“Me too,” I agreed.
Honor hugged Alina goodbye. The whole production made me impatient; every second that dripped by gave Honor more time to plot her way out of this. Anyone with sense would agree Honor’s layers of enchantments were highly suspicious.
Perhaps Honor knew that she was enchanted. She might be hiding her real identity or was enchanted to make herself irresistible to my idiot companions.
Or perhaps she was genuinely innocent. But even if the enchantments were against her will, that didn’t mean she posed no risk to my friends.
I’d seen firsthand, thanks to Teris, what terrible things people could do in the grip of enchantment.
“I’ll be back soon,” Lynx promised.
“Mm.” Alina gave him a dour look. “Soon is such an ephemeral concept.” But she hugged him anyway.
Honor poked my shoulder, then mouthed, “Hug your sister goodbye.”
“Or what? Are you going to knife me?” I mouthed back. “I don’t need your advice.”
“You very much do.”
I looked up to find Alina staring at me. “Gods,” she sighed, then reached out her arms toward me. “You’re so pathetic, it’s hard to stay mad at you.”
“Thanks,” I said dryly. I hugged her, though. She was as tall as our mom had been now, and her hair smelled like oranges and spice, just like our mother. I knew intellectually it was because my mother’s old maid, Delori, made her own soaps and washed Alina’s hair now with the same shampoo. But something nostalgic twisted through my chest, a flash of longing. “Be good, Alina.”
“Not if I can help it,” Alina said lightly, her gaze flickering beyond me.
I twisted to glare at Honor, convinced the two of them were plotting, but Honor gazed at me innocently.
I told Honor, “With a little luck, Jaik will agree to keep you caged in the dungeon from now on… for your own safety.”
Honor’s eyes widened, in a flash of horror, and I felt an instant spike of guilt even though she had just low-key threatened my demise. But then it was gone, and she said, “There’s no dungeon in your family castle though, is there? Such a pity.”
She pouted sympathetically at me.
I could see where Jaik got the impulse to spank her ass.
“You’d think you wouldn’t be so mouthy when you’re in danger.”
“Danger makes me mouthy,” she said. “But I don’t think I am. I don’t think you hold as much sway with Jaik as you think.”
She fixed me with a patronizing smile that filled me with absolute rage.
“Let’s go,” Lynx said hurriedly. He walked past me, grabbing the knife from me on the way; he clearly didn’t trust either of us.
“I’m not going to hurt her.” I frowned at Lynx’s back as we headed up the stairs to the rooftop. “If I was, I would have when I disarmed her.”
“When I let you disarm me,” Honor corrected. “I was de-escalating the situation.”
“We’ll fly back,” I said as we climbed the stairs to the rooftop. “I’ll take her.”
Honor laughed. “Not a chance in hell.”
Lynx shifted first, and Honor quickly climbed onto his back, settling behind his head, her thighs pressing his neck. She seemed awfully comfortable with him, and rage shot through me. Was I losing Lynx to her cursed charms too?
He leapt off the edge of the roof, and I followed. As we soared through the night, I could almost feel Alina’s glare like a dagger between my shoulder blades. She was watching us from the rooftop.
When we walked into the bright, light-filled hall and made our way to the den where Jaik and the others waited, Lynx had the decency to chew his lower lip in discomfort. Talisyn tilted his head, curiously taking us all in, always eager to be amused by someone else’s plight. Arren sighed and scrubbed his hand across his face.
Jaik looked instantly annoyed.
“I told you that whenever Honor goes to bed early, she’s actually doing something unwise,” Talisyn said.
“Often with your assistance,” Jaik said crisply. It was Talisyn’s turn to look a little bit abashed.
“I took her to visit Alina,” Lynx admitted.
“Why didn’t you ask me?” Jaik demanded icily. “We could have gone together, with proper security.”
I let out a laugh. “You know how my father would feel about that. The only thing worse than my corrupting influence is your corrupting influence, Jaik.”
“I spend my time trying to keep you all out of trouble and no, stop,” Jaik interrupted himself. “I am not getting diverted into your nonsense. I made my expectations clear—”
“Listen,” I interrupted Jaik’s fury. “Lynx took Honor to meet Alina. That’s done and over with now. We all made it back safely.”
“You weren’t involved,” Jaik said.
I shook my head. “I had the feeling my brother was doing something stupid. And so I followed him.”
“You didn’t have the feeling that Honor was doing something, and I’d want to know?” Jaik demanded crisply.
“I always assume that Honor is doing something stupid.”
Honor rolled her eyes but she couldn’t exactly argue the point at this particular moment.
“But none of that matters,” I went on.
Jaik’s brows quirked. He clearly expected me to be furious about Lynx sneaking off with Honor and bringing our baby sister into the fray, no less. But we had far more important concerns.
“Alina still does not believe that Lucien enchanted her,” I said, “so I used a spell to show her that she is under enchantment.”
Jaik asked, “And did you convince her this time that Lucien is the villain in the story?”
“Not at all,” I admitted. “But Honor decided she wanted to sample the potion too, and she lit up like a solstice tree.”
Jaik frowned. “What do you mean?”
“There must be a dozen enchantments on her, if not more.”
“We need to figure out what they are,” Honor said.
Of course she would try to take control of the whole narrative.
I locked eyes with her. “Assuming that you don’t know.”
Her chin lifted stubbornly. “I don’t.”
“You’ll have to forgive me for being just a little bit suspicious when it comes to you.”
“No, I don’t have to forgive you,” she snapped back. “I’ve never done anything to you, Branok, but you continue to be convinced that I’m some kind of villain.”
“You snuck out to see my sister,” I said, “and don’t try to tell me that you just felt like she needed a friend. You have some kind of ulterior motive. I know you aren’t completely clueless about the enchantments. You’re hiding secrets. I can feel it.”
Jaik held up his hands. He looked a little stunned.
I’d probably never sounded so passionate around my friends since we were all kids. But it was so obvious that Honor was hiding something about who she was.
I didn’t understand how my friends were so blind.
“All right,” Jaik said. “Well. It sounds like the two of you are in agreement, even if you also want to rip each other’s heads off. We need to figure out what enchantments bind Honor.”
“We need my stepmother,” Honor said.