.”
“She’s never met him.”
“She saw him when he came for the ritual. Said he walked funny and uptight. But he’s so strong. And the way he jumped off the wall in the Arena and riled up the warriors.” He sighed wistfully. “I want to be able to do that.”
I didn’t want to stop him from dreaming, but Zandyr was the Dragon for a reason. “Who knows what abilities you’ll discover in those ancient parchments.”
“Yeah,” he said, enthusiasm plummeting.
“What’s wrong?” I moved from the window.
He shrugged. “Nothing. Just thinking.”
With the way his brows furrowed, it couldn’t have been anything good.
“Best make the most out of today, the scribes will be waiting for you in front of the library tomorrow,” I said.
“After you leave at dawn,” he said.
“If anything happens–” I kneeled down beside his seat. “–you find Evie. She’ll help you–and she knows how to contact Allie.”
Geryll’s smile lacked his usual energy.
I told myself it was just nerves.
That this was the first time he’d be all alone in a city he didn’t know, but that he could talk to Nadya whenever he needed to, through the palaver portal.
That he’d been so excited to come and delve into the deepest war secrets of the Blood Brotherhood–and that he would be safe.
