My throat tightens, and I blink back the burn in my eyes. Soleil and Liam didn’t survive.
Liam. Blond hair and sky-blue eyes fill my memory, and pain erupts behind my ribs. His boisterous laugh. His quick smile. His loyalty and kindness. It’s all gone. He’s gone.
All because he promised Xaden he’d guard me.
“None of the eight are expendable, Suri.” Silver Beard leans on the back two legs of his chair and examines the map behind Xaden.
“What do you propose, Felix?” Suri counters. “Running our own war college with all our spare time? Most of them haven’t finished their education. They’re of no use to us yet.”
“As if any of you has a say in if we return,” Xaden interrupts, earning everyone’s attention. “We will take the advice of the Assembly, but it will be taken as only that—advice.”
“We cannot afford to risk your life—” Suri argues.
“My life is equal to any of theirs.” Xaden gestures toward us.
Brennan’s gaze meets mine, then widens.
Each head in the room turns toward us, and I fight the instinct to retreat as almost every set of eyes narrows on me.
Who do they see? Lilith’s daughter? Or Brennan’s sister?
I lift my chin because I’m both…and I feel like neither.
“Not every life,” Suri says as she looks straight at me. Ouch. “How could you have stood there and let her overhear the conversation of the Assembly?”
“If you didn’t want her to hear, you should have closed the door,” Bodhi responds, stepping into the room.
“She cannot be trusted!” Anger might color her cheeks, but that’s fear in Suri’s eyes.
“Xaden has already taken responsibility for her.” Imogen sidesteps, moving slightly closer to me. “As brutal of a custom as it may be.”
My gaze whips to meet Xaden’s. What the hell is she talking about?
“I still don’t understand that particular decision,” Hawk Nose adds.
“Decision was simple. She’s worth a dozen of me,” Xaden says, and my breath catches at the intensity in his eyes. If I didn’t know better, I’d think he means it. “And I’m not talking about her signet. I would have told her everything discussed here anyway, so an open door is a moot point.”
A spark of hope flares to life in my chest. Maybe he really is done keeping secrets.
“She’s General Sorrengail’s daughter,” Battle-Ax points out, frustration clear in her voice.
“And I’m the general’s son,” Brennan argues.
“And you’ve more than proven your loyalty over the last six years!” Battle-Ax shouts. “She hasn’t!”
Anger heats my neck, flushing up to my face. They’re talking about me like I’m not even here.
“She fought at our side at Resson.” Bodhi tenses as his voice rises as well.
“She should be confined.” Suri’s face turns downright ruddy as she pushes away from the table and stands, her gaze jumping to the silver half of my hair that forms my coronet braid. “She can ruin us all with what she knows.”
“Agreed.” Hawk Nose joins her with palpable loathing aimed in my direction. “She’s too dangerous not to keep prisoner.”
The muscles of my stomach tense, but I mask my expression like I’ve seen Xaden do countless times and leave my hands at my sides, close to my sheathed daggers. My body might be frail, my joints undependable, but my aim with a knife is lethally accurate. There’s no fucking way I’m going to let them cage me here.
I scan each of the Assembly members, assessing which is the biggest threat.
Brennan rises to his full height. “Knowing that she’s bonded to Tairn, whose bonds get deeper with each rider and whose previous bond was already so strong that Naolin’s death nearly killed him? Knowing we fear he’ll die if she does now? That because of that, Riorson’s life is tied to hers?” He nods toward Xaden.
Disappointment tastes bitter on my tongue. Is that all I am to him? Xaden’s weakness?
“I alone am responsible for Violet.” Xaden’s voice lowers in pure malice. “And if I’m not enough, there are not one but two dragons who have already vouched for her integrity.”
Enough is enough.
“She is standing right here,” I snap, and an unflattering amount of satisfaction courses through me at the number of jaws that drop in front of me. “So stop talking about me and try talking to me.”
A corner of Xaden’s mouth rises, and the pride that flashes through his expression is unmistakable.
“What do you want from me?” I ask them, striding into the room. “Want me to walk Parapet and prove my bravery? Done. Want me to betray my kingdom by defending Poromish citizens? Done. Want me to keep his secrets?” I gesture toward Xaden with my left hand. “Done. I kept every secret.”
“Except the one that mattered.” Suri lifts an eyebrow. “We all know how you ended up in Athebyne.”
Guilt clogs my throat.
“That was not—” Xaden starts, rising from his chair.
“Through no fault of her own.” The man nearest us with the gray beard— Felix—stands, blocking Suri from my sight as he turns toward her. “No first-year could withstand a memory reader, especially one considered a friend.” He pivots to face me. “But you have to know that you have enemies at Basgiath, now. Should you return, you must know that Aetos will not be among your friends. He will do everything he can to kill you for what you’ve seen.”
“I know.” The words are thick on my tongue.
Felix nods.
“We are done here,” Xaden says, his gaze catching and holding Suri’s and then Hawk Nose’s, their shoulders drooping in defeat.
“I’ll expect an update on Zolya in the morning,” Brennan says. “Consider this Assembly meeting adjourned.”
The council members push in their chairs and file past the three of us once we step out of the way. Imogen and Bodhi stay at my sides.
Eventually, Xaden starts to walk out but pauses in front of me. “We’ll head up to the valley. Meet us when you’re done.”
“I’ll go with you now.” This is the last place on the Continent I want to be left behind.
“Stay and talk to your brother,” he says quietly. “Who knows when you’ll get another chance.”
I glance past Bodhi to see Brennan standing in the middle of the room, waiting for me. Brennan, who always took the time to help wrap my knees when I was a child. Brennan, who wrote the book that helped me through my first year. Brennan…who I’ve missed for six years.
“Go,” Xaden urges. “We won’t leave without you, and we’re not going to let the Assembly dictate what we do. The eight of us will decide what to do together.” He gives me a long look that makes my traitorous heart clench, and then he walks away. Bodhi and Imogen follow.
Which leaves me to turn toward my brother, armed with six years of questions.
It is the valley above Riorson House, heated by natural thermal energy, that is its greatest asset. For there lie the original hatching grounds of the Dubhmadinn Line, from which two of the greatest dragons of our time—Codagh and Tairn—descend.
—COLONEL KAORI’S FIELD GUIDE TO DRAGONKIND
CHAPTER TWO
I shut the tall door behind me before moving toward Brennan. This meeting is definitely not open to the public.
“Did you eat enough?” He rests on the edge of the table like he used to when we were kids. The move is so…him, and as for the question, I ignore it entirely.
“So this is where you’ve been the last six years?” My voice threatens to break. I’m so glad he’s alive. That’s all that should matter. But I can’t forget the years he’s let me grieve for him, either.
“Yes.” His shoulders drop. “I’m sorry I let you believe I was dead. It was the only way.”
Cue awkward silence. What am I supposed to say to that? It’s all right, but not really? There’s so much I want to say to him, so much I need to ask, but suddenly the years we’ve been apart feel…defining. Neither of us is the same person.
“You look different.” He smiles, but it’s sad. “Not in a bad way. Just… different.”