Page 84 of Claws of Death

Recienne is waiting with his sister and his general, dressed in armor for once like the rest of us. Next to them, Tata stands at attention, hand on her sword. Recienne inclines his head at us, taking a step forward.

“You’re coming with us?” I ask by way of greeting, half impressed, half worried.

“Only to the rebels so we can transport all of you faster. I’ll return to the palace right away.” He glances back over his shoulder to the shadows where I spot a rounded female form. “I won’t leave Sanja alone longer than necessary. You have my general and the female who successfully defied the late Crow King at your side. You don’t need me.”

But his pregnant mate needs him. Warmth spreads through my chest at the level of adoration in his tone when he speaks of her, the shimmer in his eyes when he looks at her. And the fact that he shares this secret with all of us?—

It’s hard to breathe.

“Take good care of yourself, Ayna,” Sanja says from the shadows. “And make sure that, if you return with blood on my armor, it’s that of our enemies.”

I can see it then, a different version of this queen. One with a blade in her hands and the wrath of the Guardians in her eyes. She’s as fierce as her mate, as protective and true.

“It will be my honor.” I bow my head, not in deference but a sign of respect.

No one comments. Not on our dialogue or on Recienne’s revelation—a secret we’ve been keeping as he requested and which he now chose to share with all of us.

Clio and Tori step up to us, offering their hands to Kaira, Herinor, Royad, and Silas. “Tata can site-hop on her own,” Clio informs me when she notices my gaze drift to the female. “I’ve taken her before, so she knows the path.”

Just as they all disappear, Recienne walks over to his mate, taking her face between his palms and kissing her fiercely before planting a kiss on her stomach. “I’ll be backbefore you can miss me,” he whispers, but Myron and I share a look that makes me wish I could speak all things that have been accumulating in my heart. I will before it is too late. It’s a promise to myself.

Recienne lets go of Sanja with as much reluctance as I feel when turning my gaze away from Myron, and starts back to us, offering a hand to each of us. “Time to steal a magical weapon.” A dark wind rushes through the room, winding around my wrist and dragging my palm into his. His fingers snap around mine, and he grins down at me as the world falls away.

The room is stuffy and dusty and entirely too small for the number of people squeezing into the tight space—clay walls lined with bookshelves to one side, three doors to the other, the front and back of the cabin features a row of three bunk beds each. The windows are small and high up, the roof high enough so not even the tall Crow males need to stoop. That’s an advantage, even when it feels like we were shoved into a broom closet. A leather jacket pushes into my shoulder, and someone is standing on my foot.

So much for us all site-hopping together.

“Ayna!” Andraya’s voice flies to my ears like a breath of fresh air. “Guardians above. I didn’t believe them when they said you were coming.”

I shove Tori off my boot and stumble out of the ball of people gathered at the center of the room to find Andrayastanding in the door to the far left, a big smile on her brown face. She’s wearing leather pants and a plain blue cotton blouse that reaches high up to her neck. Her grizzled braid is pinned to the top of her head leaving free the view of her human ears and the slender, golden earrings dangling there.

“Come here.” She steps over the threshold, meeting me halfway in a tight embrace while the rest of the Crows and fairies untangle and form an awkward crooked circle around the room. “It’s so good to see you alive and well.”

“And you.” I squeeze the lady back, satisfied when she doesn’t show any signs of harm or pain. “Where is Pouly?”

Andraya pulls back, waving us along with her into the next room. We file into a kitchen roughly the same size as the bedroom with a long table at the center. “Sit down. Pouly will be here shortly. He’s just making sure everything is prepared. We’ve been spending most of the past weeks here, manning this hideout while other rebels ran errands to gather information on the state of Erina’s warfare and Tavras’s armies.” She walks to the basin in the corner, picking up the bucket before it on the floor with a groan. “That thing is heavy. I miss the running water from the palace. You wouldn’t believe how fiercely Erina has been combing this realm for missing palace guards. Pouly couldn’t leave the house for weeks. It’s all dying down, though, now the king is shifting his troops.”

Either she is oblivious to the eight Crows and fairies with pointed ears now sitting at her table, or she’s ignoring them. It’s only when Myron gets up to help her with the bucket that she acknowledges him. “Thank you, dear. It’s alwaysgood to have young men around who don’t shy away from hard work.”

Royad snickers, and I can’t help but stare at the boyish gesture. “He’s about a millennium older than you, Lady Andraya,” he informs the woman, who raises a brow at Myron, unimpressed. “Well, I’m glad you don’t look the part.”

She gestures for him to put the bucket down on the table before fetching glasses from a cupboard and placing them next to it and, with the ladle attached to the handle by a string, starts filling them up.

When I realize she’s getting us something to drink, I snatch the ladle from her hand with an apologetic smile and set it back into the bucket, already drawing on my water magic to help her.

Andraya’s eyes are as wide as saucers. “When did you learn how to do that?”

It’s not exactly a secret I have magic, but we’re no longer in the fairylands where magic is as common as the pointed ears my travel companions feature; plus, she’s never seen me wield that sort of magic before. Only the silver explosion when we were fleeing with the carriage and Myron found us in the middle of the night.

“It’s a useful little power,” Kaira says with a smile, reminding Andraya she’s still there. I’m pretty sure they already exchanged greetings before Recienne site-hopped Myron and me in and disappeared into a puff of dark wind again. “If you need anything frozen, Clio can help as well.”

The Fairy Princess shoots her a warning look, but Kaira brushes it off. “If you need someone to annoy the crap outof your enemies, I can offer Herinor and Silas. They are a Guardians-given nightmare.” She laughs at her own joke, earning anare-you-seriousexpression from Herinor and one of slight amusement from Silas, who sits across from Tata, forearms braced on the edge of the worn table, looking, like the rest of the Crows and Tori, too big for the furniture.

The warrior female, however, seems at ease in the human home. Who knows what conversations they already led the last time Clio sent her here?

Andraya glances between the two warriors Kaira gestured at, mild discomfort showing on her features even when Herinor is giving her a relatively harmless glance for his standards. “Is that so? I might borrow you to shut Pouly up every now and then.”

She ushers Myron and me over, waiting for us to sit before she sits down at the edge of one of the long benches, right next to Kaira. “It’s an honor to have all of you here.” She means it, even when she isn’t curtseying or bowing to the accumulation of royalty and high-ranking courtiers in this room, and no one calls her out for it. “When Clio visited last, she told me there would be a bigger delegation coming soon, but to see all of you again is just a delight.”

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