Back leaned against Kolibri’s shoulder, Kye gently took my hand, his thumb sweeping over my knuckles.
“He broke his legs,” Kye said softly, as though Sero had beenluckyto suffocate under the snow. “He wouldn’t have made it.”
Beside him, I turned into Kolibri’s neck. The mare’s hair lay soft under my cheek, her skin warm. Kolibri tucked her head behind my shoulder, ears twitching under the mass of my hair.
Kye opened his mouth to speak, but I gently interrupted him, not in the mood for comforting words.
“If anyone comes,I’llbe the one to fight them. Not you,” I said threateningly. “If you hearanything, mother moon so help me, you will wake me up.”
47
Kye
Kolibri sensed the gate before we did, the scent of people sending her ears flat and her tail swishing in a promise of violence I wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of.
It was an odd thing, soaking in relief and dread in the same moment.
Passing into Calder smoothed a balm over my nerves. To walk the mountain road without casting my eyes over my shoulder every few minutes…had it been months since the last time I’d felt safe from a surprise attack? But as the stone and iron walls of Winterlight steadily rose out of the trees ahead, a familiar tremor slowly erupted under my skin. A need to fidget. To move.
I hid it as well as I usually did. Wrapped my fingers around the hilt of my sword as I walked. Flexed a fist behind my back as Maren slowed to watch a raven straddle the stone crenellations ahead. Tapped the toe of my boot in slow silence when we stopped. We may have left the threat of harm behind us, but I had more than enough fucking reservations about the sanctuary ahead.
It shouldn’t have surprised Maren that soldiers immediately recognized me as we approached the first mountain checkpoint, but I think it did. After weeks of posing as vagrants and hiding in forests, we were suddenly cast from one person to another in an uproariously festive welcome. The women of the town clucked over Maren’s state of dress while soldiers cheerily taunted me for the Kravan pirate sword that hung from my back. Word spread that we’d entered through the gates.
The entire encampment manifested for the sake of seeing the pair of us. Villagers came from all corners to offer fresh clothes, hot meals, and their own homes to stay in. A melting pot of townspeople, miners, and soldiers, it was easy enough to look at someone and see where they fit. The citizens of Winterlight were modest, their clothes brightly clean. A stark contrast to the men who mined, who wore dirt and granite in the cracks of their skin, all the way from their knuckles to the crow’s feet of their eyes.
The soldiers were tan from training under the sun, the strands of their hair bleached gold. They saluted as we passed them, their eyes flicking to Maren with curiosity.
Had I been alone, I might have checked in with my general and then dropped into a soldier's cot under a tented roof and slept for days, but I brought Maren to the village inn instead. Guards followed us to our door, making me fucking fidget all the more, knowing every move we made would be recorded. Reported. Used against me.
It made me want to miss Kriska, the black-toothed bastard.
Inside our room, I set our things down for Maren on the bed. Her eyes hovered on me as I loomed in the open doorway, midnight irises locking me where I stood.
“I’ll order you a bath, if you want,” I said, gesturing to the only women’s bathing room down the hall.
“Where are you going?”
I threw a quick look over my shoulder at the guards just outside our open door. “I have to report to General Senan. He’s likely already heard of our arrival.”
“And then you’ll be back?”
I nodded, glancing about the room. Worn carpet lay under our feet, the wooden walls and ceiling painted white, the wide balcony door propped open. “Will you be alright?”Under all this wood?
Maren slid off the edge of the bed. She prowled to me, closing the short distance between us. I wondered if it occurred to her—the way she drifted, all hips, chest, shoulders, swaying with fucking hypnotic leisure whenever she moved. She gave a soft inhale, fixing the collar of my shirt, sending tingles down my skin.
“I’ll be fine,” she murmured. The sound of her voice so near to my mouth made me want to say fuck-all to the entire Calderian army, slam this door closed, heave her over my shoulder, and twist us both deep into sheets and furs. Maren began to float away, and my hand grasped the back of her head before I could stop it, turning her mouth back to mine and sinking into it. Aalto above, her kiss burned in the most fucking decadent way. It continued after we separated, still ablaze on my lips as I said, “Be back soon,” my voice dissolved into husk and gravel.
And it continued burning as I closed the door, climbed onto one of the inn’s horses and rode through town to the encampment, heat dancing in and out of my pores, warming me even under the chill ofScorreo. It wasn’t until I spotted the royal crest on the carriage outside the general’s tent that the simmer finally evaporated, abandoning me to the icy breath of cold dread.
Fuck.
I didn’t waste my time hoping it was only Hadrian.
At least the queen wouldn’t be with him. Gathering my trepidation and disguising it with calm assurance, I stepped through the tent flap.
Six pairs of eyes swung my way. Hadrian, Aren, General Senan, Thaan, his creepy little fucking assistant, and the King. Had it only been the first two, they would have greeted me with hard claps on the back and affectionate insults that attacked my intelligence and manhood alike.
Although maybe I was wrong about that. They both studied me with eyes misted and overbright, Hadrian’s Adam’s apple bobbing in silence. I felt them all freeze, and against my will, I met eyes with the man I hated most in the world. Though, Thaan served as a quick understudy.
