“I am shocked and horrified, sir. I was raised by a good noble family. Petty crime has never occurred to me.” That was not exactly true. I added, “It’s a Posselbaum thing.”
There was no point in trying to hide my background from the guys. They knew why I wanted Hanna to attend that Academy so badly.
Every lady at Posselbaum’s developed their unique skills. “The truth is I’m not naturally incredibly athletic or incredibly deft with my hands, or even incredibly murderous. Although sometimes your brother makes me think that I could become more murderous… Anyway. What I’ve had that was my strength that I can develop as a Posselbaum girl was… well, what Jaik refers to as recklessness.”
“And what you always chalk up to your head injury.” He was looking at me curiously. “But you’re definitely not stupid.”
“High praise indeed.”
“I’m not insulting you.
“Not stupid doesn’t really rise to the level of a compliment, Lynx. I know you’re not good with girls but even you should be able to tell that.”
It was his turn to look affronted. “I’m not good with girls?”
I hoped he’d let that one pass. Girls swarmed around him, but Lynx always seemed disinterested.
His frown deepened as if the words kept sinking in deeper. “You don’t think I’m good with girls?”
“Tell me why we’re sneaking in to see your sister.”
“My father has enchanted the castle to make sure she can’t leave and no one else can come in,” he explained.
“Jaik might trap me in the castle if he could,” I mused.
He pulled a face. “He might have thought about it.”
I was a little bit offended, but also fascinated. “Well, why didn’t he? Jaik seems like the kind of guy who’d feel free to do what he thought was best. Forget what anyone else wanted.”
“He thought you wouldn’t take it well.”
“That was very astute of him.”
“I’ve never seen him care about a woman the way he cares about you.”
“You said that like it’s a compliment. But given the way you royals tend to use and discard women, that’s a very low bar.”
“Not me. But then, of course, you think I’m terrible with women. So maybe you think I just haven’t had the chance.”
I couldn’t hide my grin. I liked the prickly bastard even if he had once plotted my demise.
“So why would Joachim keep you from coming in?”
“Even though Branok and I have a pretty clear idea of how we feel about Lucien, my father worries that we’ll give in to Alina.”
“So I take it your sister doesn’t appreciate being confined, but you’re continuing to hold her against her will.”
The words hung for a moment, the air between us bristling with sudden tension before Lynx said angrily, “You wouldn’t understand.”
“I wouldn’t understand complicated family dynamics? My stepmother had me tortured to try to reveal my last childhood memories that my beloved adoptive father kept from me so that I have no memory of my biological family. But sure, go on about how I wouldn’t understand complicated family dynamics. I really enjoy it.”
I jumped and caught the bottom of a balcony, swinging myself quickly up and over.
Lynx looked at me with something like admiration just for a moment and then it was gone. “If it weren’t for your personality, Honor, you might be the perfect woman.”
“I doubt that very much,” I answered. The perfect woman definitely didn’t shapeshift into a dragon.
“Come back on down before—” Lynx began, but I wasn’t interested in his lecture.
I jumped to the next balcony—then ran into a solid wall in the air.
I bounced off of it and plummeted toward the ground. Suddenly dragon wings were rushing toward me, and Lynx caught me in his talons and carried me up to the rooftop.
When he transformed, I was still breathless and shocked from running into the wall in the air. And then I found myself breathless and shocked to be in his arms, cradled against the rock-hard planes of his chest. His bright eyes were on mine, and his own breath seemed to freeze in his chest.
“Are you all right?” he asked me. “That was my father’s spell. The only way up is to fly.”
I pulled away, reluctantly, and he set me on my feet. He kept his hands on my waist for a second to make sure I had my balance, his hands hot above my hips.
“Only dragons in or out,” I said. “So he carried the servants gripped in his talons?”
“No, he had Branok and me do it. Alina was pretty furious at the time and it’s for the best he didn’t see her like that, anyway.”
“What’s your father like?” I’d met Joachim, but barely.
“Determined,” Lynx said, which was the same as telling me to mind my own business. “My father would be very unimpressed by the fact that I’m letting you into our ancestral home.”
“So are the servants trapped here too, just like Alina?”
“Yes.”
“How do they feel about that?”
“I don’t think my father cares, Honor. He’s furious she’s under Lucien’s spell, takes it as a weakness of hers.” Lynx said. “He doesn’t want her to embarrass him.”
When Lynx believed Lucien had forced Alina to fall in love with him through magic, I could understand why he hated Lucien so much. I just couldn’t understand why he believed that story about Lucien.
My questions must have shown on my face to some extent because he said, “I think you’ll understand once you meet Alina. I hope so anyway. Maybe you’ll decide to stay away from Lucien Finn.”
“I don’t know why you all seem so convinced that I have some secret crush on Lucien.”
“Why else do you spend time with him? The man is an intolerable ass.”
“Yes. Definitely doesn’t sound like my type.”
There was an outdoor stove warming the space; this was the one place the snow had been cleared, and a thick outdoor rug was underfoot, with dark wooden furniture and silver-embroidered cushions grouped around the stove.
The door opened, and a young woman wearing white stepped out curiously. Her eyes brightened as she saw Lynx.
“I’ve never seen anyone so happy to see you,” I observed as she rushed forward and threw her arms around his neck.
“It’s been a long time since she’s had any better company,” Lynx said as he squeezed his sister back.
While Alina and Lynx greeted each other, I had the chance to look her over. She was taller than me and she had the twins’ golden hair and flawless tan skin. Their eyes were green, but hers were deep chocolate brown.
She was a natural beauty but she looked tattered around the edges, her hair hanging in knotted strands around her face.
She turned to me and met my gaze openly. “Who are you? Has this brother of mine actually found a woman who can tolerate him?”
“Straight into the insults,” Lynx noted. “You two should get along.”
“Brother, if you ever experience love, you might understand what’s between Lucien and myself.”
Lynx ran his hand over his face, then mouthed to me, “See, under a spell. Enchanted, bewitched, not normal.”
“That might just be what it’s like when people are in love,” I chided him.
He shot back, “How would you know?”
The question startled me a little bit because obviously I loved Jaik and Talisyn. Did Lynx really think I didn’t?