Chapter 34

Mara's POV

Maeve examined me beside the carriage, her hands cold from the night air. She made me walk from one wheel to the other, turn without leaning on anything, and tell her the day and place. I answered Black Hollow and the wrong day. She examined my eyes again before allowing me to climb in.

“At the first sign of another fainting spell, you stop,” she said. “This is not a contest to see which of you can bleed more quietly.”

Ronan, already seated with his side braced against a rolled blanket, said he had not intended to enter a contest. Maeve looked at him until he added, “I will tell you if the dressing comes loose.”

Tamsin stayed behind. Soren was still under guard, and the fragments of Ronan's old seal needed watching in ca