Chapter 29

Five nodded. He turned away.

“No.” Now Tarquin was the one vehemently shaking his head. “No. No, no, no. You’re wrong. I didn’t lie about you being a shield.” He blinked. “Did you think I’d lied about that?”

Five hesitated, then nodded.

“Well, thanks for your tremendous faith in my integrity,” Tarquin snorted. “Of course you’re still a shield. That’s not why your mark started burning during the verification. Yes, I do know what I’m talking about,” he snapped at Five’s flat expression. “I meant everything I said. The problem wasn’t your shieldmark, it was that the magic couldn’t handle the dissonance of your shieldmark being real but not being part of the same body. I’m sorry,” he said, more quietly in the face of Five’s blank silence. “I had no idea it would do anything like that. If I’d known it was going to hurt you…” He swallowed. “I’m really glad you’re all right. I thought you were going to die, that it wouldn’t stop burning. I thought I’d killed you.”