“I do know how to do my job, Douglas,” Sel says.

Lark glances at us over his shoulder, pale eyes mischievous. “Call me Lark,” he repeats.

“Fine,” Sel snaps. “I do know how to do my job, Lark.”

I groan silently. He honestly can’t not, can he?

“Kane.” Lark sighs and turns to face Sel directly. “Look, I don’t think you, me, or the Crown Scion ever imagined we’d be standing here right now, under these circumstances.”

I snort. “Got that right.”

The corner of Lark’s mouth turns down as he keeps talking. “But we are here, and these are the circumstances. For God’s sake, I’m here to help. Ye should be thanking me!”

Sel gives Lark a leveling gaze. “Why exactly should I thank you?”

Lark’s brows rise. “We were not friends at the academy, but we were not enemies. Our parents trained us in the old ways, to go beyond the title, beyond the Oaths, in order to do what must be done.”

Something silent and resonant passes between the two Merlins and takes me aback. I hadn’t considered this—that Sel has been isolated for months, maybe years, from people like him. He has always been alone at the chapter, in title and duty as well as origin. But in the blink of an eye, there are seven Merlins around him, in his space, connecting with him in ways that no one else can. People who truly understand what it is like to be a Merlin among humans, serving out Oaths that keep their demon nature under control.

Slowly, Sel nods. “This is true. Your point?”

“That we’ve known each other for a long time. I, more than any other Merlin, know how much is at stake for ye, personally.” Lark steps closer to Sel, voice low. “Because I know this has been killing ye, Kane. You’re torn between protecting your Oathbound charge and your Crown Scion, all the while worrying that your blood may come for ye in the night, just as it did your mother.”

Sel flinches, and my heart lurches against my chest. The boy whose sharp tongue seems perpetually aimed at other people’s tender spots… actually flinching when Lark hits one of his. I’m sure it doesn’t help that Lark seems to know what Sel himself had only discovered a month ago: that his mother was not killed by a demon while on a mission, but arrested and locked away.