Indigo squinted at me. “What’re you thinking? Your mood turned very grave and finite just now, as if you’d just come to a doomed conclusion.”
Shaking my head, I scowled at him, irritated for about the millionth time over the fact that he could read my emotions.
“Nothing,” I muttered and glanced toward Melaina, dismissing him. “If this is the way we’re going to play it, then you might as well change us now. The road’s going to get busier the closer we get to the pass.”
“Whatever. Fine.” My aunt twirled her finger in a bored gesture, and the crawling sensation started as my transformation began.
“I will never get used to this,” Indigo grumbled from atop his unicorn/brown horse. I glanced over to see him become my cousin Qualmer, or at least an aged version of him from how I’d last seen him when I was twelve. She’d even put an eyepatch on him.
Recoiling in horror, I spun to gape at Melaina incredulously—who had finally disguised herself this time as well. “Really?”
She gave an unconcerned shrug. “What? He said he wanted to look like a Graykey.”
“What’s wrong with me?” Indigo spoke up in concern patting his face but unable to feel the change in his appearance. “What do I look like?” He looked down at his shackled hands, only to flip his forearm over and shake his head as he pulled the Graykey cursed mark closer to his face to inspect it. “So weird.”
I rode closer to Melaina so I could hiss, “What the hell? I told you Qualmer killed his parents.”
I couldn’t imagine anyone would want to go around, posing at their parents’ murderer.
Melaina notched her chin regally high. “So what? It’s what the High Clifter deserves.” Then she lifted her voice so Indigo could hear her. “Because I’m still miffed at him for outright telling Corandra Graykey, of all people, that we were looking for her amulets. Seriously…” She cast him a telling glare. “What were you thinking?”
“I was thinking she’d know where her own jewelry might be more than anyone would,” he countered.
“And you thought she’d just hand them over to us?”
“To save her own great-whatever-granddaughter from succumbing to a curse that had been plaguing her family line for centuries?” he shot back. “I don’t know! Maybe. You’re the one who told me all those generous, sympathetic legends about her, making me think she might actually have a selfless, caring bone in her body. What could it hurt to ask her about them?”
“It could hurt if she didn’t want us to have them and then went to her own powerful lengths to purposely keep them from us, now that she knows we actually do want them. God. You’re so stupid. Because that’s exactly what she told us she didn’t want! And how dare you let the stories I told you sway your mind about her, you idiot? I told you she was the one who wrote them all.” Shaking her head, she hissed, “Fool.”
But Indigo wasn’t done arguing his case. “She knew who we were. She knew where to find us. She knew my mark had discovered Quilla as my mate. And she was riding with a goddamn soothsayer. If she hadn’t already realized we were looking for the fucking amulets, she was going to find out eventually. Why not just go ahead and ask about them?”
“Are you two going to wrap this argument up soon?” I asked as the looming chasm between the mountains came into view. “Because it’s about time to put our acting skills to the test.”
Indigo—still looking like Qualmer—whipped his head up and cursed under his breath.
“And you’re calling me foolish,” he hissed to Melaina as he swept out a hand toward the canyon pass, “as we’re walking right up to our certain death here. Jesus. I’m telling you right now, taking Quilla through that canyon and right past all those guards is not wise.”
“We shall see,” was all Melaina answered in a prim voice.
Indigo edged his horse unicorn alongside mine. “You have all your daggers at the ready, right?”
“I’m prepared for whatever might happen,” I said without even glancing his way.
“Good. And just remember—size, strength, speed. None of that matters when going up against an opponent. All you have to be is smarter than them. You can overcome anyone by out-thinking them.”
I glanced his way. “Is that your strategy with me? Not trying any physical wooing, just mind games to sneak your way into my good graces in the hopes I’ll claim you as my mate in return?”
He grinned. “You’re not my opponent, and I don’t want to go to war with you, empress.” With a self-degrading laugh, he shook his head. “Besides, if I were trying to trick my way into your good graces, I’d probably only show you my better attributes and hide the rest. Think about that.”
I had. And I opened my mouth to accuse him of definitely only showing me his best points. Because, so far, I’d seen nothing about him that would draw a hard-limit no from me. Not even the fact that he was anti-Graykey. Hell, sometimes I was anti-Graykey. But he could also look past the stigma of the group as a whole and see each individual for their own attributes. And that was what mattered.
But he lifted his manacled hands, saying, “I’ve provided no illusions about myself. This is one hundred percent, unadulterated me. Warts and all. I’d rather you know the true me, the good and the bad, inside and out, so that when you do claim me as yours, it will be a decision made from your own mind, knowing exactly what you’ve gotten yourself into, with fully opened eyes.”
I didn’t have a disclaimer to that. I liked what he had to say too much. I liked how he respected my right to decide my heart for myself, even though the cocky part of him was sure I’d choose him, anyway. Except I didn’t want him to know that. He was already too confident.
So it was just as well that I wasn’t given a chance to respond since we’d just reached the canyon pass.
A handful of people had congregated in front of us, lining up to wait their turn for inspection and to pay their fees so they could enter the canyon. At the front, two uniformed soldiers stood guard, overseeing admission. Each traveler would expose their forearms, one of the men would splash water on them, looking for a mark, and then the traveler would toss their coin into a bucket and be on their way.
The process flowed seamlessly with everyone well accustomed to the process. Most didn’t even converse with the guards. When a party full of two wagons’ worth of people exited the canyon pass after having traveled through it from the other end, no one paid them any attention, as they would’ve been inspected for a mark when they’d entered.
I forced myself to breathe deeply through my nose as our turn to reach the front of the line approached. With a quick glance to my arm to make sure the knight’s armor was still covering my mark, I then checked on Melaina to ensure she still looked like a guard as well.
But no matter how I tried to calm myself, my heart just kept hammering out of control. We could die. In seconds. If the guards decided to throw that water on us, my mark would be exposed, and they’d attack.
My gaze caught on the spear one soldier was holding. Its pointed tip glinted brightly in the sunlight until I could almost feel the warmed heat from the steel blade penetrating my neck.