“But that Viper of yours–”
“She is not mine,” he bit out, enunciating every word. “She does not want me and I do not want her.”
“But–”
“I really am cold.” He shivered for added emphasis. “Couldn’t you have gotten kidnapped in balmier weather? Like Evie. She’s near the coast, enjoying the ocean breeze in her hair. Smart girl.”
“Now who’s changing the subject?”
“We are family, after all.” He smiled brightly and turned. “After you, Huntress. Show me where the warmth is, merciful hostess.”
I rolled my eyes but laughed despite myself.
We walked through the forest in silence, only the brittle, crunching snow to keep us company. Dax’s gaze wandered all around us, whistling in awe at the massive firs, while my eyes didn’t stray from his face.
I couldn’t believe that he was here, after all these weeks of worry and death.
The familiar face I hadn’t known I’d needed, in this crater which nobody could penetrate.
So how had Dax?
There was only one passage in and out of Solkar’s Reach, and one had to be escorted in by someone who’d already traversed the secret entryway.
Dax didn’t know anyone here apart from me, and I definitely hadn’t brought him in.
“Dax…” I began. “Howdidyou get into Solkar’s Reach?”
Chapter 2
Ryker
“You know what I hate?” Calyx thumped his maimed leg toward the closest chair, slumping into it like a grumbly old man he was decades away from becoming. Even with his wound from the wedding massacre slowing him down, he was broader than us all, despite the rumpled tunic he wore shielding most of his hard-trained muscles. “People dropping by unannounced. Didn’t even have time to shave properly.”
My fingers twitched as I struggled with the urge to rush to his side and help as he bent his knee with a groan. Calyx forgave weakness in others, but not himself.
“I asked them to come,” I said with the solemnity this moment required.
My skin crawled at the thought of revealing the secret I’d kept from my Brothers and Sisters since the wedding massacre, but the last two days had proven we were on the brink of chaos.
Acting swiftly was our only choice, whether I wanted it or not.
“It’s my house!” Calyx huffed, the protective amulet around his neck swaying as he readjusted his position with a wince.
“And you’re such a gracious host,” Elysia purred from beside his workbench, pushing his pots around between the cogs, nails, and every other scrap of metal he kept tucked between the ferns and flowers. Calyx must have experimented on some of these plants, because those begonias had a bluish tint I’d never seen in nature.
Calyx narrowed his eyes. “What are you doing to my plants?”
“Just…rearranging them,” she said quickly.
Brightly.
Suspiciously.
“You brought your damn cat with you again, didn’t you?”
Her shoulders sagged. “This stuff is dangerous.”
“Not if you stay away from it,” he said.
