de


    Meanwhile, back at the manor…


    Something was wrong with the male guvre—aside from the obvious. The thing had looked ready to y de alive when he’d arrived with a peace offering: a giant b of meat. He could hardly me the animal. de wasn’t certain how he would respond if the woman he loved—and his unborn child—were ripped away by someone who sought to misuse them. He’d tried calming the guvre with soothing words, with more meat, and had even resorted to dancing in ce as a distraction.


    It only seemed to anger the animal. But then again, de’s dancing usually had that effect.


    Now, the dragon trainer dragged his dirty, tattered body past the front gate of the manor out to the thorny grove where Rnd was working diligently alongside Rebecka on fortifying the thorns against outsiders.


    He wasn’t certain how one went about fortifying thorns, but it looked impressive as they dumped glistening dust over patches of sharp branches in all directions.


    “Lovely Rebecka.” de nodded. “Rnd.” Rebecka’s brother looked up from his task with a dash of disdain.


    The two were most definitely rted.


    Rebecka didn’t greet him that way in tandem, though; instead, she avoided eye contact and muttered a distracted, “Hello, Mr. Gushiken.” She was focused, that was all, but she’d never addressed him so unfeelingly.


    He usually had her anger if nothing else.


    Was he not even worth that anymore?


    His father’s words echoed in his head, as they always did in moments of doubt.


    Begone, you little nuisance! And get that filthy bug out of my face. Cease distracting me, den. I have important work to do.


    de’s smile faltered—he could feel it slipping, and Rnd saw, even seemed to take pity on him. de reviled pity. “How is the guvre, de?” Rnd asked, eyes flickering up to Marv at his post. The guard’s wild hair was clearly visible from the ground.


    “Crabby.” de paused, side-eyeing Ms. Erring. “Any tips on that, Rebecka? I know you have much experience with that emotion.”


    She dropped the bup sack filled with glitter and whirled around with a pointed look and a narrowed gaze, about to skewer him with one sentence. de held his breath, an abnormal amount of excitement coursing through him at the prospect. But she didn’t say anything, just closed her mouth and turned away.


    “Tell him to try organizing by color—that always lifts my spirits,” she said without any of her usual bite. Had she tired of him? Or…


    de turned an usatory re on Rnd. “How are you getting on out here? Sibling bonding going well?”


    If he’s upset her, I’ll hit him with a rock.


    Rnd adjusted his sses, smiling. “That is something Bex and I have never struggled with.”


    Becky smiled, too, and de felt like his stomach was bottoming out to his toes. It was pleasant and unpleasant all at once, making his chest so tight that he coughed into his hand. He’d been doing that a lottely.


    “Well, good.” de leaned back on his heels. “What is it that you’re sprinkling the thorns with?”


    Becky walked toward him, holding up the bag and looking him in the eye for the first time in days. de felt sick. Which was his usual response to eye contact, but this was different. It felt different. “Take a look. See if you can tell. But do not inhale!”


    de quirked a grin and leaned down to view the powder. It looked familiar, but he couldn’t ce it. “I take it inhaling it is bad?”


    Becky pulled the bag away and brought it back toward the grove. “It’s derived from Forina flowers. They can be toxic if consumed, but they’re mostly used as a dye.”


    “And dumping them on the thorns helps…how?” de asked, feeling out of his depth and more than a little behind.


    Becky dumped a bit into her hand, then put the bag down. He watched as her smooth light-brown skin deepened to a red tinge. “If the powder touches your skin, it turns your hands red.” She held up her palm to show him. “Rnd has arranged the magic in the grove to shift the open paths to get through every day. Only the boss will know how to get in and out without touching them. And he’s added it to the hidden opening we found earlier. Where the traitors have likely been meeting.”


    de’s eyes widened. “So, if anyone in the office attempts to get in without the boss’s instruction…”


    Becky smiled, and the sight of it was so dazzling, he nearly asked her to freeze in ce so he could hire a portrait artist. It wouldn’t be inappropriate, he hoped, to ask her to remain still for several hours with that expression stuck on her face. “They’ll be caught red-handed.”


    de coughed again, the feeling constricting his chest and making his eyes water as he doubled over.


    Rebecka leaned above him, her hand on his back. “What’s wrong? Are you okay?”


    de clutched his abdomen. “You have a sense of humor. My nervous system nearly gave out in shock,” he wheezed.


    He straightened in time for Becky to shove him and roll her eyes. “You are the worst.” But when she made to remove her hand, de decided the risk to his life was worth it when he reached out to grab it.


    She froze but didn’t pull away. de took a cloth from his pocket and attempted to wipe away the red. It had already stained her skin, but he could at least dab at the excess.


    And have a usible excuse to hold her hand.


