Arren eyed me skeptically, but I leaned on his arm and gave him a conspiratorial look. “I’m not actually convinced that I need a nap right now, immediately after breakfast. Maybe we could go on a hike, or… what do you do for fun? Is there anyone to kill around here?”
Arren glanced ahead of us, at Jaik already moving up the stairs.
His voice was quiet when he said, “You’d better not tear us all apart.”
“I would never try to tear you all apart.” I sounded as shocked as I felt. “I don’t even care that Branok and Lynx hate me—” I broke off. Branok and Lynx hated Lucien. How did they feel about Honor, really? They didn’t trust me, but they’d dived through that roof to my rescue.
“The thing is, Honor,” he said, “I’m not sure that you’d have to try. Those men are my only family that count. Don’t ruin it.”
It was the most vulnerable thing I’d ever heard from Arren, who I barely heard talk anyway.
I expected him to leave me at my door, but he pushed it open, held it for me expectantly. I walked in ahead of him, embarrassed by how stiff and painful my every movement was. I could feel him watching me, and my cheeks heated.
I turned back to face him, raising my chin. But he was already moving steadily past me, peeling back the blankets as if he intended to help me into bed. There were blood stains on the sheets where blood had soaked through my bandages and gown, and his jaw tightened.
Why did Arren seem as if he cared?
“Henrick had the chance to live out your fantasies, I suppose,” I said lightly.
“Don’t.” His voice came out rough. He seemed as if he wanted to say more.
I went to the window, leaned against the cool glass. The air outside must have been cold, because the window felt frosty, no matter how warm and comfortable the room was. I stared out at the silvery mountains.
“Jaik wanted you to rest.”
“Mm, well I’m the only one who doesn’t hop to his commands. He secretly enjoys it.”
I didn’t have to look behind me to know Arren was glaring at me.
“Get into bed, Honor. Don’t make me carry you.”
I laughed. As I turned, Arren crossed the distance between us, stepping so close that he dominated me with his size. I turned my eyes up to his face innocently.
He looked as if he wanted to pick me up, but realized he couldn’t without hurting me. His jaw flexed again in irritation.
“If you’ll rest,” he began, then ran out of steam.
“Are you moving on from threats to bribes?” I asked brightly. “I do like the direction this is going.”
He looked for a second as if he were trying to come up with something, as if he was going to give in. Then he snorted, turned on his heel, stormed off.
To my surprise, he closed the door quietly instead of slamming it.
My smile dropped as soon as he’d gone. It felt lonely without Arren in the room, strangely.
Arren seemed so untouchable, but his words kept lingering in my head.
Don’t ruin my family.
Chapter
Six
Honor
I couldn’t go back to sleep, in the middle of the day when a faint hum of movement thrummed through the house, which I hadn’t even explored yet. I felt lonely and bored. It didn’t take long before I opened the window and leaned out, breathing in the fresh, icy air.
“Don’t even think about it,” Talisyn called.
I looked down, resting my elbows on the windowsill, and found him almost directly underneath the window. He waved at me.
“Are you stalking me, Lord Talisyn?”
He scoffed. “Keeping you out of trouble for your own good.”
“I think you and Jaik might be confused and think those two are one and the same.” But maybe they were guarding me, given Pend Deragon’s interest. A shiver ran up my spine; the king’s threats had clearly worried Jaik before and I was afraid of what would happen now…especially with my sister here and these men I cared for in the house.
Tal glanced over his shoulder, clearly listening for something, and I couldn’t bear it anymore. “I’m coming down!”
“No, don’t,” he called back. “I’ll come up.”
He jumped onto the windowsill below mine, an ornate affair that offered lots of toe holds, then leapt and caught the next sill. He swung himself up to my sill on the third floor, then perched in my window, looking relaxed and smug as a cat.
“Now I know I can do that too,” I said.
His smugness slipped just slightly. “Please don’t.”
“I don’t have any intention of putting myself in harm’s way if I can help it,” I promised. “I’m not foolish.”
“No, you certainly are not,” Tal agreed, studying me. His eyes were bright as he cocked his head to one side, reminding me of the way he looked at me sometimes in his dragon form. “And you would tell us if you were in trouble.”
“I would,” I said, my heart beginning to race from the knowing way he looked at me. “If I could.”
The thought of the enchantment Teris had put on me hummed in my brain; for a moment my vision swam and I saw his face, intent in concentration as he cursed me.
“Talisyn,” I started to say, wanting to tell him everything, wanting to begin by telling him there was a reason why I hadn’t. I worried so much these men would be furious at me when they found I’d kept my identity from them. It would seem like a betrayal. The sooner I confessed, the more understanding they might be.
But the words wouldn’t leave my lips. The more I tried, the more my head swam, until I’d forgotten what I was even trying to say. I felt as if I were looking at Talisyn stupidly when I finally surfaced from my attempts, my lips slack, and his own face was concerned. He’d move from his spot on the windowsill while I was in Teris’s la-la land; his hands rested lightly on my shoulders.
“Are you all right, Honor? You should rest.”
“I can’t,” I managed, even those words difficult now, so close to when I’d tried to rebel against the spell. There had to be a way around it though. Perhaps if I shifted in front of him.
I tried to summon my dragon, but it didn’t come. Worse, the world tilted, swayed. I found myself on my knees, but only for a moment, before Talisyn swept me off the floor and against his chest.
“It appears Jaik was right, as much as I hate to admit it,” he said, pressing a chaste kiss to my forehead as he carried me toward the bed. “You’ve been through quite the ordeal, Honor. It’s time to rest.”
“You wouldn’t tell Lucien to rest,” I said, desperately hoping he would understand.
“But we don’t like Lucien,” he deadpanned, before admitting, “Yes, that’s true. We have different expectations for the dragon royals than for the woman we love.”
“You keep using the royal we,” I said. “You and Jaik?”
Something flickered in his eyes; a secret of his own that he was keeping, maybe. He didn’t answer, just busied himself with pulling the blankets and tucking me in. I wiggled carefully on my side, positioning myself just so that nothing hurt; Henrick had carelessly wrapped the tail of the whip around my right side, leaving welts across my side and stomach, but my left side was all right.
“Come sleep with me,” I said, and he let out a laugh.