“Was an ox-brain,” I said softly.
Tears filled his eyes, and he gave me a small smile. “Yeah. An ox-brain.”
“Don’t do it again,” I said. “The dragons are furious?”
“Very.” He straightened, but his hand didn’t release mine. “I’m not sure any Seneschal in history has messed up as badly as I have. I should be banished from the Kyer. That’s what I deserve.”
“But the dragons know your remorse,” I guessed. Neither people nor dragons needed telepathy for that. They only needed to know Shamino, and once they did, they’d love him. “You haven’t been sleeping.”
He rubbed his eyes. “Enough about me and my stupidity. You haven’t eaten for days.”
At his words, my stomach rumbled. I tried to shift. “I’m not strong enough to sit.”
“I’ll help you.”
He pulled back the blankets, revealing that someone had put me in a nightgown. Judging by the intricate embroidery on the cuffs, Paige’s. He slid his arm behind my back and eased me into a sitting position. Then he climbed on the bed and rested me against his chest and shoulder. I trembled inside. If Tressa knew—but I was too weary to protest, and my body sank into his.
“Here.” He held a cup to my lips.
I drank, but I didn’t taste it. Shamino held me, just like he did in my dreams, but it couldn’t last. Tomorrow, I’d be stronger. Tomorrow, I’d be alone. And any day now, I’d get Merram’s permission to leave the Kyer.
I finished the broth and put leaving out of my mind. For now, I needed to warn Shamino about Tressa. I risked her wrath, but I couldn’t let him be a puppet all his life. “I need to talk to you about Tressa. Her magic—”
“Zoland told me.” His lips brushed my forehead as he spoke. “He and I are trying to come up with a way to untangle her from me. Until then, I’m going to keep my distance from you.”
My heart stopped. “You kissed her cheek, but you didn’t mean it?”
“Yes, it was an act. But this is real.”
Before I realized what was happening, Shamino had shifted and his lips were on mine. Warm, soft. I tensed, and he responded by tightening his arm around me.
“Don’t run away,” he whispered against my lips. Fingers tangled in my hair and the touch made me sigh.
“I… can’t…”
“You saved a baby dragon with a spell more powerful than anyone’s ever seen. If you can do the impossible, you can kiss me.”
He pulled me back into the kiss. This time I gave up.
I kissed him back.
Chapter Thirty-Three
*He kissed you and you kissed him and everything is perfect!* Mettalise danced around her cave, making rainbows shimmer against her scales.
“No, it’s the furthest thing from perfect.” I curled up on her most comfortable sofa. After another day of sleeping, the healers had sent me to my own bed. I’d hidden there for two days before finally getting the courage to tell my dragon what had happened. “If Tressa believes I took him from her, she’ll not only tell him I’m of mixed blood, she’ll tell all of Drageria.”
Mettalise stopped dancing. *Awkward.*
I leveled her a Look.
*Catastrophic. But you know what?* Mettalise snaked her head between two chairs to regard me with a midnight eye. *Tressa will always have power over you as long as you have a secret. Bet she loves the idea of keeping a blue at her beck and call.*
I hadn’t realized that. But. “You’re saying I should go to court and declare that I’m the bastard daughter of a noble and a lady’s maid?”
*That’s an idea, but I was thinking of starting with Shamino.*
Blessed rain, the thought made me ill. “It doesn’t change the impossibility of us.”
*Everything already has changed!* Mettalise exclaimed. *Shamino kissed you. He won’t stay with Tressa much longer. Tressa will tell, Adara. You need to act now.*
My heartbeat quickened at the memory of his lips against mine. I wanted it to happen again so very, very much. I didn’t see how it could… but Mettalise was right. I’d lied to him for too long. Hadn’t the First One told me to stop hiding?
“I suppose it’s best if he finds out from me. First One, I may be sick.”
*Vomit over the platform, brush your teeth, and go tell him.*
In the end, I obeyed my dragon.
Twenty minutes later at the Dragon Quarters, Byron told me that Shamino had gone to his rooms to get something. My nerves steadied a fraction. There was little chance of interruption in his living room. I went to his apartment, rang the bell. Fretted when he didn’t answer, thought about returning. Rang the bell again—three urgent tugs, because I didn’t want to be a jittery mess for days.
Shamino opened the door. His eyes widened. “This isn’t a good time.”
“Ineedtotalktoyou.” I swallowed and tried again. “I need to talk to you.”
Shamino glanced over his shoulder. “Really, this isn’t—”
“Please, I—I have to tell you—”
Tressa’s angry voice silenced us both. “Her! You bid me farewell and welcome her in the same breath?”
Shamino closed his eyes and took a step aside. Tressa strode toward us in beautiful fury, her full skirts swirling as if she rode a cloud of anger.
It wasn’t a good time. “I’ll go.”
“You don’t want to see his reaction?” Tressa asked before the Transportation spell began.
I froze. I couldn’t breathe. Mettalise buzzed in the back of my mind, but I couldn’t even manage telepathy. Every thought, every fear, focused on Tressa.
Shamino stepped toward her, deeper into his rooms. “Tressa, she has nothing to do with this. I told you, our agreement isn’t compatible with the Kyer.”
Tressa didn’t seem to hear him. Her smile was all for me. “Did you know, dear Shamino, that our Adara is not a Threepines after all?”
“No,” I mouthed to her.
“I do know,” Shamino said through clenched teeth. “She told me herself. She’s adopted. Her blood doesn’t matter to me.”
Tressa laughed so hard she had to put a hand on a chair to steady herself. “Adopted? That’s the story she told
