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Making decisions was easy for one brilliant instant. I changed course, too relieved to see him smile again to care what the others would think, what conclusions they’d draw. They’d seen us having breakfast together before, hadn't they? There was little to be ruined here, and that look on his face was justbeggingfor some corrective measures.

Creon looked no less amused by the time I plopped down on the porch beside him, put my full mug down on the marble, and muttered, ‘Wipe that grin off your face, arsehole.’

Disappointingly, although not surprisingly, that warning had the opposite effect. He opened his eyes, lips straining against a full burst of laughter now.Having a pleasant morning, cactus?

I glared at him as I tore off a bite of cinnamon- and honey-covered bread with my teeth. ‘No idea what you’re talking about.’

No?There was too much amusement in his quirking eyebrow. Of course his demon senses had picked up on the brief stutter of my sanity with perfect clarity, damn him.

‘Not in the slightest,’ I said, chewing indignantly.

Creon settled his wings against the wall a little more comfortably, stretching in what was both a convincing display of princely carelessness and a motion of such catlike elegance that I couldn’t help but swallow my cinnamon roll a little too audibly.Good to know. I thought for a moment you might be losing your head over the size of Edored’s …He cleared his throat.Dragon.

I gave up on maintaining my straight face and slouched against the wall beside him, stifling a hysterical burst of laughter. ‘Do you think he calls it that?’

He bit his lip.I’ve never found myself in a position to find out.

‘Shame. Perhaps I should ask Nenya.’

If you’re striving to get a pair of fangs buried in your face,he dryly signed,that is most certainly the way to go.

I snorted a laugh. ‘Is she still here? Nenya?’

He shook his head, the twinkle in his eyes enough to remind me of last night’s madness, of those scarred fingers driving all sense and sanity from my mind.Beyla faded her back to the Underground and returned with breakfast. This entire training session is just Tared distracting Edored from his heartfelt plans to fade into Gar Temen and behead Bakaru in a fit of vengeful fury.

‘Ah.’ I considered that. ‘He does love her, then?’

Creon shrugged.As much as he allows himself to love anyone.

I pulled a face, then realised I was being just as much of a coward about my own heart and that maybe I was not in a position to pass judgement here.

On the grass, Edored was loudly listing all the bodily harm he could have inflicted in response to a small error in Tared’s defensive timing. Neither of them seemed to have realised I’d gotten out of bed. Beyla, on the other hand, was throwing us watchful glances over her sewing work, the disapproval obvious in her pale blue eyes.

I suppressed the instinctive urge to shove half a foot away from Creon. What had he said?As soon as you start liking people, as soon as you’re supposed to trust them …

But I did trust them, didn’t I?

‘And where are Lyn and Naxi?’ I said, because the sunlight was warm and my cinnamon roll was positively delicious and I didn’t feel like spoiling my own mood with questions I couldn’t answer. ‘Not around to watch the show?’

Pretty sure Lyn was tempted, he signed, ignoring Beyla and her glances entirely.Naxi pulled her along for another perusal of the temple. Said something about, I quote, “too many dicks and not enough tits for her tastes.”

I almost choked to death on my breakfast; it took a few heartbeats of coughing and laughing to retrieve the last bits of cinnamon from my lungs. When I finally looked up with tears in my eyes, Tared and Edored had paused their sparring, their jabs now interlaced with suspicious glances at Creon.

‘Morning,’ I said, sniffing the tears away. ‘Don’t mind me and my violent end, please. Didn’t intend to interrupt your training.’

‘You’re being very damn loud, Nosebreaker,’ Edored said with a scoff, easily flicking his sword around. ‘Thought having a Silent Death was bad, but apparently we have a Noisy Death too, now?’

Tared took a half-hearted swing at him with his blade, not even glancing his cousin’s direction to see him jump out of harm’s way. ‘Joining for training, Em?’

A transparent attempt to get me away from Creon if there ever was one. I exaggeratedly stuffed half of my second cinnamon roll into my mouth and said, ‘I don’t think anyone hauled a bunch of training sticks across half the continent just so I could spend some time stumbling over them in a temple garden.’

Tared shrugged, raking a hand through his messy blond locks. ‘Edored? Could she borrow Fury for a few minutes?’

‘BorrowFury?’ Edored echoed, his voice soaring explosively in those two words. ‘Why not lend her my fucking firstborn child while you’re at it, Thorgedson? You can hand over Heartfall, as far as I’m—’

‘Here, Em,’ Beyla interrupted, putting her needlework aside with one of those genuine but shallow smiles as she snatched the smallest of her two swords from the grass. ‘You can use Sunray, if you want.’

I stared at her, speechless. Sunray. Tared’s brother’s sword – the sword of the first alf she’d loved, and she was putting that inmyuntrained hands?