    Rnd had discreetly moved to a far corner of the grove with the rest of the dust, leaving them alone.


    I take it all back. I’ll hit him with a feather.


    “It’s not going toe off, at least n-not until I use spider root. It’s the only thing that will remove it, and it only grows on Fortisnd,” she said. de might have imagined the breathless stutter in Rebecka’s voice, but he wasn’t imagining the breathless sound of his own.


    “You’re very wise.” He stopped dabbing and just held still for a moment, looking at her with a well of feeling he never allowed himself to dive into. It was best if de felt his emotions at surface level—any deeper, and he grew too intense, too much. If he acknowledged his passion and desire and how deeply they ran, he’d have to acknowledge his anger, too.


    It wasn’t the time for that.


    “You’re still holding my hand, Mr. Gushiken.” Rebecka’s lips tilted up, and it was almost better than her full-fledged smile. It was like a secret she was keeping, one she was allowing him to know.


    What a lucky bastard he was.


    “Would you like me to let go?” de asked with a quirk of his brow.


    She could’ve made a coy, flirtatious reply—he even thought she might have been attempting to think of one, with the way her entire face twisted up in contemtion—but instead, she seemed to settle a quiet argument with herself in the span of a few seconds. “No. I don’t want you to let go.”


    It was a simple, honest, direct reply, and de was so in love with the woman he was surprised he could still see straight. He entwined his fingers with hers and felt electricity travel up his arm at the contact, and he knew she felt it, too.


    They both gasped, and he was a taut thread seconds from snapping, shoving her against the wall, and pressing his lips to hers.


    But her brother was less than ten feet away, so that was likely not advisable. Matching her honesty felt appropriate, however, if he did it quietly.


    He leaned in and whispered, “Have dinner with me.”


    Her brown eyes had little flecks of gold in them, and he was distracted by them as she squeezed his hand. “Ask me. Don’t order me.”


    de grinned, going down to his knees, and Rebecka looked so horrified heughed. “Rebecka Eriania Erring Fortis, would you do me the great honor of having dinner with me? I promise I’ll bathe the dragon smell off first.”


    Herugh could cure anything. de was convinced of it as soon as it left her lips.


    Rnd called from a distance, “Rebecka, say yes or our grandmother will never forgive you.”


    de looked at her pointedly. “We don’t want to disappoint your grandmother.”


    Becky nodded, tugging him to his feet and shocking him by leaning up on her toes and cing a gentle kiss on his cheek. “No, we can’t have that, can we.”


    “You have to put weights in my shoes,” de said absently.


    “What?” Rebecka looked down, then back up at him. “Why?”


    “I’m going to float away,” he said, touching the spot on his cheek her lips had brushed.


    She shoved him with anotherugh, which made the shove more than worth it.


    The moment was one of the most—if not the most—perfect moments of de’s life.


    Until a familiar piercing scream shattered the spell.


    That cast a slight pall over it.


    The two separated to bring their hands up to their ears. de recognized it almost immediately.


    “Gods, is that—”


    Rnd ran to them, his face pinched and angry. “Rebecka, let me exin before anything else is said.”


    Several Malevolent Guards stormed from the manor, Marv among them, holding a strange-looking nt: long-stemmed and…screaming.


    Rebecka gaped at it. “Is that—” She brought a hand to her lips. “Is that the memory nt?” The memory nt that had absorbed Nura Sage’s screams as she transformed into a star. The same nt that Rebecka’s mother had intended to use to suck Becky’s magic out from under her skin to give over to Benedict in exchange for a cure for the Mystic Illness.


    “We found it in your brother’s bedchamber, Ms. Erring,” Marv said, sounding apologetic as he delivered the news, and the other guards grabbed Rnd by both arms to restrain him.


    “Bex, I swear it isn’t what it appears!” Rnd yelled, thrashing so hard his sses fell from his face.


    de’s heart clenched unpleasantly in his chest when Becky knelt to pick them up and put them back atop her older brother’s nose. “You told me I could trust you.” A tear ran down her cheek, and that alone was grounds for him to y the skin from her brother’s bones. “You came to take my magic from me?”


    Rnd shook his head. “No, Rebecka, you don’t understand—let me exin. Please.” The guards began to drag him away, leaving the screaming nt behind, Becky just staring at it.


    “Wait!” she called. The guards halted, and Rnd exhaled, relieved. She continued without looking at her brother. “Make sure the cell is clean.”


    “No, Rebecka!” Rnd yelled as the Malevolent Guards dragged her brother away.


    de had his arms around her before her knees could hit the ground.


    Her body shook with heaving sobs. “I shouldn’t have trusted him,” she said, gripping de’s shoulders like a lifeline.


    That feeling in his chest returned, and this time, it didn’t go away.