The casual dismissiveness grated like sand against my skin.
“She’s exceptional,” I said, the words coming out hard.
The guard’s eyes narrowed. “You seem quite invested in your charge.”
Dangerous ground.
I forced my posture to relax, taking on the professional distance expected of a bodyguard. “I take my duties seriously. His Majesty hired me to protect her. I failed to prevent the attack.” I let genuine frustration bleed into my voice. “That sits poorly.”
The guard nodded, seeming to accept the explanation.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
ISI
Istood in the center of my sitting room, still wearing the emerald gown stained with Crestin’s blood. Dark spatters marred the skirt where it had dried to a rusty brown that appeared black in the torchlight. The necklace Mae had fastened around my throat choked me.
Pherin released her grip on my shoulder and launched toward the windowsill. She landed with an indignant ruffle of teal and silver feathers, her tiny head swiveling to glare at the door, then at me, then back at the door.
Stupid walls. Should burn all,she more or less said.
She sent an image of flames consuming the corridor outside, guards scattering, the door between Trew and me reduced to cinders.
The pictures were new. In the past, we’d only spoken in our minds. What else could this bond do?
“Not yet,” I whispered. When would I be able to let her loose? I ached to do it now.
She puffed up to twice her normal size, all outraged dignity and thwarted violence. For a creature small enough to fit in my palm, she radiated an impressive amount of murderous intent.
The adrenaline that had carried me through the attack and everything that followed drained away at once.
My knees buckled.
I caught myself on the arm of the sofa, digging my fingers into the upholstery. The room tilted, or maybe I did. Everything blurred around the edges, sounds growing distant and muffled, as if I’d plunged underwater.
I’d killed a man tonight. Not my first. Probably not my last. But death never felt easy even if I’d carried it out in self-defense. I sank onto the sofa, staring down at my trembling fingers. They looked like someone else’s hands. Pale and delicate, still adorned with the rings I’d worn to dinner. Princess hands that had shattered a man’s wrist and sent him falling onto his own blade. With magic I could barely control. The wild surge had erupted when I blocked his strike, responding to my fear with a force I hadn’t expected. What if I’d released more? The guards might have seen the shimmer, and I’d be in the dungeon right now, awaiting my own cup of ashwine.
I tugged the small striped stone Trew had given me from my pocket and clutched it tight.
“I’ll always find you,” he’d told me more than once.
He’d found me in the training yard when I was pretending to be someone I wasn’t. Found me in the Rite when I nearly died. Found me here in Caldrith. He was determined to stand at my side no matter the cost.
A soft chirp pulled me from my spiraling thoughts.
Pherin hopped along the windowsill, her movements jerky.Trew close.
“You’re right,” I croaked. He was right outside, in the hall.
But he might as well be in Syllavar. A wooden door and four armed guards stood between us. I could not forget my father’s paranoia. We had a role to play, bodyguard and princess, and it would be unwise to cross that line even within my own chambers. One stolen kiss could send Trew to my father’s dungeon.
The isolation crushed me.
I rose and crossed to the door, pressing my palm against the wood. I closed my eyes, imagining him on the other side. Imagined his hand mirroring mine, separated by carved wood that might as well be leagues.
If I concentrated, I could almost feel him through the barrier.
A faint pulse hummed through the wood, warm against my skin, like the distant thrum of his magic, reaching across the bond we shared. It carried the edge of his frustration, the same coiled tension I’d seen in his jaw all evening. I pressed harder, willing the sensation to strengthen, to bridge the impossible distance. My breath caught as it flickered again, a whisper of his presence that made my chest ache with yearning.