Chapter 36

Thursday came up gold and hot, the last Thursday in June. The first real day of summer. Nearly six months since a plane had set me down in Vaelmoor with a box of books and a writ of release.

I woke before dawn because Caspian wouldn’t let me go. Every time I tried to slide out from under his arm, he pulled me back, laughed into my hair, and called me cruel, and said the Seelies could wait, the Seelies had waited a hundred years for this treaty and could wait another hour.

“Your sister’s Seelie,” I said into his chest. “Is he coming with Lucien today?”

“Isadora’s letter says so. Carrying papers, I expect. They always are.” He laughed softly. “I’ll be very civil to him. I’ll only growl a little. You can watch me and make sure.”

“I’ll watch him,” I said.

He heard what I meant. He tipped my chin up and looked at me in the grey light, and he didn’t laugh at me.

“Good,” he said. “Watch him. And if anything about him is wrong, you tell me, and I’ll belie