Page 37 of Once the Skies Fade

“So are you,” Lieke said firmly, and I lifted my eyes to hers, surprised to find such sternness there. “You’d better come back.”

“Yes, Mother.” I tried to make it a joke, but the serious expression on Lieke’s face had me on edge.

“I mean it.” She folded her arms in front of her and looked more like Mrs. Bishop giving me a lecture than my friend’s wife bidding me farewell. Storm, now finished with her snack, began to sniff around Lieke’s pockets for more food. Lieke ignored her, though, holding my gaze.

Turning to face her, I mirrored her stance with my arms crossed. “I am slightly offended by your apparent lack of confidence in me.”

Lieke was shaking her head before I was done speaking. “You don’t know who—or what—you’ll face in these games, and I can’t watch Connor lose someone else.”

“You may not have a choice, Your Highness,” I said, and Lieke flinched. “The king’s health will only continue to decline,and someday, Connor will have to let him go. We have little control over when death takes us or those we love.”

“But you do have some control over whether you do stupid shit to get yourself killed,” she chided, and I pressed my lips together to stifle my laughter, but I couldn’t hide my amusement completely. She squared her jaw. “I mean it, Matthias. Don’t do anything stupid in these games.”

“I’ll try, but I can’t vouch for any of the other competitors. They might be complete imbeciles.”

“And what if you win?”

This time I did laugh but cut it short when she pinned me with another glare. “I won’t let it get that far.”

“I’m not joking.”

“I thought you wanted me to find love,” I said.

“Not like this.” She breathed deeply and released a long sigh, shaking her head once more. “Just do your best.”

I cocked my head at her. “I always do.”

Lieke opened her mouth, but Connor entered the stable then, drawing her attention away from me. He quickly placed a kiss to his wife’s temple before lifting his chin to me.

“You ready?”

Lifting my arms, I glanced down at the wrinkled shirt and mud-strewn pants I wore and peered up at my friend from beneath my brow. “Yes, this is how I plan to look when I arrive at the royal tournament.”

He looked me up and down and frowned. “You’re already running late. I told you I could manage handing off your duties to Tanner for you. Won’t do us any good if you don’t arrive in time,” he said, tossing a tightly bound bundle of cloth to me.

“And a lecture is sure to improve my timeliness,” I joked. Unwrapping the bundle, I stared down at the wooden-handled dagger. “Good thing your healers thought to keep this. And it’s still as potent as before?”

Connor nodded. “So they claim, though no one has risked touching it.”

Holding the blade, it was hard not to ponder for the millionth time all that had happened since Lieke had returned to the palace with two poisoned blades from her rebel family. How different things would be had she not been sent away, had she not slain that fae piece of shit, and had she not subsequently ended up engaged to my best friend. Even with all the trouble the rebels had caused—and the months I’d spent searching for them since—and with the difficult task set before me now, I couldn’t help but smile to myself as I wrapped the dagger back up, careful not to touch its still-poisoned blade. Moving across the stable, I tucked it into my saddlebag lying on the straw-covered floor.

“I don’t like it,” Lieke murmured.

“None of us do, Sapphire,” Connor reassured her as he wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close. “But Matthias is our best shot at learning the truth?—”

“So he can kill our friend,” she said icily.

“If she killed my brother, she was never a friend,” he explained as warmly as he could.

“Don’t worry, Lieke,” I said, shrugging. “If she’s guilty, I promise to kill her quickly.”

Connor groaned. Lieke scowled.

“Would you rather I make it hurt?” I asked with wide eyes. “It doesn’t seem necessary to me, but if it’s your?—”

“Stop.” Lieke ground out the word, and I sobered my expression but didn’t retreat from Lieke’s storming eyes.

“Trust me to handle this, Lieke,” I said. “I will go, compete, determine who killed him, and ensure whoever is responsible suffers for it.”

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