It eliminates the need for a guard—where else will four humans go?
I ignore Beryl and shift my attention to a different Lyle boy,the one who reminds me so much of Opal. When he feels my gaze on him, he meets my stare, the blue in his eyes so like Opal’s that it takes my breath away.
“Mica, what did you guys think would happen when you came here?” No matter what softness I once felt for Mica, it doesn’t ease the bitterness coating my tongue. They came all this way, just to force me back to Crea, yet they let their own sister be married to a monster?
Mica’s jaw flexes, and he drops his gaze to the floor, standing with his arms crossed, leaning against a wall like the other boys. But his body is slightly angled away from them, and he hasn’t looked at them once since I came in.
I clearly missed something, but whatever it is doesn’t help any of the problems we’re facing right now.
Beryl throws his hands up and says, “Mica, I swear if you?—”
There’s no burying my rage after that. Shadows ripple off of my body, streaked with embers and flickers of fire. I take a step forward, and they pulse toward Beryl, causing his words to get stuck in his throat.
Beryl jumps to his feet while Adrian and Ember freeze. They at least have the decency to look scared.
“I wasn’t asking you,” I snarl.
With my magic nipping at their feet, I turn back to Mica, my magic staying a safe distance from him when I ask, “Now, Mica, you were saying?”
Mica blinks, his gaze bouncing between my magic surrounding his brothers and Adrian and flickering back to me.
“We were told you were in danger,” he finally says.
Beryl starts to deny it, but the sound quickly turns into a curse as I let my fire push past my shadows, lashing out across his calf. Mica’s eyes dart to Beryl, but he doesn’t stop. For a moment, it almost looks like his mouth twitches into a smile. But then it’s gone, and he turns his focus back to me.
I raise a brow at him, waiting for more.
“Duke Wyman told us you were in danger,” Mica clarifies. “And Adrian was desperate to get you back. Since we knew you so well, it only made sense that we would join him to protect him, but also to save you.”
Adrian got himself into this mess, coming to Penyth when he should’ve stayed in Crea. All in the name ofrescuingme.
Menand theirheroics.
A laugh tumbles out from my lips.Saveme. Everyone keeps trying to save me, and I’m pretty fucking over it. I’m tired of people thinking they know what’s best for me, of men who think they know me better than I know myself.
They have no idea who I am—or what I’m capable of.
“I’m not who I was in the camp.” My voice comes out low. Deadly. Mica straightens, his hands falling to his sides. “Did it not occur to you how odd it was, the lengths Duke Wyman went to in trying to get me back? Do youtrulythink it was all to help Adrian get the ‘girl he loves’?”
I can’t help but spit those words out. You don’t try to hold back the person you love—you stand by their side or give them the space to do what they have to do. Adrian did neither of those things.
Mica’s cheeks flush, and it’s then that I realize he didn’t consider any of those things. Because the moment he was told what he wanted to hear—that this was a valiant effort to save the poordamselin distress—he believed it.
“We just wanted you back,” Adrian jumps in, his voice cracking. He inches away from the shadows still poised to strike around them, and I let him, curious how he plans to convince himself he’s in the right. “None of this was supposed to happen. My uncle told me you were in danger and I was just going to help you get back to Crea—to your home.”
He flinches as the words leave his mouth. He’s already tried to tell me once that Penyth isn’t my home, and I don’t have to tell him again just how wrong he is.
“And your plan to get me back?” I whisper in a quiet fury,trying to keep my anger at bay long enough to hear what Adrian has to say.
Adrian swallows and takes a step toward me, still on the other side of the room but far closer than I’d like him to be. My shadows snake toward him, and he pauses.
“It’s complicated,” he stammers.
Wrong answer.
My shadows attack, wrapping around his neck and pinning him to the wall. Not tight enough toreallyhurt him, but enough to leave a mark.
The Lyle brothers surge forward, but not quickly enough. My shadows latch around their midsections, yanking them backward, flush against the wall, and holding them in place.
