"No."
"Aria"
"No, Kael. I am not riding away while you die."
"Aria."
"You said it yourself. We fight beside each other. We die beside each other if it comes to that. I am not your last hope. I am your queen." The word felt strange in my mouth newer than the bond, heavier than I had any right to be carrying yet. I said it anyway. "If the slope falls, we both fall."
The silence in the courtyard was sudden and complete.
I had not realised that Vael and Tarn and Oryn were still close enough to hear us. They had all gone still. They had all been listening.
Kael looked at me for a long moment.
Then very quietly, almost too quietly to hear he said, "I will lose this argument with you for the rest of my life, won't I."
"Yes."
He breathed out.
"Then you will stay close to me on the slope
