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A huge flurry of snow swept down off the mountain, so thick that he was almost hidden inside it, but he didn’t falter. He just kept striding toward me, black leather riding trousers and boots stark against the white-winter lands around us. Muscle rippled across his bare chest and told of the weapon that he was. He was every inch the predator stalking his prey.

But that wasn’t what froze me in place. The Triskelion, the Celtic symbol, was etched over his heart. Just like Aster’s. I couldn’t get my head around what I was seeing. Was that why Torran was here in the Ruckus with Bronwen? Not just to break the King’s oath or the curse, but because he worshipped the Earth? How did a Northland prince hold the symbols of a Celtic warrior? There were so many questions that I wanted answered, but not by him. Anyone but him.

“Are you done?” He had stopped five or six paces away, his eyes drilling into me. But when I ripped my gaze from his chest and looked down, I realised that he had stopped right at the very edge of the floor. There was nothing to stop him falling if he slipped or if he was…shoved.

Did he really have such great balance that he didn’t feel the danger of his position?

“What are you doing here?” he said. “I’m told you…”

“You’re oath-bound to your father, aren’t you? He orders, and you obey.”

His jaw clenched.

“You can read ancient Annatalian after all?” he replied. The slight tilt of his head carried a threat. “How dangerously accomplished of you. Aster told Bronwen you were almost illiterate.”

“You came to the Library for that book—why? Just so people don’t know that you’re all puppets…” He straightened as my dig landed, or perhaps it was just the freezing cold air whipping around him.

“If you’ve read it, you know why.” He took a step toward me. “I’d stop the questions… now…” His voice was low and full of spite. If he took a few more steps, I would have to choose whether to retreat or risk my death.

I met his gaze head-on, and for a beat, we just stared at each other in utter contempt. But there was a flash of curiosity or hope in his eyes. And that’s when I understood. He hoped the book would tell him all the details of the oath, words the Kings likely whispered to hide the specifics, even when the Riders willingly gave their blood. He wanted to break the oath; he wanted freedom from his father. When he talked to me about always being in a cage, he was speaking from experience. One more reason that being a Rider was truly a curse.

“Bronwen says your oath has been settled. Hand over the book, and then you’re to return to the Ruckus, and she’ll fulfil her end.”

A sour laugh left my chest. He really believed I was that naïve. “I’m not keen on the whole marrying a Celtic warrior thing. Giving up my position, having to answer to someone… anyone. I’ve done enough of that for one lifetime. Surely you understand?”

“My, don’t you talk a lot out here in the open. I thought you being with Aster…” He shifted uneasily, then straightened. “She might let you—”

Marry Aster? That was one dream that I no longer held. He wanted to keep me safely tucked away when I was only just spreading my wings.

I laced my words with scorn. “Nobody is getting close to the crown by bonding with me. I would lose everything before that happened.” It was the pact we three cousins had made long ago, when we were weighed and measured like prized stock when we hit eighteen. There would be no marrying. Not ever.

His glare focused on the bundled garments in my hand. “Where exactly are you running to? The Barren Tracker Flock have you and your cousins’ scent. Doesn’t matter what you look like, they’re tracking you now.” He closed the distance between us. “Before, they probably wouldn’t have flown into the Ruckus, but now… after Kit decided to… they may try. Probably send one of the younger ones first.” The last bit was said with a quiet resignation that I understood all too well.

War meant that we had all watched people who had their whole lives in front of them die. It was a sort of hopeless existence for most of us that even the Riders hadn’t escaped. But that wasn’t going to make me see them any differently.

“I was just taking a walk. Your book is in the workshop. It’s notes on a meeting between the Kings about your oath, but there’s nothing on the curse.”

He smiled then, truly smiled. “Then you don’t know what you’re reading.” He really believed the codex held the answers he sought.

“Go get your book, puppet boy.” I truly did have a death wish, and there was a part of me that wanted to press one finger on his chest and test all that we had been told about the Riders. Would I burn from the inside out? I had seen it happen, but did it always end in death? After all, the little book had told me that a lot of what we were fed about the Riders and their bond was a lie.

I turned to leave; I would come back when he was gone. But then it hit me. The need for the one answer no one had ever been able to give me. Instinctively, I spun back around. “Was it worth it? Taking down Lex and ripping everything apart.” My tone was filled with the same darkness that crawled over me that night. “Did you get what you wanted?” Are you proud?

“Your brother was already being torn apart by the madness. But, yes. I got what I wanted.” He didn’t even blink as he said it. “Every kingdom is better for the downfall of yours.”

We simply stared at each other. His eyes were dark and endless and full of defiance. And I returned that look with full force. Because I wasn’t surprised by his hatred—I understood it.

So, I gave him a small nod in recognition—one monster to another—and turned and walked away.

30

I had been in the hot spring to wash, and I had eaten, and I waited. And then I had stilled long enough to watch. They did well to hide it, but there were clues to my imprisonment now that I had taken the time to look for them. The echo of boots in the distance. The call of a phoenix. The smell of meat roasting. One of the three, if not all of them, lurked in the background. Always there.

But now it was time to get back to the perch room and find a way out. When I returned to the bedroom, Aster was lying on the bed, arm behind his head, relaxed and alert. The perfect spy. The perfect captor. I would get out of the mountains that night, but before that I was going to get out of him what he knew about Lex’s oath, and try to say goodbye, even if I didn’t say the exact words.

“My uncle had a strange way with his Riders, didn’t he?”

Aster tilted his head. Waiting. Giving nothing away.