“You really do not need to do that,” Sel says with a groan.

“Sure, I do. Besides”—Lark looks deliberately between us, smirking—“that will give you two a private moment.”

Sel stiffens. “A private moment for what?”

Lark waves a hand at us. “To talk about whatever this quarrel is between youse.”

My jaw drops slightly. Lark winks, then streaks to the left, out of sight.

“He’s…”

“Annoying.” Sel recovers before I do, taking the stairs in quick, quiet strides.

“Sel.” I hurry up the stairs to stand in his path. “Wait.”

He meets my eyes. “Yes?”

“I’m sorry,” I blurt.

“For what?” he asks blithely.

“For…” I flounder, hands waving. “For all of this.”

“Be specific when you apologize, Briana. It makes the act far more effective.” He steps around me to the landing, turning left after Lark, hands stuffed deep in his pockets.

It is a near-physical effort to push past the continued sting of Sel wielding my full name like a weapon. To force us back to who we were when we first met—enemies, not friends.

“Okay…” I catch up to him again. “I’m sorry for sneaking out. For going to the arena with William.”

He keeps walking. “That is a strange way to say you apologize for endangering not only yourself but one of your knights as well.”

“Sel, come on. I didn’t know there’d be cedny uffern at the arena ward!”

He scoffs. “Do demons usually announce themselves to you?”

“Well, no… but—”

Sel twists around. “Even if there were no cedny uffern at the ward, your actions endangered yourself and others. Again.”

Our fight rises up behind my eyes, a script I could recite word for word even though it was weeks ago. “I told you what I wanted. I want to get better, stronger—”

“You could have done that in the Lodge training rooms. Inside. Behind my wards. Instead, you were reckless, repeating your same mistakes.”

“I said I was sorry about that!”

“ ‘Sorry’ didn’t cut it then, and it doesn’t cut it now.” He leans forward, snarling. “You convinced Greer and Pete to bring you on an unauthorized hunt and nearly got yourself killed in the process. And here you are tonight, doing the same with William.”

“I didn’t convince William of anything! He asked to join me.”

His voice turns deadly quiet. “You put your Scion in an impossible position. William had to decide whether to go with you for protection or let his very vulnerable Crown Scion go off on her own, undoubtedly putting both her life and the spell that has fueled the Legendborn cycle for centuries in danger. You forced his hand. You just don’t see it.”

Shame wells up inside me, doubling, tripling what I felt earlier.

Sel, however, is not done. “Even if Erebus and the Mageguard had not arrived tonight, your actions put my title at risk. Does that concern you at all?”