“Who?” I whisper, pushing the words out between my teeth. “Whose idea was it to use them so young?” Was it Eogan’s father’s? Odion’s?
When he refuses to answer, there’s something akin to relief in me. I don’t want to know. And I’m not sure it matters anyway.
I swallow. “How was the boy before we left? The one Sir Gowon had beaten.”
The guard’s gaze hardens. “He’s fine.”
I nod and don’t push further because Myles suddenly catches my eye from across the deck where he and Rasha have been coercing one of the Bron men from the looks of it.
He tips his head. They’re ready.
CHAPTER 34
I PUSH OFF FROM THE RAIL AND STROLL TOWARD THE dining area, and the guard and two wraiths follow just as I join Rasha and Myles at the door. They both keep their faces straight ahead, but I catch Rasha peering at me. She gives a slight nod. By the time the door’s shut and we’ve strode across the room to our quarters, Myles is murmuring and abruptly the entire wall facing us shimmers and shudders. The two doors in front of us switch places—one leading to the rooms the other delegates used on our last trip, and the other to ours.
The guard beside me blinks. Slow, unsure. Behind him the wraiths do the same, looking even more desiccated with their eyes bulging oily and opaque above the skin hanging off their bony cheeks. They hiss but there are no words in it—just confusion. I shiver. And note the other Bron soldiers in the room rise, clearly confused as well.
Rasha reaches for the far door, which from Myles’s manipulation appears to be ours, and opens it to reveal a thin, dark hallway. She flips around and flutters her hand at the men and beasts. “You may leave us.”
The large guard hesitates, shakes his head, then mutters some curse word and pulls the door shut behind us. I hear the lock click.
And Myles is still murmuring.
“This way.” Rasha indicates the first door on our left. But before she opens it she nods to Myles and says, “Nym, only the questions we discussed. Nothing more.”
“Fine. Myles.”
I needn’t have even prompted him because we’re already changing size and bodies. Rasha becomes a Bron guard, and I become the lead wraith we saw on the palace roof. And Myles . . . He takes the shape of Eogan.
I try not to think about it and reach out to knock on Lady Isobel’s door.
“We’re resting,” a feminine voice snaps from within.
“It’s me,” Myles says, lowering his voice automatically. It’s eerie, hearing both Eogan and Draewulf come out his slimy mouth.
The door opens and Isobel’s standing there, hand on her hip. There’s a flash of Mortisfaire guards behind her lounging on a couch. My gaze stalls on them. Without their masks they look young. Incredibly young, and pretty, and normal. And they lounge. Somehow that’s not something it ever occurred to me they’d know how to do. One lazily picks up a knife and rises to join Isobel, but is waved back before she gets two feet. She returns to the couch and Isobel steps out. And shuts the door behind her.
“What is it?”
Myles lifts his hand, Eogan’s hand, which is noticeably shaking, and tucks a strand of hair behind his own ear. “How soon until the Elemental is ready?” he demands.
“I’ve told you, the ability in her will only grow from here on out. It’s you we’re waiting on. I can end it right now,” she says, and reaches out for his shoulder.
I jerk him away and hiss, “He is weak. It will not be much longer. But how will we know when to use the girl?”
“Whenever he decides,” she says coldly.
“And what of Eogan?”
She frowns and Princess Rasha, as a Bron guard, glares at me.
For the smallest second I swear there’s a twitch of Lady Isobel’s lip. Of love. Of despising.
I grin. She’s conflicted.
The next moment she smiles and seems to soften, but it’s sterile, as if something in it is forced. “He will be dead.”
“And you care nothing for that?” I growl.
She frowns. “My father’s approval is all I’ve ever needed. I have assured you both of that.”
“And the Luminescent and half-breed?” Myles-who-is-Eogan-who-is-Draewulf mutters.
“Once we arrive the Elemental will no longer need to be controlled by the half-breed. Which means I can get rid of Lord Myles or you can—whichever you prefer.” She turns to me. “However, the Luminescent and the Elemental will need to be contained while we do so. They seem to have taken an odd affinity for that man.”
There’s a ripple in the atmosphere and I peer at Myles. Just beneath the surface of his mirage I see his own face, his own dark eyes that flicker in slight surprise and, for a moment I think, soften even as his skin turns sallow and his hands begin to shake.