I run across the desert, swearing at every little inveniehat has bey life. All the a I’ve been through has long since kicked sand in my boots, making every step an irritating reminder of my predit.

  “Stupid sand,” I growl, squinting when a breeze blows a gust up into my face as if ialiation. I cough up the grains and blink grit out of my eyes. “Stupid desert! Stupid, stupid prince.”

  [Sanity Level: 94%]

  “Stupid magic system!” I shout.

  The camp isn’t far ahead of me by now. The silhouette of the carrion cactus is framed against the purple night sky, glowing with stars and the twe moons. I mentally reach for the Crimson Aegis, drawing it out of my Iory. I’ll certainly be needing it if I’m going to fae of those killer cacti again.

  Killer cactus. That’s so much better than murder cactus. Should have thought of that sooner.

  The shield appears in front of me as I run, its magic immediately snatg at my arm and strapping itself is voice also instantly returns to my mind.

  Irritation explodes like a sunburst through my head. Finally! It was w when I would remove it from that horrid stasis again. Stop doing that! It deserves to be seen! Proudly dispyed! It is not some simple sheet of metal to be disposed of at the slightest invenie is the Crimson Aegis! The greatest of all shields! The most powerful—

  “Shut up,” I grumble, using my other arm to help support the shield and keep it fring in the sand as I run. At this moment, its size is really inve. “If you don’t stop pining, I’ll put you away again.”

  The shield is offended. pining! It doesn’t pin. pint is beh it. It merely is making its case for why it is undeserving of such disrespect. Its magnifice should be self-evident.

  I roll my eyes. This shield has an ego bigger than the Gulf of Mexico. But arguing with it is about like arguing with a brick wall. Besides, I don’t to talk, I just to fight.

  The fight is ongoing when I skid bato camp. Several small fires are scattered around the se, casting the area in the creepy unduting shadows of the giant cactus stalks. I have to squint against the spots htness, but I guess the humans here don’t have dark vision like me and to see. I’ll just have to deal.

  A cluster of soldiers are off to one side, scribbling something in the sand. One of them pys her hands over the markings, which light up e. A moment ter, a ball of fire appears in the air before her and uself at the cactus. It strikes one of the limbs, which bursts into sizzling fmes. The cactus swats at the group of soldiers in response, and as a vine crashes into the markings in the sand, the e light snuffs itself out.

  I follow the arrow in my interface, dodging soldiers and cactus limbs alike as I make a bee-lioward Quell. I ’t see him, but I’m beioward a tent at the back of the camp. They’re probably trying to get him and his brother out of the danger zone. Great, maybe they’ll resolve my Role Requirement for me.

  Dug ihe fp of a tent, I narrowly avoid losing my head as a sword swings toward my neck. I flinch back as it gs against my shield, whily saves my life because it already happeo be at head-level. Several people are shouting.

  “Wait wait wait!” That’s Quell.

  “Oh.” Darian lowers her sword. “Didn’t think we’d be seeing you again.”

  “Me her,” I admit. “I came back to help.”

  “See?” Quell says. “I khey weren’t part of this attack.”

  “Or they are, and are just very stupid,” stance remarks.

  “We don’t have time for this.” Darian lowers her sword. “Ear, Xamireb—get the princes out of here.” Thes her at me. “Guards, take this Moonfall soldier into custody.”

  “No, wait,” Quell cries. “They saved me—”

  “Now is not the time for your moral objes,” stance says, trying to talk over his brother.

  “—And I’m not going to leave when Liz is still out there!” Quell finishes.

  “There’s nothing you do to help find her anyway,” Darian says.

  “But—”

  I’m starting to see why everyone was yelling when I first stepped inside.

  “Captain, you get my brother out of here. That’s an order.” stas a hand on his hilt. “I’ll be fighting alongside my soldiers.”

  “I’m not useless, you know,” Quell objects. “Just because I ’t fight—”

  “This is a fight!” stanaps. “If I needed someone for calligraphy, I’d kno your door.”

  I rock bay heels. kward.

  “Now, if you would excuse me.” staalks forward, and I quickly scramble out of his way. His gre flickers over me for a moment, then he’s out the tent, the sound of a sword being uhed following his fading footsteps.

  The Aegis’s attention snaps after him. We should also be fighting! This is what it was made for! It feels pulled to the fight. If I want to protect the prihen the best way is to defeat that monster. It wants to fight. It o!

  Shut up, I think, gritting my teeth. I don’t wo disembodied voices in my head stantly distrag me.

  Darian huffs an irritated sigh. “Your parents’ orders still supersede his,” she tells Quell. “I will be returning to the flict. My soldiers will escort you to safer ground. After all this is through, we’ll revene and discuss what is to be done about Princess Felicity.”

  “I help protect him, too,” I quickly add before the soldiers pull away from the prind have my sanity drained once more. Iingly, my current Sanity stat is h at 94%, not going up or down. It will probably only recover when the prince is no longer in danger. But since I’m with him, proteg him, it’s also not decreasing. I guess that means I’m fulfilling my “Role.” Great.

  Daria me. “Absolutely not. You are to remain with my soldiers until you be properly questioned. As a potential Moonfall pnt—”

  “They’re not Moonfall,” Quell says. “We’ve already beehis! If they were trying to deflect suspi, don’t you think wearing the Moonfall sigil on their chest would be a rather bad way of going about it?” He straightens himself up, lifting his . “My parents’ order my supersede mine, but you’re still bound to obey if they’re not in flict, and I’m you to not detain this soldier.”

