All the heady warmth of the past few hours cooled to ice. I wanted to return to Hywel's nest, tuck myself against his scales. But Laszlo and Asterion and the others were waiting for Hywel to wake, and I wouldn't be able to sleep and dream calmly next to him when he went to war. "I don't want… I don't—" Laszlo walked forward. Unlike Asterion, he knew better than to read my flinches and winces and draw away from them. His arms unfolded and his hands cupped my shoulders, steadying me. "You will not be abandoned. You will not be left alone to defend yourself."
