He shook his head. “Maybe you were right. It was only a strange glimmer.”
We both heard the lie.
I should have hurried back down and not stopped until I reached my room. But I didn’t move.
He didn’t either.
“I have something for you,” he said after a few beats of silence.
From whatever secret pocket sewn in the back of his robe–always prepared, this one–he took out a small, dark leather journal which looked like it had been forgotten on a shelf since the last dynasty, and handed it to me.
I didn’t need to open it to know what it was.
A palaver portal. Of course. This is how Dax and I would watch Evie’s wedding, removed, from a distance, like we didn’t belong there.
He would stand in the Capital in his robes and weapons, while we’d been relegated to the outskirts of Clan life.
I gripped the journal tighter to keep from saying something I could never take back.
“Keep her safe,” I said.
His eyes sparked. “She will be safe.”
That only made me worry more.
Chapter 24
Allie
Like a fool, I watched Ryker leave the city from the safety of my own room, though nothing in me felt safe right now.
He said his goodbyes to Nadya and Geryll and kissed Mrs. Thornbrew’s hand, before his gaze slashed straight toward my balcony windows. Of course he’d known I was watching.
I inhaled sharply, as if he’d reached out and caressed my cheek.
He lingered for one more moment, eyes softening at the edges. Hesitating. But he still turned into a crimson blur.
The shivers racing down my spine intensified as the red speck of him vanished between the mighty firs and mounds of snow. They settled at the base of my skull, like on that day he’d returned to the crater.
My body betraying me or a warning?
Before I could pick at that particular thread too closely, vigorous knocks resounded against my door.
I sighed a groan as Dax let himself in, bringing all of his overbearing vibrancy into my stale room. It wasn’t his fault–it was mine.
I hadn’t shared any of my grief with him, still stuck in the role of older cousin who wasn’t allowed to make mistakes.
“Blessed day, darling cousin,” he said with that pompous, nasally tone we used to make fun of as children. “Our family honor is about to get ruined. Or bolstered. I don’t quite know where we stand on the Clan hierarchy now.”
Nobody did.
I ran my hands down my face, trying my best to redden and liven it, and turned.
I shouldn’t have.
“You look like something dragged you through the crater.” His gaze widened.
I narrowed my eyes at him. “And that comment really helps with that, thank you.”