  Dariawitches. “We don’t have time for this.” Then she blows out an irritated breath and shakes her head. “Fine. Whatever. Don’t let either of them out of yht.” She says this st part to her soldiers, who I notice are the human and araoid who’d been esc me earlier. Theoo, leaves the tent to rejoin the fray.

  I look at Quell. He looks at me. The soldiers look unfortable.

  “You really came back to protect me?” he asks.

  “Didn’t have much of a choice,” I grumble.

  “e, we o leave,” the human soldier says. I think I heard Darian call him Ear. “We’ll head to a checkpoint north of camp.”

  “No way,” Quell says. “If I leave camp, Darian and stance won’t let me ba. They’ll use it as an excuse to ship me home. But I ’t leave. I o help find Liz.”

  “Prince Quell,” the araoid, Xamireb, speaks up, “the captain made it quite clear: There is nothing you do to help find Princess Felicity at this time.”

  “I look for her,” he ters. “She’ll have left a trail for us. I find her.”

  “That would be exceptionally dangerous,” Xamireb says.

  “I bloody well know how dangerous it is,” Quell snaps. “I was nearly abducted myself. Now if everyone could stop treating me like I’m made of part—”

  A thud nds hard somewhere just outside the tent. A vine crawls through the front fp, and I sm the Aegis down on top of it. Activating a brief Devour, the vine disies beh the shield.

  “Regardless of where you go,” I say, “I think we all better get out of here.”

  “Right,” Quell says, a little shaken. “Of course.”

  The guards look relieved, and the four of us beat a hasty retreat out the back of the tent.

  Xamireb leads the way, skittering smoothly around the outskirts of the camp, while Ear stays in the back, keeping a close wate. Unfortunately, that leaves me o the prince.

  “So what did you mean when you said you didn’t have much of a choice?” Quell asks.

  “Huh?” I’m distracted, watg for any cactus vines creeping in our dire.

  “You said you didn’t have much of a choice but to e back.” Quell drops his voice. “Does it have to do with that Role Requirement you mentioned? You said you were my Knight.”

  Damn, this guy has a good memory. I’d sort of hoped he’d fotten about everything I’d said before that demigod showed up.

  “Doesn’t matter,” I say shortly.

  “If it’s the Champion Zeyaelid you’re worried about, I don’t io turn you over to her,” he says. “Besides, it’s not like there’s a shrine for Lorata out here in the middle of the dunes, anyway. I couldn’t tact her if I wao.”

  I look at him skeptically. “You use shrio call up gods like a telephone?”

  “Like a what?” he asks.

  I just shake my head. “Never mind.”

  “Well, anyway. If you want to talk about it, I’m here,” he says.

  Gee, how sweet.

  He looks at me, and that hungry look returns to his eyes. “Because this strange magic you’ve hi souremely intriguing, and I must know everything about how it works.”

  Oh. Not sweet. Kinda weird.

  “All you o know is that you’re stuck with me,” I say. “At least until I figure this magic out.”

  “Fasating,” he whispers.

  It just figures I’d get stuck with the nerdy sibling. I gnce back at the fight, which the Aegis is still urgio join. In fact, strangely, I feel the pull the shield is talking about; a magic draw. I don’t remember feeling this in the previous fights. Strange.

  Captain Darian and Prince stance are locked in bat with the carrion cactus, hag its limbs away like a weed whacker. Now those two are some fighters. It’s a shame I didn’t get saddled to one of them. I wonder if either would be willing to teach me how to use a sword.

  The Aegis, previously distracted by the fight, catches these st thoughts and turns bae, aghast. A sword? What could I want with a sword when I have something so much mightier than that?!

  I sigh. I just want to be left aloh my thoughts for one freaking minute. Is that too much to ask?

  “Those mountains,” Xamireb says, pointing off to what I think is the north-east. “That’s where we’ll be heading. We should meet up with scouts around the halfoint—it might be around dawn by then, and we’ll have to find shelter among the rocks. But this time tomorrow we should be safely back within Duneshade territory.”

  Quell frowns in the dire of his kingdom. Instead of turning to the guard, however, he turns to me. “Yic means you have to follow me?”

  I grimace. Don’t see much point in lying, since I’ll have to stick around him anyway. The pattern will bee obvious enough once I’m begrudgingly following him across a desert. (Unless I kidnapped him and took him with me as I searched for álvaro. Given how sy he is, it wouldn’t even be hard. (Yes, I know what a terrible idea that would be, and no, I’m not that stupid.))

  “Proteore specifically,” I say. “I tell if you’re in danger.”

  “Amazing,” he breathes. “How does it determine what danger means? Are we in danger right now?”

  “Please, my prince,” Ear begs. “We o get going.”

  “This really doesn’t seem like the time to be figuring out my magic,” I agree.

  Quell smiles. It’s so weirdly out of pce, givehing I’ve been through tonight. In fact, in trast to the shouts of nearby soldiers and the shadows that dah eaew bst of fme, it’s dht eerie.

  “On the trary,” Quell says. “Now is the perfect time to deduce the meics of this iing magic of yours.” Theurns and runs toward the monster.

  I stand there for a moment in disbelief. Are. You. Fug. Kidding me? Is this guy for real? No one be this stupid.

  “Prince Quell!” Ear and Xamireb dash after him.

  The arrow in the er of my vision starts to blink urgently. [Role Requirement,] Echo warns.

  I stare up at the sky, pleading for a moment with the stars. Allowing myself one long, exasperated groan, I chase after the prince.