Forbidden Honor (Dragon Royals #1)(108)

The bond between siblings was sacred. I’d do anything for Hanna.

I couldn’t stand the thought that I’d hurt them both.





Honor



After the mess I’d made of things as Honor, I tossed and turned all night. I was grateful to be Lucien in the morning.

The next day, I was leaving our afternoon training sessions, covered in sweat and exhausted, when I caught sight of Hanna running up the steps. Seeing her here was somehow surreal, as if she belonged to an entirely different world than my life with the dragons.

I started toward her, then realized that I was still Lucien. I couldn’t talk to her the way I was now. I swore as I raced to change, then again when I finally emerged and she was nowhere to be seen.

Hanna wouldn’t be coming here if it was good news. What had happened to her?

I rounded a corner into the courtyard, and there she was. She was talking to Caldren, and he had his arm around her shaking shoulders. When he looked up and saw me, he said lightly, “Well, you two have found each other.”

Then he was gone, disappearing into the crowd of students.

I glanced at her distraught face, then caught her elbow, and pulled her into an emptier space between two outbuildings.

“What’s going on?” I asked her. “Why did you come here?”

“I didn’t know if you’d be home again soon,” she said, “You’ve been gone so much lately.”

Guilt instantly curdled in my stomach. I was doing the best that I could. But the best that I could was clearly not good enough.

“Well, we’re together now. What is it? What’s going on?”

“I made a terrible mistake,” she said, and my heart dropped.

But I just smiled at her. “Well, I’ve made tons of those. Tell me about it. What’s going on?”

She chewed her lower lip. “I was thinking about what you said at the wedding. About Alis hurting Father.”

My heart was already sinking. “I shouldn’t have said anything about that. I was being stupid. I’m sorry. I don’t think she hurt Father.”

“Don’t lie to me.” She sounded exasperated. “You said it because you meant it. You do think she did it. And we both know that she’s capable of… anything. Anything to get what she wants.”

“Fine. Maybe. But that doesn’t mean I want you in any kind of danger, and that’s what would come from confronting her and Henrick. What did you do?”

“You remember how Alis keeps a diary?”

“Yes,” I said. “And I also remember that Alis—as much as I dislike her—isn’t stupid enough that she’d record a murder attempt in her diary.”

“She has it enchanted to protect it. And you never know, there might be something in there that would be helpful.”

I groaned. “Tell me you didn’t steal her diary.”

She shook her head, and I exhaled in relief before she went on. “I didn’t get her diary. I didn’t want her to realize what I was doing in her jewelry closet. So I pretended that I was trying to borrow a pair of her earrings. You know the emerald and diamond ones that I’ve always admired. The one shaped like waves.”

“That’s certainly something Alis would consider a sin, but it’s not nearly as bad as trying to take her diary.”

“Exactly.” Hanna’s face was taut, little lines along the corners of her eyes.

I hadn’t seen her so worried since she was a little girl visiting our father’s corpse, and protectiveness flared in my chest. “You’re scared?”

I’d have expected Hanna to deny it.

“I am.” Her voice came out in a whisper, and the fact she acknowledged it told me she was beyond terrified. “She said she’s going to let Henrick punish me.”

She chewed her lower lip, her gaze dropping to her toes as she hugged her chest. Softly, she said, “It’s going to be something far worse than being confined to my room or missing dinner.”

For a moment, I was silent. Part of me wanted to tell her she must be exaggerating her fears, and yet, even though I had no evidence Henrick and Alis had darker plans, I was sure they did. I couldn’t let him touch my little sister.

“Honor?”

I’d been silent too long, and there was a quaver in her voice.

“I’m going to come home and fix this,” I told her, even though I had no idea how at the moment. “We’ll work through it together. It’s going to be okay.”

She frowned. “How?”

I had the same question, but I had to be strong for my sister. “There’s always a way to fix things. Do you know when he’s going to do it?”

“No, they’re making me wait. They said he wanted time to plan something appropriate.”

“He’s not going to hurt you, I promise. I won’t let him.”

Her eyes filled with fragile hope.

“I just have to tell someone where I’m going, and then you and I will head back to the house together.”

“Maybe I should go back ahead of you,” she said softly. “They don’t know that I left my room. This way, they won’t get angry that I went to you if you just pretend you came home for dinner.”

The idea that I would come home for dinner seemed extremely unlikely, given how little love was lost between Alis and me at the moment. “I’ll come up with something.”