color of mud with an ample peppering of silver.
"Why not?" Atticus asked, ignoring me. "I confessed. I'd try again. Why not sentence me?"
"You never told me why—"
"Because I wanted to. I want to see that woman dead," Atticus said, without inflection.
"Do you really want to die without ever getting the chance to run again?" I asked.
That stirred life in the man. He didn't look much older than me. He might even have been younger, but there was a century of weariness in him, and every minute of it flinched at my question.
"What?"
I nodded to the window. "You miss it. More than that, you might as well already be dead without being back out there. Back in the fields, running, breathing again."
The fields were a guess, just a sense. He felt grounded, rather than flighty, and I'd never met a two-natured that belonged to the sea, although that might've been because I was in the north.
"Who are you?" Atticus asked, standing straighter, his hands fisting at his side.
"Owen Dunne. Princess Bryony's Chosen."
Atticus's head cocked, eyes narrowing as they flicked between me and Amos. "You're two-natured."
"No, but my friend Sam is," I said, and Atticus's eyes widened. "And I know how much it hurt him while he couldn't fly."
"Sam?" Atticus breathed. "Sam, you know—couldn't fly?"
I nodded and brightened. "My mistress healed him."
There was a scuffle at the doorway, and I wasn't the least bit surprised when Bryony entered the cell, Cress's arm around her waist as he half-heartedly tried to wrestle her back.
"Not without you and Aric I didn't," Bryony said, smiling at me.
Atticus stood straighter, movement sudden, and Amos was about to jump between us when the man bowed.
"Your Highness, I heard from your sister what you did for the two-natured. She raged over your defeat of the council. I didn't know about Sam too, but I am so…" Atticus stood again swallowing hard, losing the words of gratitude as his eyes dropped from Bryony to the floor again.
"Mr. Darby, did Camellia hurt you the way she hurt Sam?" Bryony asked softly.
"Your sister never knew about…" He glanced between the four of us and then back to Amos.
"I am here only in my capacity to protect Princess Bryony," Amos said. "Anything else that is said will be disregarded."
"Even my motivation?" Atticus asked, frowning.
"If that's what you wish."
Atticus stared a second longer at Amos and then let out a slow breath. He wasn't like Sam, I realized. His spirit hadn't been so broken. He held obvious respect for Bryony, which I felt was only natural, but it was clear he had some for the head guard as well.
"Your sister never knew about my second nature," he said to Bryony. "Sam was her favorite when he showed her, but I saw the way she looked at him. Like he was a toy to entertain her. And her appetites have always been perverse. I didn't want her to know that I was…"
"A horse," I said blinking at him, seeing that same shy nobility in him that I knew from my friends at the stables.
Bryony let out a small disgusted sound and shook her head. "I understand."
"So you've been stuck as a man for years," I said, studying Atticus for that look of mourning he'd had as he gazed out of the window.
"I'm used to hiding," he said, raising his chin slightly. "Your Highness, the honest truth was, I was safer than most in your sister's collection. She found me boring and often left me alone. When I attempted to kill her, I did so because I thought I would get away with it. Camellia mistreated the men of her Chosen, made us mistreat one another for her entertainment. She made no secret of the fact that she wanted the throne and would need you dead to get it. I didn't want Kimmery in her hands."
"Is it treason?" Cresswell asked Amos.
"It's not his fault!" I cried out.
"Not Atticus," Bryony said, slipping over to me and taking my arm. "He means is Camellia wanting me dead."
"It is, but not from a reliable witness, and it's not proof," Amos said, frowning.
"I've made peace with my decision, Your Highness. And my fate."
Bryony's lips pursed, and Atticus's head ducked as she stared back at him with all the authority and confidence of the queen I knew she would soon be. "Well I haven't. Please, if there's anything you can offer Head Guard Amos, any name of another Chosen who might be willing to speak with us, anywhere we might