“Because I didn’t know he was coming until he flung a dagger at the troll,” I said tersely, locking eyes with him.
Ryker’s eyes sparked, but I didn’t know what in Xamor’s name that meant right now.
“I always did know how to make an entrance,” Dax said.
“And just how did you do it?” Ryker asked coldly.
Dax hesitated, the veins in his neck standing out. Miracle of all miracles, he closed his mouth and looked at me. Giving me the option of telling the truth or colluding with him to create a lie out of thin air.
I instantly knew what path I wanted to take.
I sighed and threw my napkin onto the table, frustration crawling up my throat. This meal had been a disaster anyway. “You won’t believe us unless we show you.”
Chapter 8
Allie
“The crypt,” Ryker deadpanned as the wind hissed through the trees bold enough to survive on the rocky edges of the highest hill within walking distance of the fortress. It overlooked the frozen lake that apparently had never once thawed in the crater’s history. The written one at least. “You hid this machinery in the sacred crypt.”
No, I hid the machineryandmy crown in the crypt.
“It’s the safest place in all of Solkar’s Reach, right?” I asked tersely–and loudly, so my words wouldn’t be swallowed by the gusts hitting us in waves.
Ryker had positioned himself to my side, so he’d take the brunt of it, but I was still too irked to even look at him.
“Allie said your warriors wouldn’t take kindly to it,” Dax quipped from beside the fir he was holding onto for dear life, as his wings flailed in the wind. “And she was right, they are not friendly.”
Ryker grimaced as he stared off into the distance. He’d been doing that a lot since the dinner fiasco, a permanent frown etched between his brows.
Under his incredulous stare, we’d retrieved the huge backpack, before he guided us to the top of the hill without a word. He’d walked ahead of us, facing the wind first, only glancing my way a few times, always with that impenetrable stare.
Which annoyed me even more. I wasn’t the one throwing suspicion across the dinner table.
The silence between us was pressing, making me feel exposed in ways I wasn’t used to, chest tight and breath jumpy.
Was he fretting, too? Or had that damn spark in his eyes cool the longing in his veins, as well?
Despite the irritation, my body still ached to stand close to him and hear him breathing, of all things. I was just cold and he was always hot like a furnace, that was all.
“I just want to mention,again, how absolutely ridiculous this is,” I said between chattering teeth, as I struggled to wrap more of my arms around myself through the layers upon layers of furs that did nothing to keep the biting night cold from slithering across my skin. “The wind is going to jerk you around and smash you against a tree like a mosquito.”
“So little faith.” Dax’s grin was all edges and fixed his hard gaze on Ryker. “The benevolent ruler wanted a demonstration.”
“Come off it,weproposed one.” I scoffed, acutely aware of the backpack and the Protectorate crown it held, resting only feet away from me. I swore I could hear a metal whisper in the air. “He’s seen the wings, he has my word.”
“I don’t have his.” Ryker looked down at me. One look at my tight face and his expression softened once more, even as a wrenched sigh flattened his chest. “But this can indeed wait until tomorrow.”
Dax rolled his shoulders, rustling the wings. “I want to see how they perform in the most atrocious conditions. Your crater has graciously supplied them.”
“This is not the time to let your pride lead,” I said.
“No.” The humor vanished from Dax’s face in one breath. “It’s a time to find any advantage we can get. War is coming.”
The frustration burned away.
This was no longer a family tiff.
It was a strategic discussion.
