He looked up from the books when I walked in. The lantern next to him cast golden light over his hair, making it seem to glow, and reflected off those bright green eyes above a hard jaw.
Without speaking, he pulled the chair beside him out—an invitation—then turned his gaze back to the page.
I sat down beside him, tucking one foot beneath me.
“I noticed you don’t have a book,” he said without looking up. “That’s going to make it hard to read quietly together.”
“Will you take me to meet your sister, Alina?”
He bookmarked his place, then finally turned his full attention on me. Lynx always had his priorities. “Why?”
“She’s the only other girl who is not one of your academy companions,” I said. “So she’s the only girl within miles who won’t try to get me to wash their socks.”
“Alina thinks everyone is her servant. Including me.” He looked at me a little strangely. “Are you lonely, Honor? Is it so hard for you to cope with boredom?”
“My life has been generally terrible, but at least never been boring.” I admitted. “I’m not used to it.”
“Maybe you could come see Alina with me. She would like some company.”
“How is Alina doing?”
He sighed and raked his hand through his hair. “The only thing I fear is that if I introduce you to Alina, the two of you will bolster each other’s ridiculous, misguided opinions about Lucien Finn.”
“Thanks so much for your faith in me. I don’t think I’m any more susceptible to Lucien’s charms than you are.”
“I don’t find him very charming.”
“No, that’s obvious, given how many times you’ve broken his nose.”
Lynx leaned back in his chair. “I tell you what, Honor. I’ll make you a deal. You tell me everything you know about Lucien Fenn. What it is you do with him? What it is you talk with him about? Then, since you’re not keeping any secrets from me, I’ll feel fine about introducing you to my sister, who also has a soft spot for Lucien.”
“Why in the world would I take that deal?” There was a teasing note between us, a playfulness as we negotiated. “You know I’m very tricky. I’ll find a way to meet Alina.”
He rolled his eyes. “I’ll send a message to my father and have the guard doubled on her.”
“No, you won’t. You don’t like your father. None of you do.”
“You liked yours?” he said.
“I wish he were still around. Well, sometimes I have more complicated feelings. Sometimes, I think it’s a good thing he’s not around to see how terrible the world is.”
“I have a feeling your father wouldn’t see the world as all that terrible, given that you’re in it,” he said gently.
This was the gentle side of him that only Honor got to see, never Lucien. I wondered if the other dragon royals ever got to see him soften. This side was hard for me to resist.
“Fine, I’ll tell you everything I know about Lucien Finn.” Maybe this was my chance to begin to warm Lynx over to the subject of Lucien. “Lucien and I aren’t doing anything together. I’ve never even kissed him.”
He stiffened at the thought of Lucien and I kissing. He must care enough about me to worry.
“I do think he can be a good friend. Even though I know you won’t agree with me. You just think he’s a good punching bag.”
“You know, I have my reasons for despising the man.”
“You have your reasons for despising me too.”
“I don’t despise you. And you know that,” he said briskly, as if that matter had been settled.
I was still stuck on the part where I’d heard him and Branok casually discussing my murder in the library back at the academy. But apparently Lynx had put the murderous plans behind him. I wasn’t sure I could say the same for Branok.
Lucien felt terrible about his past misdeeds. I tried not to think of the broken man in the basement, instead imagining Lucien Finn as I’d created him. The truth was, there was no way Lucien could have gone straight from the dungeon to the dragons’ academy. His time in deepest solitary had changed him. He’d never known if he was going to be buried alive under the castle as it fell to ruin.
“I don’t know what Lucien was like before, but I do know that he changed in the dungeon. I can’t imagine that he would have hurt Alina. He seems to really care for her.”
Lynx snorted. “If he really cared for her, he would have stayed away from her.”
“Why? It’s not our nature to stay away from those we love.” Jaik and I couldn’t stay away from each other, even when he thought our attraction was reckless.
Lynx countered. “Some people know they’re too broken to be loved. I assume that’s why Lucien used magic to steal my sister’s heart. He could never win her affection on his own.”
For some reason, a certain dark and brooding member of our little group came to mind.
“Is that what’s wrong with Arren?”
Lynx raised his eyebrows. “I’m not going to help you bring yet another member of our band under your thrall.”
“You make it sound like I’m the kind of manipulative mastermind.”
“Not on purpose.”
“Lynx, you continue to stagger me with your faith in my character.”
Lynx drummed his fingertips absently on the table. “All right, I’ll take you to see Alina. If you promise me that you’ll only go when I can go with you. Otherwise I’m worried what kind of plots the two of you will hatch.”
I had no doubt that he meant that. I also had no intentions of obeying.
“Jaik will kill me if I leave the castle without him,” I reminded him. “I won’t wander.”
Lynx had the sense to give me a skeptical look. But he said, “Get your coat.”
Not that much later, Lynx and I slipped out the kitchen door and set off across the tundra.
A blast of cold air slapped me in the face.
“If Jaik finds out I took you out of his enchanted castle, he is going to kill me,” Lynx muttered, as if he were having second thoughts.
“I thought it was your enchanted castle.” I teased.
“Everything he touches belongs to him, or so he thinks. And right now you’re in the castle and the castle is supposed to be your protection, so he very much sees it as his own.”
I should have resented Jaik’s possessiveness, but there was something about it that felt protective and almost comforting. Jaik’s intensity was like a too heavy, too warm blanket I couldn’t resist snuggling underneath.
Lynx and I struggled across that snowy landscape. There were no shoveled out paths around Alina’s castle, the deep mounds of white snow undisturbed all around the house. Lynx padded resolutely toward the side of the castle, not bothering with the door.
“Why are you wandering around this place, like a criminal trying to break in?”
Lynx snorted. “You would be the one who would know about crawling around like a criminal. There’s something highly questionable about the way you’re so good at jumping from balcony to balcony.”
“I have only ever used my powers for good.”
“How exactly did you get so good at climbing around on the outside anyway? It’s not something most girls make a habit of… unless they’re sneaking inside to steal things.”