A puff of air blows my hair back as Zeph lets out a long breath. I can feel her muscles tensing, her wings rustling impatiently.
“She knows we’re going to get Graylen back,” I whisper.
Zeph lets out a low whine at his name and scoots closer to us. I step up to her, my hands reaching for the warm scales on the side of her face. Pain and longing shoot down the bond, but it’s hard to tell which is mine and which is hers this time.
I’m not the only one who misses him.
I press my forehead to hers, the leathery roughness that coats her steadying me as it meets my skin. She isn’t going to like our plan—isn’t going to like staying behind with Leda and Adrian while I go to the Vale to get Graylen.
But it’s the only way.
The crisp night air isn’t enough to cool my body down. Sweat lines my brow with every flap of Zephyr’s wings. She flies steadily and low to the Andronicus to stay hidden, the mainland slowly coming into view ahead of us.
My chest burns where the shard rests, slipped into an inner pocket of my vest. It makes its presence known, buzzing against my skin as if there weren’t layers of cloth between us.
A spray of salty water splashes up, and I hear a small yelp from behind me. I look over my shoulder to see a frown on Leda’s face. She rolls her eyes and leans to the side, revealing Adrian’s wide gaze behind her.
“This thing isn’t meant for three people,” Adrian stammers as he swipes water off of his face.
“Thisthinghas a name,” I sneer.
Adrian’s eyes meet mine, and his brows slowly pull together. There’s so much written across his face that I’m not ready to think about. He’s sorry for the way things happened between us—I know he is. But sorry doesn’t fix it. “Lu?—”
“Don’t.” I turn back around, feeling Leda shift as she straightens. “What we focus on now is what happens after we get Graylen back.”
We haven’t told Adrian the plan yet; we decided we would wait until we had him in a place he couldn’t refuse. Atop a wyvern that could fling you off at any moment seemed like a good time as any to get him to agree.
“And what exactly happens then?” he asks quietly, his voice muffled by the wind. “What if we don’t get Graylen back—does that change things?”
The urge to snap at him again bubbles up inside of me, but Leda beats me to it.
“Your job is to listen.” Her words are clipped and low. “Wewon’t be getting Graylen back. Lunaria will. That doesn’t concern you, so questioning her doesn’t really help now, does it?”
Adrian clears his throat but doesn’t respond.
I glance over my shoulder at Leda and give her a soft smile. She dips her chin down at me, and it’s then that I realize she has my back. Not just because she feels obligated, but because she wants to.
“Leda’s right.” I twist around, needing Adrian to see me while I tell him his part in all of this. “Leave Graylen to me. Butyou—I need you to get us back to Crea. And then I need you to get me into the castle.”
Adrian’s eyes widen. “Why would you want to go there?”
I don’t trust Adrian enough to tell him about Nightfall. Duke Wyman is still his “uncle”—though I’m sure that’s what he’s been told his whole life, they likely don’t even share anyblood—and Adrian hasn’t been quick to believe our story about his true identity.
It would be a lot for anyone to wrap their head around, but without Adrian having proof of his uncle being the last human king who sparked a rebellion into war, he isn’t going to be fully on board. Therefore…I can’t fully trust him.
“Unfinished business,” is what I settle on. Before he can ask any more questions, I trudge ahead. “Your plan was to bring me back to the castle, right?”
He nods his head, his lips pressing into a thin line.
“I want you to do exactly that.” My jaw flexes. “The Duke doesn’t know what’s happened to me since I’ve gotten here. All I need to do is convince everyone I’m who I was when I left.”
A flash of pain flickers in his gaze. “You mean when you were Amira?” he asks softly.
I nod my head in a short, choppy jerk. He’s right; I can’t go back as Lunaria. I have to be Amira. She doesn’t feel likeme—somehow it feels like she’s an entirely different person.
When I was Amira, I held my tongue. I may have done it to play the game society forced me into, but I did it all the same. My life was ruled by men in power, men who viewed me as weak. Men who underestimated me. Men likeAdrian.
“They’ll know she didn’t come back willingly,” Leda jumps in. “You’ll need to act as her captor, bind her wrists and bring her in like you planned.”
