Page 22 of An Honored Vow

My scoff was silenced by the rush of wind as the faelight caught the current and we were launched toward the upper burls. “Rheih must not be happy.”

Gerarda didn’t answer. She just shook her head while holding onto the leaf with all her might.

I stepped off the faelight with ease. “I want Gwyn and Fyrel to join you on patrol.” I turned as Gerarda slid off the faelight like a cautious cat. I coughed to hide my grin. “Though perhaps we should separate them. Fyrel seems a bitdistracted.Maybe she should patrol with me.”

Gerarda chuckled and nodded. “I’ve noticed too.”

I walked into my burl, ignoring the piles of reports and discarded clothes I hadn’t had time to clean. I pulled on my weapons belt and froze.

My dagger was missing.

“What is it?” Gerarda asked when I spun around and started rifling through the sheets.

“My dagger”—I lifted up a pile of dirty clothes—“it’s not here.”

Gerarda crossed her arms. “If you keep your weapons in the same state as your chambers, this can’t be the first time you’ve misplaced it.”

“I don’tmisplacemy dagger.”

“I took it from you once, and you didn’t notice for an entire day.”

I shot her a look over my shoulder. “I also had a casket of wine in my belly when you took it—” I stopped mid-sentence as I spied a thin, green ribbon on the ground.

“Damn it.” I ran out the door and leaped from the bridge of tangled branches to the grove below. I held out my hand and brought a vine to it.

Elaran staggered out of the way as I landed. “If you wanted to wrestle, Keera, you should’ve just asked.” She shot me a demure smile from where I had rolled on the ground.

I ignored her. “Have you seen them?”

Elaran’s smile turned serious at once. “Who?” she asked, already pulling her curls back into her signature twist.

“Gwyn and Fyrel.”

Gerarda landed beside me.

“They said they were going to the training field—” Elaran’s words went silent in a flash of light. I flew across the city, my eyes darting through the groves looking for red hair or a long brown braid, but I saw neither.

I transformed at the top of the training field and ran inside the equipment room.

“They took two spears, a bow and quiver each, and seven blades between them,” I said when Gerarda and Elaran reached me. Igrabbed two blades from the wall along with a harness. I didn’t have time to go back to my burl.

The portals would be shifting in less than an hour.

“You’re sure they took it?” Gerarda asked, loading her own weapons.

Elaran grabbed blades too. “Who took what?”

Gerarda slipped a thin, long blade into the leather slit along her forearm. “Keera’s dagger.”

Elaran blinked once and then her mouth fell open. “It’s bloodbound.” She turned to Gerarda. “They couldn’t be that stupid?”

Gerarda shrugged. “I would have done anything as an initiate to prove myself.”

My worries came crashing down, squeezing my chest until I couldn’t breathe. Gerarda was right. Newly honed skills and untested confidence was a deadly combination.

The same combination that convinced me that Brenna and I alone could topple the Crown. The combination that had sent Gwyn and Fyrel north of the Burning Mountains to kill thewaateyshir.

I grabbed a vial ofwinvraberries from the supply closet and ran toward the portal. I did the math in my head; it was quicker to reach them through the portals than to fly, but we had to leave now.

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