"Training," Reese said flatly. "Ferris,whyare you here?"
"Because we're not letting you run off to your deaths without aid," Ferris said.
Reese narrowed his eyes. "We?"
I exhaled and lowered my head.
Saints. Why did I think my delinquent brother was above tailing a Paragon who'd ordered him to stay away?
Liam leaned against the hearth,arms folded over his rich crimson vest and elegant overcloak. He shot me a roguish grin.
"You look nice," I commended, looking him up and down. "Going to a ball?"
"If we're going to die, I want my corpse to look dashing." He waved a hand idly, gaze flicking to the prince.
Ferris never dressed like a noble. He appeared more like a traveling bard: loose silks with a colorful sash at his belt. Reese was glowering at him, jaw tense.
Small wonder Ferris had addressed the Paragon by his first name; these two had a history.
"You two are riding to your deaths," Ferris said.
"How observant," I said, voice clipped. "Pray tell, how areyougoing to help, exactly?"
Liam nudged me. "Hear the kid out."
"Kid?" Ferris echoed, incredulous.
Our people could live to see two hundred years. Most of us considered a seventeen-year-old a mere child.
"Yes,kid," Reese said forcefully. He yanked out a chair and leaned on its back. "If I'm heading toward my death, it's because I now havethreecharges to protect."
The anger in Reese's voice was one I recognized: like when Father had yelled at me for getting lost in the city, late one night. Wrath born from concern, not hate.
"Mare." Ferris looked at me, discarding manners and speaking my first name. "You and Liam were at Galasvar. Monsters have never attacked like that.Think. What was different?"
I ran a hand through my hair, thinking. Ferris had a point; something must have driven the monsters of the shadowlands to act differently than usual.
"Need something be different?" Reese asked. "Scripture says a black tide will wash over the land one day. What if this is it?"
"Something would still be driving it," Liam said. When Reese looked at him, he quickly added, "I presume."
Closing my eyes, I dug through my memories. A great dragon—the kind that only appeared in legend—had arrived first. It had landed upon the gates and remained perched there until the siege's end.
In the chaos, I had not been able to keep track of movements, but . . .
But therehadbeen a song. A dirge humming across the entire city, up until the moment the monsters had vanished back into the shadows.
My eyes snapped open. "There was a song."
"A song?" Reese echoed.
"One, maybe two dragons were singing. I'd never heard anything like it."
The Paragon's brow furrowed. "Eyeless, double-winged dragons? They're called scádes. Sightings of them are rare, but there are records of them singing to each other—warning their kin, we think."
"What if," Ferris stressed. "Their songs can alsocommandtheir kin?"
I swallowed, remembering the way the dragons had nuzzled me, affectionate and accepting. Fighting the images away, I eyed the prince across the table. "That's a bit of a leap in logic."
