“You need to tread lightly,” he said, voice hardened.
“It’s not enough.”
“It’s going to have to be enough for now.” Tuck stepped closer, lowering his chin to glare at me. “She knows the truth andshe’s not dead yet. There’s a reason. You need to ask yourself why.”
I met Tuck’s glare with an icy one of my own, refusing to be cowed. “You think I haven’t been asking myself that very question?”
Mid-argument, a flash of movement caught my eye. I turned to the windows overlooking the gardens. Minerva.
She’d been fucking avoiding me and here she was, speaking with fervor to Archer as Paesha and the mortal king listened in. I took a step toward the doors, but Tuck put a hand on my chest. “She won’t see you.”
“She needs to get over it. I went. I came back. No harm done.”
Tuck huffed. “She warned you. You didn’t listen. These are the consequences of your actions.”
“Did she tell you to say that?”
“She also told me to say no when you asked.”
Fucking Minerva.
“Go insert yourself in that conversation and report back.”
“That’s not going to be obvious at all,” he said, pushing open the door to the garden.
Prick. “Keep pretending like you weren’t curious,” I said before walking out.
“‘Letmy strength be your shield against the darkness, Paesha. You’re not alone. Fight back with me. Fight back and I’ll stand between you both and the dark.’ That’s what he said,” I told Tuck hours later, sitting in the barracks at the castle. “I don’t see how that makes him an Unmade.”
“You can’t possibly be this thick-headed,” he answered, wearing a path into the dirt floor. “You saw his face. He wasdrained. Fully. He had no power left. Aeris set him up. I bet Ezra was meant to show up there, but we did first. And I doubt she counted on Paesha’s attachment to Archer. Paesha saved them both. She stepped in where Ezra was meant to and Aeris hadn’t anticipated it.”
I stood, gripping his arm to keep him from pacing. “You’re making me dizzy. Be still.”
He took a solid breath, his wide shoulders falling as he scratched his beard. “You’re right. Sorry.”
“I get that he drained himself and spoke an oath, but you and Minnie are missing a big piece. You can’t simply create an Unmade. If it’s not Ezra’s power, it doesn’t work.”
His dark eyes met mine, gaze shifting between them as if he were holding a secret he held back to protect me. “When have you ever seen a Treeis bond without an Unmade Guardian?”
“It’s never happened.”
“Then can you see why Minerva has made her conclusion? Why I agree with her? You can’t possibly argue with the two of us, supported by your own power remembering those moments.”
“If a mortal drains their power while binding themselves toEzrathey become an Unmade Guardian. But?—”
“There’s no buts. Aeris set him up. Two more minutes and he would have been on the floor, Ezra would have showed up, they all would have begged for Archer to be saved and he would have taken him, refilling that void with his own power. That’s how it works and you know it. But with Quill and Paesha, who’s got more power than she knows what to do with right now, their power filled the absence of Archer’s. He was reborn as an Unmade right there. We fucking witnessed it. Hell, Thorne, the boy shot himself across the house and attacked you, even knowing who you are.”
I shook my head, turning my back on him. “He’s something else then. Something else that was able to make the Treeis bond.”
Tuck’s voice was quiet. Full of sorrow. “He’s an Unmade Guardian. He’s not bound to Ezra, he’s bound to Paesha and Quill, but that doesn’t change what he is. Minerva doesn’t get these things wrong and you know it.”
I did know. But fuck, I didn’t want to accept it. Because it just made for another puzzle. One my brother likely knew the answers to when we did not.
“This was the plan. Ezra’s fucking promise coming to fruition right in front of us,” I said solemnly. “And now we need to figure this out before he takes the throne.”
“There’s still time. It doesn’t look like he’s putting on the crown yet.”
I jerked around, hands at my side. “You look into her face and tell her we have to drag this out. I need the Fates to tell me how to help her. How to stop the voices. I don’t want time.”
