‘Cub …’ She pulled a silken robe from the ornate screen in the room’s corner, and pulled it on with a look of distaste. ‘Listen to me. The world, the people in it, they try to funnel you. To push you the way you’re supposed to go, the way they want you to go, need you to go. This place … this place reminds me of who I was, and to them I’ll never be anything more. I can’t stay here without falling back into the role they chose for me. They’ll choose for you too, given the chance.’

Chel thought of the Andriz enclave, thought of Laralim sizing him up for the breeding pool, thought of Rasha, thought of Loveless … He drank more water.

‘The big man and I, we’ve been pushing back against that for years. It’s what we’ve done together, in all the time I’ve known him. Push back against the world, dig in our heels and deliver a big fuck you to it all. Travel our own path.’

She fussed with the items on the bed, then stopped and sighed. ‘But something’s different in him now, and I’m not saying it’s your fault, but he’s been changing since our path crossed with yours. If he had his right mind today, we’d be saying fuck all of this, let’s get gone. But here I am, the only one with one foot out the door. We used to discuss things, him, me, and Whisp, talk things out, decide together. Now he just does what he thinks … So you tell me, cub, what’s changed? What’s left Gar Rennic staring down the business end of a hero’s valiant, pointless death, and not walking away?’

‘I don’t … I—’

‘Yeah. Things change, nothing lasts. What do you want, cub? And don’t say sex.’

‘Huh?’

‘Why are you here, in Arowan? What has brought you to this madness? God knows you’ve been riding this runaway horse for half a year, and sooner or later you’re going to have to choose when to jump.’

‘I swore an oath. I have to do my duty—’

‘Answer the question. What do you want?’

Chel swallowed more water. ‘I want … I want the prince to be safe. I want peace.’

‘But for yourself? What are you yearning for, pining for? And again, don’t say sex, or at least not sex here and now.’

‘My sister asked me the same thing, before we parted. A little differently, of course.’

‘And? What did you say?’

‘To … do my duty.’

‘Five hells, cub, you’re exhausting. Why? Why this obsession with duty and obligation, beyond all sense and reason?’

‘My father said—’

‘Oh, saints preserve us, your dear dead dad. Let me guess, you miss him terribly, and don’t much care for your mother now she’s remarried.’