“Days. A week, depending on how I used the power and whether I drained every last drop. Some make the mistake of trying to take more before they’re ready, or holding on for too long, and they either burn out their minds or just burn up altogether. Your shaking isn’t just from the river, you know. It’s your body’s way of telling you not to do that again.”

   “Because of the iron in our blood pushing against the magic?”

   “That’s how our enemies will sometimes try to fight against us if they don’t have magic—­iron everything.” He must have seen her brows rise, because he added, “I was captured once. While on a campaign in the east, in a kingdom that ­doesn’t exist anymore. They had me shackled head to toe in iron to keep me from choking the air out of their lungs.”

   She let out a low whistle. “Were you tortured?”

   “Two weeks on their tables before my men rescued me.” He unbuckled his vambrace and pushed back the sleeve of his right arm, revealing a thick, wicked scar curving around his forearm and elbow. “Cut me open bit by bit, then took the bones ­here and—”

   “I can see very well what happened, and know exactly how it’s done,” she said, stomach tightening. Not at the injury, but—­Sam. Sam had been strapped to a table, cut open and broken by one of the most sadistic killers she’d ever known.

   “Was it you,” Rowan said quietly, but not gently, “or someone ­else?”

   “I was too late. He didn’t survive.” Again silence fell, and she cursed herself for a fool for telling him. But then she said hoarsely, “Thank you for saving me.”

   A slight shrug, barely a movement at all. As if her gratitude were harder to endure than her hatred and reticence. “I am bound by an unbreakable blood oath to my Queen, so I had no choice but to ensure you didn’t die.” A bit of that earlier heaviness settled in her veins again. “But,” he went on, “I would not have left anyone to a fate at the hands of the skinwalkers.”

   “A warning would have been nice.”

   “I said they ­were on the loose—­weeks ago. But even if I’d warned you today, you would not have listened.”

   It was true. She shivered again, this time so violently that her body shifted back, a flash of light and pain. If she’d thought she was cold in her Fae body, it was nothing compared to the cold of being human again.

   “What was the trigger when you shifted earlier?” he asked, as if this moment were a reprieve from the real world, where the freezing storm and the surging river could muffle their words from the gods. She rubbed at her arms, desperate for any kind of warmth.

   “It was nothing.” His silence demanded information for ­information—­a fair trade. She sighed. “Let’s just say it was fear and necessity and impressively deep-­rooted survival instincts.”

   “You didn’t lose control immediately upon shifting. When you finally used your magic, your clothes didn’t burn; neither did your hair. And the daggers didn’t melt.” As if just now remembering that she still had them, he swiped them from her.

   He was right. The magic hadn’t swarmed her the moment she’d shifted, and even in the explosion that had spread out in every direction, she’d had enough control to preserve herself. Not a single hair had burned.

   “Why was it different this time?” he pressed.

   “Because I didn’t want you to die to save me,” she admitted.

   “Would you have shifted to save yourself ?”

   “Your opinion of me is pretty much identical to my own, so you know the answer.”

   He was quiet for long enough that she wondered if he was piecing the bits of her together. “You’re not leaving,” Rowan said at last, arms crossed. “I’m not letting you off double duty in the kitchens, but you’re not leaving.”

   “Why?”

   He unfastened his cloak. “Because I said so, that’s why.” And she might have told him it was the worst gods-­damned reason she had ever heard, and that he was an arrogant prick, had he not tossed her his cloak—­dry and warm. Then he dropped his jacket in her lap, too.

   When he turned to go back to the fortress, she followed him.

   23

   For the past week, not much had changed for Manon and the Blackbeaks. They still flew daily to master the wyverns, and still managed to avoid outright war in the mess hall twice a day. The Yellowlegs heir tried to rile Manon whenever she could, but Manon paid her no more attention than she would a gnat buzzing about her head.

   All that changed the day of the selection, when the heirs and their covens chose their mounts.

   With three covens plus three Matrons, there ­were forty-­two witches crowded around the training pit in the Northern Fang. Handlers rushed about below the viewing platform, readying themselves. The wyverns would be brought out one by one, and, using the bait beasts, would show off their qualities. Like the other witches, Manon had been sneaking by the cages every day. She still wanted Titus.

   Wanted was a mortal word. Titus was hers. And if it came down to it, she’d disembowel any witch who challenged her. She’d sharpened her nails this morning in anticipation of it. All of the Thirteen had.

   Claims would be settled in a civilized manner, however. The three Matrons would draw sticks if more than one claim was made on a mount. When it came to Titus, Manon knew precisely who would vie for him: Iskra and Petrah, the Yellowlegs and Blueblood heirs. She’d seen them both watching him with hungry eyes. Had Manon gotten her way, they would have fought for him in the sparring ring. She’d even suggested as much to her grandmother, but was told they didn’t need to quarrel amongst themselves any more than necessary. It would be luck of the draw.

   That didn’t sit well with Manon, who stood along the open edge of the platform, Asterin flanking her. Her edginess only sharpened as the heavy grate lifted at the back of the pit. The bait beast was already chained to the bloodstained wall, a broken, scarred wyvern, half the size of the bulls, his wings tucked in tight. From the platform, she could see that the venomous spikes in his tail had been sawn off to keep him from defending himself against the invaluable mounts.

   The bait beast lowered his head as the gate groaned open and the first wyvern was paraded in on tight chains held by very pale-­faced men. They darted back as soon as the beast was through, dodging that deadly tail, and the grate shut behind them.

   Manon loosed a breath. It ­wasn’t Titus, but one of the medium-­sized bulls.

   Three sentinels stepped forward to claim him, but the Blueblood Matron, Cresseida, held up a hand. “Let us see him in action first.”

   One of the men whistled sharply. The wyvern turned on the bait beast.