And then I felt it, a sudden deep understanding that what the dragon was telling me was true. I couldn’t explain how I knew it, just that I did. I could feel the truth of it the way I’d once felt weather coming in off the sea. The dragon was many things, but a liar wasn’t one of them.
I reached for my boots.
Yes,it breathed.Yes. Go. Find her. Bring her back. Keep her here where no one—
“—I’m not going because of you.”
I pulled on the first boot. Then the second.
You are going because of HER.
I didn’t answer that.
I took Caliburn from beside the bed. Not because I planned to use it, but because walking the keep at this hour without a blade was the kind of stupidity that got kings killed, and I hadn’t survived everything I’d survived to die half-dressed in a corridor by some spy or disloyal guard.
The door opened under my hand.
The corridor beyond was dark and still, the torches guttering low. Two guards at the far end startled to attention when they saw me, but I ignored them. Instead, I walked toward the stairs, the dragon’s awareness already reaching ahead of me, tasting the air.
FASTER! WE MUST GO FASTER!
My jaw ached from clenching it.
Below me, somewhere in the dark, I was fairly certain the white-haired pain in my fucking ass was escaping.
And the dragon was right about one thing.
I was going because of her.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
-GUIN-
We rode hard until the trees thickened and the road narrowed to a deer trail.
Wraith picked his way through the roots without being told what to do or where to go. But I could tell by his gait that he was tired. So was Corvin, for that matter. And it didn’t help that the morning was now fully on us, which meant the shadows that animated them both were waning, growing weaker. Soon, they would have no magic at all.
Corvin had stopped correcting his posture an hour back. Now, he sat forward, almost falling into my back, his elbows loose, his head dropping on the long straightaways.
“When did you last sleep?” I asked, turning to face him over my shoulder.
“Days ago.” He said the words like he’d simply forgotten to eat breakfast.
“That’s not a number.”
He gave me a little smile. “I rode from Annwyn without stopping.”
His jaw was set in that particular way men set their jaws when they’re running on stubbornness alone.
“We need to stop so you and Wraith can rest.”
“No. I need to get you somewhere safe first.”
“You’re about to fall off your horse, Corvin.”
Wraith stumbled on a root just then, one foreleg catching and dipping before he caught himself and lurched forward. It was a small thing, and the horse recovered in a single stride. But Corvin’s hands tightened on the reins, white-knuckled and sharp, and it took him a half-second too long to release them.
“Fine,” he said. “Next town we come across, we can stop. But just for a little bit.”
