“It wouldn’t kill you to ask for help. Even kings need it from time to time.”

There was amusement in her voice, but also worry in her eyes. I looked out again at the city that sprawled before us. “She claims she will ruin our chances of an alliance if I don’t play along.”

Astrid’s lips thinned, her silver hair flying about her shoulders in the breeze. “That does put us in a bind. Our plan with the queen’s heritage blew up in our face. Perhaps we can rekindle it in the daughter? I know she stole the circlet.” Distaste wrinkled my face as she continued, “You were making deals with Severn and the Overlord for your people. Surely you can flatter a seventeen-year-old girl for a few days until we secure the alliance? I will try to offer her my own services or see if Merrow or Meruse would instruct her.”

The thought of Meruse and Kali in the same room was enough to make me blanch in fear. Astrid read the expression on my face, and her lips pursed.

“Hmm. Perhaps not Meruse.” She looked off into the distance, towards the direction of the northern woods and Cantrada. “We leave in two days, Benedict. I’m sure you’ll think of something. She’s just a girl.”

Astrid leaned forward on her broom and zipped off towards the ground. I rolled my eyes and leapt after her, enjoying the feel of the sunlight bouncing off of my scales and the wind under my wings. Just a girl. Kali was ‘just a girl’ in the same way Wren had been ‘just a human.’ I flew towards the balcony of my room, the beginnings of a plan already in my mind.

Chapter Nine

Wren

The next two days were officially the worst of my life. I drifted in and out of consciousness, alternatively shivering and then sweating out my body weight. I wasn’t aware of much, but there was occasionally a pair of hands that wiped my brow, connected to arms that pulled me close and shared heat with me. I cried from fear and exhaustion, from stress and heartache. I imagined Kieran held me in my fever-induced haze, his arms strong and reassuring around me. Sometimes when I woke, it was Ronan, other times Benedict. Those times were the best and the worst because while it soothed my soul to have them hold me so tenderly, it only threw into relief how false all of it was. I surmised that I was deathly ill because I even imagined that the liquid Thad forced down my throat was Benedict’s blood. The spicy, familiar flavor a cruel trick played by my feverish mind. I cried every time he made me drink it.

On the third day, my eyes cracked open, my mind forced back into reality and was determined to stay there. The large arms were wrapped around me, and a bare chest rose slowly up and down against my back. I shifted my body, my heart barely able to contain itself as dark hair filled my vision. It wasn’t a dream! Benedict was here! My heart soared in happiness, realizing my torment was finally over. I was home, and if I called out Kieran and Ronan would be there, and—