Page 42 of Tarnished Crown

When I finished my biscuit, I looked around hopefully for another one, but they had all been taken. It wasn’t surprising, since there was a horde of hungry soldiers, and food was hard to come by.

I barely had a moment to be disappointed at the end of the biscuits when a plate slid into my field of vision. Evander’s plate, with one warm, buttery biscuit sitting perfectly intact on it.

He didn’t meet my eyes, didn’t even turn his head as he walked by, but I took the biscuit for what it was.

A truce. For now.

CHAPTER31

For the first time since he had taken me, Evander insisted we share a horse on the way to the negotiations. Then subsequently spent the next few hours complaining about it.

“Your cursed hair is in my face again.”

“That means it’s marking you as a victim. Beware.”

With an irritable huff, he tucked the wayward strands back under my hood.

“You wouldn’t have to worry about this if you hadn’t insisted we share a horse.” I was uncomfortably aware of every point of contact between us.

Though it was warmer this way, I would have preferred the distance. Still, at least we were back to some version of our usual level of animosity rather than the outright hostility from last night.

“No,” he muttered. “I just would have had to worry about Elk taking you the second we got there.”

“And the reason you took my sword after promising to arm me on this trip?” I asked, still bitter that he made me leave it behind.

“I can’t very well have my prisoner showing up to negotiations armed.” Evander tsked.

There was no more talking as we drew closer. But I didn’t care, I could barely keep my seat on the horse as we approached, straining up in the saddle to try to see further. Evander groaned and tensed behind me, but I ignored him.

It was difficult to see the camp through the trees, but tendrils of smoke wafting through the air told me we were close.

A thrill ran through me when I made out the first tent, a large swath of fabric suspended between the trees.

A little further and I could make out several smaller tents, hung in a similar fashion. Then the sound of voices reached us, and I already recognized at least one of them.

As we neared, achingly familiar figures emerged from the larger tent, and my heart leapt to my throat. The horse hadn’t even pulled to a stop when I went to catapult off of it, but Evander stopped me with a solid arm.

“Wait,” he growled in my ear, keeping his arm firmly clamped around me while nodding toward Dmitriy and Taras.

They dismounted, going to exchange words I couldn’t hear with the other guards before disappearing into the main tent. My gaze flitted from Davin, whose face was carefully blank, though his fists were clenched, and Theo, who stared with open hostility at Evander’s arm.

After an eternity, the guards emerged once more, giving Evander a nod.

When he finally gave me the go ahead, I jumped off the horse, taking off at a sprint. Davin surged forward to meet me halfway, pulling me into an enormous hug and spinning me around. I threw my arms around him, barely cognizant of the people around us.

My cousin. My best friend. The closest thing I had to home on this side of the world. His black hair was longer than usual, and he had several days’ worth of beard, but he was still unmistakably one of my favorite people in the entire world.

I hadn’t even let myself dwell on the possibility that something had happened to him, but seeing him here, alive and well, made me realize that somewhere in the back of my mind I had doubted I ever would again.

Just when I wondered if I would lose my composure in front of a few dozen guards and Lord Arseling, Davin set me back on my feet.

“Well. It seems you’ve gotten yourself in quite the pickle this time, Row,” he joked.

I chuckled, but before I could respond, my gaze landed on Theo. He was standing only a few feet away, looking at me with an inscrutable expression in his hazel eyes.

He was even more perfect than I remembered, with his square jaw and broad shoulders and soft, kissable lips. I made a hesitant move toward him, and he closed the distance between us, wrapping his arms solidly around me.

Somehow, I had forgotten how warm and comforting Theo’s arms were. He enveloped me inside them like he could shield me from Evander, from this situation, from the entire world, and I greedily soaked it up.