Page 206 of A Reign of Chromes & Shadows

“Hey!” she chirped, voice pitched a little too high. “What are you guys talking about?”

Rain answered before Jay could. “I was asking Jay about his injury. Sounds like he’ll be okay to run on Velday.”

“Thank the Gods,” Wren blurted. “Let’s pray we don’t get beaten up by your enemies again before the tournament.”

Even she seemed startled by her own words, smiling through a cringe.

Rain’s eyes narrowed. Her hostility wasn’t even subtle anymore.

Jay gasped. “Wren!”

“Sorry! I didn’t mean to say that out loud,” she said quickly, as if that somehow made it better. She cleared her throat. “Erm… Rain, I was wondering how our princesses are doing?”

Rain’s instincts snapped taut; a sharp, visceral tightening in his chest, the kind that never lied. Something wasn’t right.

Not with Wren’s tone.

Not with her timing.

Not with the question itself.

Wren hated discussing anything that could put them at risk. She had always been the first to shut down dangerous conversations, the first to scold him for asking about the Red Kingdom, the first to remind him that even knowing about the princesses was enough to get them all killed.

She would never ask for more information.

Not unless something had changed.

Not unless someone had gotten to her.

Her recent behaviour only sharpened the alarm bells ringing in Rain’s mind. She had grown distant, colder, more guarded. Their friendship, once easy, once warm, felt like it had been shoved into a locked box. She barely acknowledged him now, except to wedge herself between him and Jay like a human shield.

It wasn’t protectiveness anymore.

It was surveillance.

And Rain felt the shift of realisation like a blade pressed to the back of his neck.

He swallowed the rising dread and forced his expression into something soft and casual, donning the mask he never wished to use toward his friends

“They’re doing great,” he said lightly, as though nothing inside him was screaming. “I’m really proud of how far they’ve come. Scarlet has surprised me the most; maintaining control of her power.”

His pride was genuine, but his tone was carefully measured. He needed to sound natural. Unbothered. Unaware.

All the while, he kept his senses locked on Wren.

Her energy was a mess; confusion, anxiety, guilt, fear, all bubbling beneath the surface. She was trying to redirect it, trying to push curiosity to the front, but she was terrible at masking her emotions. She had never tried to hide anything from him before.

So how was she suddenly doing it now?

Who taught her?

“Wow, that’s amazing,” Wren said, her voice pitched unnaturally high. Jay didn’t notice, he smiled, oblivious. But Rain noticed everything.

“Are you keeping them close by? Could we meet them? They’re our princesses after all. Does your father know where you’re keeping them?”

The questions came too quickly.

Too pointed.