“How long do you think they’ll argue if we don’t interrupt?”

I heard Victoria’s comment, but I ignored her, my irritation at Marc commanding my attention. He was as bad as Tristan – refusing to put me at risk even when it was worth the reward.

“The better part of an hour, I expect,” Vincent replied, and I shot him a dark look, but not before Victoria countered with, “Care to make a wager?”

“Enough!” I rounded on my friend and plucked out the piece of hay she had stuck between her teeth. “Unless you have something to contribute other than jests, I don’t want to hear a peep from you. Understood?”

She nodded, then took the piece of hay back and replaced it between her teeth. “Peep.”

Chapter 16

Tristan

“Are they even watching?” Sabine stomped her feet, the snow crunching beneath her boots. The wind caught at the hood of her cloak, and I reached up to keep it in place, but her hand was already there. “I’ve got it,” she snapped, and adjusted Cécile’s long braid of hair to ensure it remained visible.

Her sour temper was grinding on my nerves. I’d thought her animosity toward me had eased over the days we’d spent in and out of each other’s company, but she’d apparently been storing it up. “If you’d quit complaining and listen, then you’d answer your own question.”

She stiffened, but remained silent, and moments later, the faint thump-thump of wings reached our ears. I tracked the sound, and when the dragon circled east, I pointed at the shape outlined by the coming dawn. “There. It’s been circling outside the dome all night.”

“Why?”

I resisted the urge to slam a fist against the stone of the tower, her tone testing my patience. “Because they are watching. Obviously.”

“I know that,” she snarled. “I meant why hasn’t it come inside the dome? She knows you’re hiding behind these walls, so it isn’t because it’s afraid of you.”

I frowned at the dragon, forgetting my annoyance. “That’s a good question.”

“Shocking,” she muttered under her breath, then added, “There hasn’t been a single report of a fairy within the city since you erected that dome, with the exception of those wolves she sent after me and Cécile. And that, I think, was a fit of temper on her part. Why? Why is she leaving Trianon alone?”

A rooster crowed from somewhere in the city, and already there were people out in the streets going about their business. “They feel safe,” I said. “They think they’re protected.”

“And they have their new ruler to thank for it.”

It seemed like madness to even consider it, but the Winter Queen appeared to be aiding our cause. First, sending the dragon to attack the city, then making it seem as though my protection was keeping them away. While Roland was terrorizing the countryside, Trianon appeared a bastion of safety. She was giving the humans a reason to fight for me.