Please.
I sink against Jasce, allowing the moment to continue a little longer. Tomorrow, I can wake up and search for Mazaline.
ChapterTwenty-One
As I wakethe following morning, I stretch and turn to find the bed empty. A faint rustling on the other side of the room draws my attention to Jasce sitting on a chair near the fireplace. He keeps his shoulders stiff and his attention fixed on the flames.
I sit up, rubbing the sleep from my eyes. He shifts enough to observe me as I climb from the bed. I hastily don a cotehardie as Jasce looks away from me. A feeling of unease creeps up on me as I watch him, wondering what could be on his mind.
I walk across the room and stand behind him to see what he’s looking at. A small, intricately carved wooden box sits on the mantel.
“Jasce,” I say softly. “I need to go into the city again.”Then, I can look for Mazaline.
“We cannot go anywhere,” he says, his stare still trained on that wooden box.
Disappointment lances through me. “You said you would escort me wherever I need to go.”
He stands and rotates to face me. “That was before.”
“Before?” I lift my brow, waiting for his answer.
“Hakan has camped his army outside our city gates.”
Grandfather is here?
My feet tingle with the urge to dash to the window and peer outside, as if my mere gaze could conjure his presence.
I know Grandfather well. He won’t lower his banner to House of Crimson, not while his heart beats to be chieftain.
“There will be no truce.” The painful reality emerges from my numb lips.
A muscle twitches in Jasce’s jaw. “I’m aware.”
I hate death, the finality of it, the pain, the grief. My twin sisters went first. They were only babies when the runaway wagon they were sitting in veered off a cliff. My brother, Behton, was the last one to die. His passing ripped my heart out of my chest.
I force myself to focus on Jasce. “Your father—”
“—isn’t here,” he says, his tone abrupt, brisk.
I move to the nearby table and pour myself a goblet brimming with wine.
Asha’s voice scolds me as I raise the goblet to my lips.“You shouldn’t drink so early, Annora.”
I know.
Knots tighten in my stomach as I drink anyway, knowing I need the wine to face this moment.
“Will you lead the army against Hakan?” I ask after I consume enough to heat my throat and calm my thoughts.
Jasce nods.
I raise my hand to my mouth, a ragged breath escaping through my fingertips, as if the gesture itself could capture and dissipate my mounting frustration.
It cannot. Nothing can.
“Where is your father?” I ask after a moment.
“Engaged in a battle against the Bloodstone tribe.”
