Page 64 of A Court of Wings and Shadows

But when he did, he turned just enough to smile over his shoulder at the seething man behind us.

I couldn’t help it, I smiled too. Just a little.

Even if I knew this storm was far from over.

Chapter

Fourteen

Zander rose slowly, still favoring his shoulder though the wound had vanished completely. He glanced toward the cliffs, where Hein paced, tail twitching and wings half-furled.

“Hein wishes a word,” he said with a sigh.

“You in trouble?” I asked, quirking a brow.

He grinned, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Aren’t I always?”

I watched him walk away, still dripping seawater and blood, and yet, more alive than I’d ever seen him. The wind caught his cloak as he moved, casting him in silhouette against the sun.

I turned to head toward Kaelith, but Remy stepped into my path like a wall made of regret and fury.

“He’s not the one for you,” he said, quiet but sharp.

I stopped, every muscle in my body tightening. “Don’t do this.”

His jaw worked, words fighting to break loose. “You don’t know what you’re getting into. That bond—Ashlyn, it’s not just some emotional tie. It’s dangerous. Especially for someone like you.”

“We don’t even know if it is a bond,” I snapped, keeping my voice low even as it burned. “And even if it is, it saved him.”

Around us, the other riders moved with exaggerated nonchalance, pretending to busy themselves with gear or dragons or anything except listening to a royal fight unfold in real time.

Remy stepped closer. “A blood bond links more than life and death. It changes how you feel. You’ll start to question which emotions are real and which ones are bleeding through from him.”

“I’m not a child,” I hissed. “And I’m not yours to protect anymore.”

He flinched, and for a second, the anger faltered. “You don’t understand what it means to be tied to someone like that. If one of you dies, you both die.You think Zander’s ready for that kind of burden? You thinkyouare?”

My fists clenched at my sides, nails digging into my still-healing palm. “I didn’t take his blood. Besides, I didn’t ask for this.”

“But you accepted it,” he whispered. “That’s the part that scares me.”

Something in my chest cracked. The vulnerability in his voice was real, but so was the control laced beneath it. The way he was always trying to steer me, to guard me, even from myself.

“I need a break,” I said, stepping around him. “From this. From you.”

I didn’t wait for his response.

Kaelith’s eyes met mine across the sand, a steady flame in a world unraveling.

And for now… that was all I needed.

I walked away from the dragons and the arguing voices, the burden of it all pressing against my shoulders like a storm that refused to pass. The beach curved ahead, scattered with jaggedstone outcroppings, and I made for the largest one, needing space, needing quiet, needing anything that wasn’t Remy’s voice in my ears or the ache of Zander’s almost-death clawing at my heart.

I rounded the stone, and almost slammed straight into her.

Seraveth stood like a shadow stitched from night and ruin, her crimson eyes glowing faintly beneath the hood of her dark cloak. Her smile was slow and curved like a dagger’s edge.

My heart punched against my ribs. “How?—”