“You may be your own person, but you’re also my person.” His gaze softened. “I just want to protect you, Honor. Will you let me do that?”
“I don’t want to let you make me small,” I said, and my voice was calmer than it had been a moment before. “That’s easy for a woman, I think. To fold themselves up smaller and smaller to fit in the little boxes people want them to—and even if those people love them, well—a woman is still all creased and bent at the end.”
“It doesn’t have to be like that,” he said. “Damn it, I want you by my side.”
“By your side? I thought you wanted to protect me. Doesn’t that mean you’d be in front of me?”
His jaw tightened. “Honor, I’m not leaving you here in danger. You’re coming with me, and that’s the end of it.”
“How do you know I won’t be in more danger with you? Most likely, the attack came from Pend. I doubt your father is going to tear apart Alina’s tower to get at me; he might be king but he needs the other Elders, doesn’t he?”
Jaik frowned. “Where did—I don’t know, they’re old friends, but even old friends turn on each other sometimes.”
I stared at him. He’d been about to ask where I’d heard that from, I was sure. “You’re keeping secrets from me.”
“I can’t tell you everything about my work.”
I stared up at him, irritated. Maybe it was time for Lucien Finn to visit, but it was exhausting trying to switch between the two of them.
He crossed his arms. “Honor. Be reasonable. Any other day, you’d want to be with us, tracking down the Lord of the Scourge, but now you’re just being stubborn to fight with me.”
“You are not the center of the universe, I’m not trying to fight with you, I’m just trying to make sure Alina is all right!”
By rescuing her wolf shifter lover from a cursed dungeon.
“Oh.” His gaze softened. “Why didn’t you just say that?”
“I can’t exactly open up to you when we’re yelling at each other. And I don’t want to tell you my secrets when you’re keeping your own.”
“They’re not my secrets. They’re the kingdom’s secrets. If they were mine to tell, I’d be boring your ears off until you begged me to shut up.” Gods, he was such a smooth talker. Too bad he was lying. He rested his big hands on my shoulders. “We’ll help Alina. You already figured out the enchantment. Now we just have to convince Joachim it’s safe to let her go. You did it, Honor.”
I sighed. As much as I wanted to protect Lucien, maybe Jaik was right that I wasn’t safe here on my own. I was safer than he realized, given my ability to shift, but I couldn’t watch my own back and if I stayed with Alina, I might endanger her.
“I’ll come,” I relented.
He pulled me tight against his chest and hugged me, his always-perfect posture relaxing just slightly. “Thank you.” His voice was full of genuine relief.
When we walked out, the old and young royals alike were climbing the winding stairs toward the rooftop. Pend gave Jaik a hard look. “What was that about?”
“I was just telling Honor she was coming with me,” Jaik said, as if it were that simple to tell me anything.
“If she gets hurt, it’s on you, Jaik,” Pend warned.
“It always is,” Jaik answered. “So far I’ve managed to keep her safe despite her perpetual best efforts otherwise.”
Jaik looked past his father to Caldren. “Take care of Alina.”
Cal nodded. “I will.”
Chapter
Forty-Eight
Honor
When I climbed down from Jaik’s back, Pend gave him a look as if he had betrayed all the predatory shifters. The royals had said that it was considered inappropriate for any shifter to let someone else ride them. Jaik didn’t look as if he noticed his father’s disapproval but Jaik noticed everything. He was just choosing not to acknowledge it.
We’d landed on a hill overlooking a village full of chaos. Screams echoed through the air around us. Below, people ran desperately trying to get away from the Scourge that streaked through the streets, chasing them down. My stomach froze. Nervous energy jolted through my body. I wanted to run away, but I knew if I ran, I’d only run toward the village.
Pend and the other elders though, looked completely unbothered. I’d heard about how they often went and fought the Scourge themselves. It was one of the things that made people worship the dragon royals. Sometimes people boasted how we had the only kings and lords that fought for their peasants. But I wasn’t entirely sure if that were as special as people said it was since we’d never been allowed free communication with the other Fae lands.
And yet, as the elders strode toward the village, I had to admit that there was something impressive and fierce about them. The elder’s sons joined them, striding along, the nine of them making a terrifying sight.
Pend made a casual flicker with his fingers, but the others must have understood his communication, because immediately Gorion and Arren changed into dragons. The flicker of his fingers had been barely noticeable; he might be communicating telepathically as well. Nerves tightened my throat. Another casual motion and Branok, Lynx and Joachim transformed into dragons.
Pend and Teris continued to walk as mortals into battle with Jaik and Talisyn flanking them. The ground shook faintly underfoot with their every step.
“Stay close,” Jaik warned me.
“You couldn’t tear me away from you,” I promised him.
“Good,” he said. “I guess we finally found something that scares even you.”
His tone was affectionate even as his gaze swept the battlefield constantly.
A dozen quick moving Scourge suddenly lurched toward us. Immediately a dragon’s fiery breath grazed over them, and their bodies disintegrated into nothing but ash.
The blast of flame over the blackened carcasses as they fell reached a wooden house and raced up to the straw-thatched roof. A woman inside screamed.
Pend drew a bottle from inside his jacket and hurled it toward the house, along with a muttered word. His magic lit the bottle just before it left his hand, and when the glass shattered on the rooftop, the flames were doused instantly.
The dragon royals, young and old, moved through the village destroying the Scourge almost effortlessly.
Jaik and Talisyn had drawn their swords. They fought alongside their fathers seamlessly, all of them graceful, moving in deadly harmony. The chaos in the village was soon brought to a standstill.
Students from the academy arrived late, and spread among the villagers smothering the last flames and dispensing medical help. Grateful villagers gathered and knelt around us, as they paid their respects to the king and his son. I started to edge back, embarrassed to be caught in Pend’s apparent glory, but Jaik stopped me with a hand on my shoulder and a quick shake of the head. This is part of it, he seemed to be telling me.
“I want to hear what they have to say,” Pend told Jaik. “You will need to stay here with me.”
Jaik clearly didn’t like that idea, but he inclined his head. “Honor will go back with Talisyn.”