Suddenly, we were all frozen. Gallix looked surprised. Behind him, Ronan clapped his hands gently, obviously impressed. And with Apex’s lips still so close to my ear that the humidity of his breath hung heavy in my hair, I thought I could almost feel him smile.
“Just like that?” I asked. I was surprised, impressed, and smiling a little myself.
“Just like—” Apex turned his head sharply. Suddenly, he stiffened and backed away from me.
I lowered the dagger, confused. “What’s wrong?”
I followed Apex’s gaze to the ridge just above us. There was a narrow pathway on it just before the trees turned the horizon a wild orange and green. On that pathway were two faces that I didn’t think either of us were happy to see again: Votan and Razael, sneering down at us. I didn’t know how long they’d been watching, but neither of them looked pleased.
“The Lunarians and the human. My, what an interesting scene we have stumbled upon.” Votan’s gray lips twisted into snarl as he spoke. “One might wonder what these four are doing out here, so far from the palace in the middle of the day.”
“Two might wonder, even,” Razael added. “And if word were to get out, more might wonder still.”
“We are practicing, of course.” Apex’s voice was level and clear. I was surprised by how easily he was able to compose himself. All I wanted to do was give Razael and Votan the finger. If I’d been alone, I probably would have, too. After all—I was still holding a knife.
“Practicing what, though?” Votan mused.
“It does not look like dancing.” Razael shook his head slowly. “Queen Lieja would not like it, I think, if she were to realize that the little human was learning how to better wield a knife.”
“Then perhaps it had best not get back to her.” Apex took the dagger from my hand so quickly that I didn’t realize that I wasn’t holding it anymore until I looked down and saw that it was no longer in my hand. “I take it that the two of you have heard by now the way that we specters have a knack for knowing everything?”
“Except for knowing better, it seems,” Razael said, and Votan let out a nasty little laugh.
“Fortunately, things are not always as they seem,” Apex countered. “For example, it would seem that two members of the queen’s harem would always share her bed at the end of the day—but you may find it of interest to learn that I know where you both really sleep at night.”
Their eyes grew wide in an instant. I didn’t think that Votan’s face could go any grayer, or Razael’s any paler, but somehow, they managed it.
“Watch yourself, specter,” Votan spat at us. Already, Razael was tugging at his arm, urging him back down the path the way they came. “You may have the queen’s favor now, but you will not for much longer. And as for your little human…you will not always be lurking in the shadows to save her. For someone who knows everything, you would do well not to forget that.”
12
Apex
“Did he mean it?” she asked me as I led her back to the room that night to change for Queen Lieja’s feast.
“Mean what?” It had been a dozen hours since our exchange with Razael and Votan. Hours of practice and training—in dancing, and in other arts as well. What part of that conversation was she still clinging to, I wondered? I was not worried about their threats, but for Atlanta, it could have been anything.
“That I couldn’t always count on you to be around to protect me.”
I laughed and patted her fingers where they curled around the crook of my arm. “He thinks he meant it, yes. But meaning something does not always make it true.”
“How so?”
I paused at the door and turned her to me. My hands found her shoulders and gripped them gently before giving them a squeeze.
“I will always be there to protect you,” I assured her. “No matter what happens or how dire the stakes, your life is more important than mine. You may not trust me, Atlanta, but you may trust in that.”
“Oh,” she said softly. “Well…okay.”
“Good.” I opened the door for her, then ushered her in. “Then go get changed. I assume you are ready to dance for Lieja tonight?”
“Ready as I’ve ever been,” she said with a roll of her eyes, and I wondered what that meant. That in her skill and gracefulness, she was ready to dance? Or that in the way she had always been ordered to do so, she was never truly ready at all?
That night at the feast, I was forced to take a place at Lieja’s side again. Thankfully, she was not entertaining Razael or Votan tonight. Instead, she petted and preened over a large, uncomfortable-looking Ophrut male, who appeared as unhappy about his place at the table as I was.
“I do hope our little human will behave herself this evening,” Lieja commented as she fed the Ophrut male a piece of fruit from her hand. “I will be most disappointed in you, Apex, if she does not.”
“You will not be disappointed, Your Highness,” I said with certainty. “In fact, I believe you will be most pleased at all of the progress Atlanta has made.”
“We shall see.” Lieja sipped her wine daintily. “We shall see.”
I was not worried about Atlanta in the least. After our knife training earlier that morning, she had spent all afternoon planning out the steps of her dance
