Honor came tumbling off the side of the horse and I wrapped my arms around her.
When she looked up at me, there was a twinkle of mischief in her luminous eyes. “Why Lynx, I didn’t know you’d be happy to see me.”
Embarrassment flooded me.
Jaik shouldered me out of the way. He grabbed her shoulders, looking as if he were about to shake her, but he just barely managed to stop. “You’re alive.”
“And why do you sound pissed off about it?”
“I didn’t know where you were. I thought you were dead, or kidnapped.”
“Not this time,” she said cheerfully. The next second, her eyes fell to the body of the physician where we’d dragged him in the snow, and she sobered. “Someone tried to kill me today. And he got hurt.”
“Did you see who it was?”
She shook her head.
Arren said, “But I think we can figure it out. Can we not?
I nodded. “It looks to me as if explosive magic were detonated. There are only a handful of royal assassins who are this versed in constructing explosive devices.”
“And then there’s Branok,” Arren growled.
Branok’s gaze snapped to Arren. “Watch what you’re implying.”
“Simple fact,” Arren said. “You’re the one who blows stuff up on a regular basis. And you’ve made it pretty clear you aren’t thrilled with Honor’s presence.”
“Hold on,” I said angrily. “Branok would never hurt Honor. I’d wager money it was either Kedrick or Tuma.”
“We could kill them both just to be on the safe side,” Arren suggested.
Honor asked, “Why do you always go directly to violence?”
“Violence is so often the solution. Why not save some time and go there first?” Arren asked.
Branok still looked furious. “If you think it was me, then it’s because someone wanted you to think it was me. And also, what the fuck is wrong with you all?”
“No one thinks it was you,” Talisyn assured him.
Arren shrugged. Tal studiously ignored him as he added, “We’re just discussing what it looks like. We have to have the full picture.”
“Enough,” Jaik said, though his expression was troubled.
Any danger to my twin made me furious, but Branok jerked his head in a quick nod. “I can ask some of my… friends…to bring down Kedrick and Tuma. We can question them.”
“They’re Pend’s assassins. We all know what that will mean.”
“If they’re moving openly to kill Honor, then it’s time for war,” Jaik said. He drew a shaky breath, the most rattled I’d ever seen him. “But we have to know first.”
“I don’t want war.” Honor said. “It’s not worth it, Jaik.”
Jaik grabbed her around the waist and pulled her close. “You’re everything to me, Honor,” he muttered, the words sounding as if they were wrenched from him against his will. “I won’t let anything in this kingdom come between us.”
“And I won’t either,” she said calmly. “But we can bide our time. We’re together now. You’ll keep me safe until we figure out who tried to kill me. Then we’ll act.”
She nodded to Branok and me. “Subtly.”
She thought Branok was innocent, even after all the stupid things my brother had said or done. Relief flooded my chest.
Branok’s mask was firmly in place. Did he realize how lucky he was that she thought so well of him, even after everything?
“Looks like we’re staying in Alina’s castle,” Talisyn said.
Chapter
Forty-Six
Lynx
Caldren dismissed the academy students.
“Come with us,” Honor asked him.
He glanced at the demolished house, his face worried, then bobbed his head in a quick nod. “Of course.”
Jaik managed to control his disgust, barely.
There was a whole lot of grumbling as we trudged through the snow. If someone was trying to kill Honor, I didn’t think bringing her into my sister’s tower was a great idea. Branok shot me a worried look, but kept his mouth shut.
Jaik transformed into a dragon and immediately nudged Honor onto his back.
“No thanks,” Caldren said, raising his hands defensively, but Jaik seized Caldren in his talons and soared into the air.
“We’re going to talk about his ability to share,” Talisyn muttered. “If he thinks that she belongs to him, but that I just get to borrow her sometimes, he’s got another think coming.”
“I don’t belong to anyone!” Honor called back.
“Of course not,” Tal agreed. Then, as soon as Jaik and Honor had shot upward out of earshot, he added, “But if you did, you’d belong equally to me.”
“You are even more annoying when you’re in love,” Arren said. “I hadn’t realized that was possible. I thought you’d already maximized your irritatingness.”
Talisyn hastily shushed him. His gaze darted upward, searching for Honor, making sure that she couldn’t hear Arren.
“Oh, come on,” Arren said. “She has to have noticed that you and Jaik are both stupid in love with her. What’s the point in not telling her?”
That was a longer monologue than I usually heard from Arren.
Talisyn gave him a strange look. “Why are you so invested?”
“I think Damyn’s right and the two of you are just going to fuck up your relationship.” Arren gave him a mock sweet smile, then turned into a dragon himself.
Talisyn looked so affronted for a second that it seemed as if he’d forgotten how to change. Then he transformed into a dragon and shot upward to slam into Arren. The two of them fought back and forth playfully, although that didn’t mean there wouldn’t be blood and bruises.
As they moved through the air Branok glanced at me. It was just the smallest casual glance but given how well the two of us could read each other, it carried as much impact as sentences from someone else.
“What are you doing with her?” he demanded. “The way you hugged her…”
I turned into a dragon to escape him, but I knew that it wasn’t that easy to get Branok to surrender a theory. We’d be coming back to this one.
By the time Branok and I landed on the rooftop, everyone else had transformed back.
“I thought you loved riding,” Jaik was saying to Honor.
She smoothed her hair back behind her ears. “I do. I just wish I could fly myself.”
“I’ll take you anytime you want,” Jaik said generously, and I winced, thinking about what Arren had just said about Jaik and Tal’s limitless ability to ruin their relationship with Honor.
Jaik meant well. Did he really not see that the girl wanted to fly herself? That being dependent on him wasn’t the same as being able to do something on her own?
I pushed the thoughts aside. It didn’t matter to me if they messed up their relationship. I didn’t care about Honor. And if I did, it’d be easier to kiss her myself if the others had already ruined their relationship with her.
Alina stepped out of the house, drawing her hood up as if she had just flung her coat on. “And to what do I owe this surprise?”
She glanced around at all of the guys then to my surprise, rushed to hug Jaik, Talisyn and Arren in turn. “I thought I’d never see the three of you again!”