He remembered he hadn’t said anything to Celadon about Jade specifically, just that he wanted to leave Opal Night. “Yes.”
She watched him a moment, as if undergoing some inner debate. Abruptly she made a decision. “It’s probably Onyx who agreed to meet her. Come on.”
She led the way from the greeting hall and took the same passage that Rise had shown them when Moon had first arrived. As they passed the big opening into the central garden well, Moon heard voices and caught Jade’s scent just before they reached the queens’ greeting chamber.
The room was better lit than it had been that first night, glowing stones catching highlights in the carved images of the warriors and the queen arching across the ceiling. But all Moon could see was Jade, with Balm, seated across from Onyx and an array of Opal Night daughter queens and warriors.
Balm saw him first. At her startled intake of breath, everyone looked up.
Jade whipped around, then pushed to her feet. Her gaze went from Moon to Celadon, and her spines started to lift. Celadon’s started to lift in response.
It finally dawned on Moon why Chime and the other warriors had been so disturbed to see him with another queen. Exasperated, he said, “She’s my clutchmate.”
Jade’s spines froze. She looked from Celadon to Moon again, searching for that bloodline resemblance that only queens could see. The hard line of her jaw softened and her spines lowered. Celadon lowered her spines in response, with a tail twitch of amusement. She said, “I’m Celadon, daughter queen to Malachite of Opal Night.”
Jade said, “Jade, sister queen of Indigo Cloud.” Then she added, “I would like to speak to my consort in private.”
Onyx’s spines and tail twitched with irritation at the interruption. “He is no longer your consort.”
Jade’s lip curled, but before she could respond, Celadon said to Onyx, “And he’s not yours to order.” She glanced at Moon, then inclined her head to Jade. “Come to our consorts’ hall and you can speak to him there.”
Onyx lashed her tail but didn’t object.
Balm stood to accompany them, and gave Moon’s wrist a quick squeeze as she stepped past him. They followed the two queens through the empty passages, and Moon realized he had no idea what he was going to say to Jade, or what Jade was going to say to him.
“I’m surprised Onyx greeted you,” Celadon said to Jade. Moon was surprised, too. Jade had managed a bigger dent in Opal Night’s impenetrable surface than Tempest had, and in much less time. Celadon continued, “Onyx hasn’t wanted to involve herself in… this situation. She refused to greet the Emerald Twilight queen who brought Moon.”
“I think it was our flying boat,” Jade answered with a trace of wryness. “She was so curious, she had to ask about it.”
A few Arbora lurked in the passage, but the consorts’ hall itself was empty. Celadon told Moon, “I have to tell Malachite what we discovered in the city.” She glanced at Jade. “Don’t be long.”
Jade gave Celadon a nod and a noncommittal expression. Balm followed her out, and Moon found himself facing Jade. His heart pounded so hard he knew she could hear it.
Her expression was worried, the small blue scales above her brow furrowed with concern. “They said you were ill.”
He shook his head. “I just didn’t eat or sleep much for a while and it caught up with me.”
She lifted her brows. “Didn’t eat or sleep?”
“It was an accident.” He hoped that was the last time he had to explain that to anyone. “Stone said you were hurt, fighting a snatcher. Did your wing heal?”
“It’s fine now.” She shrugged the joint to demonstrate, but bit her lip as if holding back a wince.
“Let me see.”
She turned, and he stepped close to look, lifting her frills and flattened spines out of the way. The heavy joint that attached the folded weight of the wing to her back was lumpy instead of smooth and felt a little too warm, though the scales weren’t broken. She must have shifted back to her winged form too soon. He touched the lumpy spot carefully. “It’s still swollen along the bone here.”
Jade turned her head so he could see her profile. She was looking down, eyes hooded by the edge of the feathery protective membrane that substituted for eyelashes in the shifted form. “It was stupid. I let the thing get too close.”
Her voice sounded even, but he sensed the tension in her body, humming through her scales. He had missed Jade with his heart and every other part of him, but it hadn’t occurred to him that she might have missed him the same way. And if he stayed where he was a moment more, they might end up wrapped together on the floor, no matter what Celadon and his Arbora chaperones thought.
As attractive as that possibility sounded, he suspected it wouldn’t help the situation with Malachite any.
When Jade reached up to touch his hand, he dropped her frills and stepped back. “Were the hunters all right?” His voice came out mostly even.
Jade turned slowly, watching him. “Yes. Frightened, but hopefully they’ve learned to be more careful.” She looked down, still worried. “So… do you like your birthcourt?”
“No. Some of them. I don’t know.” He didn’t mean to say it, but the words came out anyway. “I didn’t think you were coming.”
Jade didn’t seem surprised by that revelation, or angry, or anything that he expected. She sighed, her expression turning unhappy and resigned. “I know. That’s why I was so anxious to get here. Before she died, Flower told me you didn’t really trust us yet, that you were just… playing along. She said every time we proved to you that you could trust us was important, but that it would take a long time to make a real difference. She said it might be turns before you really saw yourself as one of us.”
“I thought I was…” Moon had to stop and clear his throat. It was brutally hard to be honest about this. “I thought I’d gotten better at it.” He was starting to realize that maybe he didn’t actually know the difference between trusting people and just pretending to trust them while bracing for the betrayal.
Jade smiled a little. “I think you have.” She shook her frills, as if shaking off the uncomfortable subject. “We had a plan to steal you. I take it that’s not necessary?”
Moon’s jaw dropped. “To steal me?”
“Yes. Delin volunteered to help, so it involved sending the flying boat off in one direction to distract them. We meant for Stone to have a part in it too, but I wasn’t sure where he was or if he’d managed to see you.”
Moon couldn’t believe she was serious, except apparently she was. “It sounds complicated.”
“Well, I had several days to come up with it, sitting around on the boat. And Chime and Balm made a lot of suggestions. It may have gotten a little out of hand,” she admitted.
“Is that why you sent Stone on ahead?”
“No. I was afraid that if I was too late, you’d give up and leave.”
So she had seen that, too. Moon was torn between relief that he didn’t have to conceal it or find a way to tell her, and guilt for feeling it in the first place.
Watching his expression carefully, Jade nodded to herself. “I didn’t think another court would understand that you aren’t like an ordinary consort. You wouldn’t be afraid to just fly away on your own, leave the Reaches behind.” She settled her spines again. “In one way it was a relief. I knew they couldn’t treat you too badly, or you’d just leave. But if you did, I had no idea where you’d go, or how I’d find you.”
He took a deep breath. “I thought about it. But I didn’t want to give up, just yet.”