Emrys shoves me out of the way and looks down. “Imbecile.”
Bodin smothers his torch with shadow. “What has he done now?”
“See for yourself,” Emrys replies. “Our impulsive brother has robbed us of answers yet again.”
“He killed it,” Legion grumbles, shaking his head.
Emrys and Bodin lock eyes, something worrisome passing between them.
“We want it dead, don’t we?” I ask.
Emrys glares at me, his coppery eyes burning so intensely that I gasp and step back.
“Amateur,” he spits, his voice dripping with disdain. “Your naivety is as dangerous as it is irritating.”
Bodin growls, stepping between us. “Don’t speak to her like that.”
Emrys’s laugh is mirthless, sending chills down my spine. “Or what? Can’t you see what’s happening? How did it get in here?” He turns to me, his gaze accusing. “Did you invite it in? Are you so desperate for attention that you’d risk all our lives?”
“Why would I invite a Nightmare in?” I retort, my voice trembling despite my efforts to stay strong.
“It was me,” Bodin admits, his shoulders slumping. “I’m the one who dreamed without a web. I was out in the stables.”
Emrys sneers, his body coiled with tension. When his muscles harden, the black lines on his body seem to strangle him. He pauses, considering this new information. “None of that matters,” he finally says, his voice low and dangerous. “It was here in the flesh.”
“Why did Styx kill it?” Bodin asks, frowning. “He knows better than that.”
“See what I mean?” Emrys takes a menacing step toward me. “She’s infected our senses. It’s almost as if Styxwantedto sabotage our safety.”
“Or maybe he was just afraid!” I shout back, anger rising in my chest. “That thing got into our home. Don’t we have wards for this?”
“That was Fox’s job,” Bodin returns, another splash of self-disparagement crossing his face.
“Then we’ll find a way to train Styx with the knowledge,” Legion suggests, exhaustion slumping his frame. “At least it’s dead. Go deal with the corpse. If Styx ingested the blots, then . . .bring back what you can salvage. And where is that damn dragon?”
Emrys gives me a scathing look as he strides away toward the exit.
My plea halts him in his tracks. “I didn’t do anything wrong. You have to believe me.”
He opens his mouth and shuts it when Legion glares a warning at him.
“You, of all people, should see what’s happening,” Emrys snaps back at his leader, voice thick with resentment. “You have your memories. You should be able to smell the effect she has on us, on all of you. It lingers and wraps itself around your very being. It’s poison, slowly corrupting us all. ForNicevin’ssake, you almost fucked her in front of strangers at Sith’s establishment! What happened to your vow?”
Legion’s eyes flash with guilt as he glances at me. When he looks back at Emrys, his expression hardens. “I made a mistake. It won’t happen again.”
“What vow?” My heart races. If this is about me, I need to know. “Legion?”
“In a honeybee colony,” Varen mutters, his eyes unfocused, “when a foreign queen’s pheromones are introduced, it can cause chaos and aggression among the workers. The hive becomes unstable, vulnerable to outside threats.”
“Your rambling won’t help now,” Emrys snaps at him.
“It’s not rambling,” I retort, anger flaring. “Sometimes, he says things that make sense. He’s one of us.”
Emrys stares at me, then steps close enough that I feel the heat radiating from his body. I ache to move into him, to hug him and tell him it’s okay to be angry and hate. I’ve been there, and it’s a lonely, horribly empty place. But he’s not alone anymore. Whatever hatred he’s holding onto, we can weather it together.
But then his voice drops to a dangerous whisper, and my compassion flees. “You think you’re one of us?” he sneers. “You know nothing of what we are, what we’ve endured.”
I reach for him but barely brush his skin before he hisses and flinches away.