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Not without telling me, at least. My heartbeat didn’t come down, the sound of that arrow smacking into his back stillperpetually repeating itself in some dark and unforgiving corner of my mind.

‘So then what are you—’

‘Cactus.’ His voice quivered ever so slightly –quivered, that golden sound with its veneer of hoarseness. ‘Can I just … Could you just let me hold you for a moment?’

What in the world?

But I wasn’t going to refuse him a single thing, not when he was looking at me like that – like he might crack at the slightest unkind touch, shatter like his binding had shattered. And his arms were robust as always as I stepped into his embrace, wrapping around me with such tender strength, pressing me against his chest with such gentle urgency … He lowered his forehead to mine. I slipped my arms around his waist, cautious to avoid his wings in this just-too-public spot, and his nails dug into my back in response – primal, possessive, a touch like a claim.

As if someone might try to drag me from his arms in the next moment.

But who in the world would be mad enough to try any such thing? And where had this fear come from so suddenly, if I hadn’t seen the slightest trace of it when he’d followed me into the forest or even that bloody blue-and-white tent? Naxi’s proposed bargain, then, or Thysandra’s collapse, butwhy?

‘Creon …’ I whispered, burying my nose into the hollow of his neck.

‘You know I’d do anything for you, don’t you?’ he rasped, a sudden haste in his words, as if his time was counting down to minutes, seconds. ‘Anything. You know that? You won’t forget?’

‘Why in the world would I—Creon.’ I pulled back my head to look up at him. His dark eyes bled despondency, an expression pleading with me to understand. ‘What has gotten into your head, that you—'

Shrill, urgent chirping exploded behind me.

I had no time to do anything but jump back. No time to tell Creon to stay where he was and give me five short seconds to deal with this. Alyra crashed down onto my shoulder with such force she almost sent me to my knees, making enough noise to render any sensible conversation impossible; before I could tell her to get the hell out of here, Naxi’s melodious voice added itself to the cacophony, sounding no less excited.

‘Emelin!Emelin!’

I snapped around, far too tempted to grab Creon’s black sleeve in the same movement and fire off a few warning bursts of red. It was all I could do to instead grit out, ‘Could I get back to you later, Naxi? This is really not the moment for—’

‘Can't wait,’ she interrupted, dancing out from between the pale tents. She was blushing so feverishly her round face was almost as pink as her dress. ‘Emelin, she's talked! We know how to use them! We need you at the Cobalt Court right now to—’

‘We— Wait, what?’ With the hollow misery in Creon’s eyes still burned into my mind, it took a few frantic moments to understand what she was even talking about. ‘Thebindings?’

‘Yes!’ Naxi panted, clutching a sheet of parchment to her chest as she stumbled to a standstill next to me. She must have been sprinting after Alyra, in so much of a hurry to find me that she didn't seem to have noticed one of her hair ribbons had fluttered off. ‘We have no time to lose – I have the ones she wrote down right here, and—’

‘Alright,alright.’ I held up my hands in a desperate attempt to slow the onslaught of words. This was good news, my rational thoughts tried to tell me, this waswonderfulnews, and yet the elation refused to even come peeking around the corner. ‘I’ll have a quick word with Creon and then—’

The rest of the sentence froze on my lips as I turned to where he’d been standing.

The clearing between the tents was no longer empty. A small but rapidly growing circle of onlookers had gathered around us, drawn in by the combined noise of my familiar and the little half demon rattling loudly at me: nymphs and vampires and phoenixes, gaping at us with sagging jaws and eyes gleaming with far too much hope.

But the heart of the circle was empty.

He’d stood beside me a moment ago – yet now, like an alf fading out without leaving a trace, Creon had quietly vanished.

Chapter 31

‘But whereishe?’ I snapped for what felt like the twentieth time at the group of dazed creatures around us, ignoring Naxi, who was tugging at my arm with all of her minimal weight. ‘Did he fly off? Did anyone try to stop him?’

‘He … he just walked away,’ one of the nymphs squeaked. ‘That way. He looked …angry, I’d say?’

Which was presumably an answer to my last question, because who in the world would be so stupid as to risk his life trying to stop an angry Silent Death from going exactly wherever the hell he wished to go?

I only barely swallowed a curse.

‘Emelin,’Naxi repeated for what was also likely the twentieth time, yanking at my arm with so much force I almost dislocateda shoulder. ‘We don’t havetimefor his dramatics. If you want to unbind as many people as possible before tomorrow morning …’

‘I’m not unbinding anyone!’ I snapped, realising only as the group around me collectively gasped that perhaps I could have chosen my words more carefully. But damn it all – something was very, very wrong, and if he was running from me again, that only suggested he needed help more urgently. ‘Look, you can start preparing logistics for me, alright? It will probably take a while to get a team of people together, and in the meantime, I’ll just figure out wherever the hell he went and—’

‘The team’s already here, Nosebreaker,’ a voice with a strong Alvish accent interrupted me.