Page 110 of Obsidian Throne

Had she ever refused to speak to me? I thought back to our long line of arguments, everything from the first time we had danced to our more recent fight about the council room.

She always had something to say. Sometimes I had wished she didn’t, but this...this was infinitely worse.

I tried a couple more times before finally walking away. Going in her rooms when she asked me not to would only make things worse.

Still, a sick, sinking feeling twisted in my gut with each step I took further from her. But, considering what she had done, I knew she needed rest.

Hell, we all did.

There was no telling how long this reprieve would be.

Besides, I needed to see to my men. None of them had believed we would live to see the dawn, and against all odds, we had.

We had won.

Even if it didn’t feel that way right now.

CHAPTER SIXTY-FIVE

ROWAN

“Lemmikki,” Evander’s voice called through the door. “Talk to me.”

I deliberately did not think about how much I had missed that voice. How it tugged at every single part of me that had felt empty and broken since he left me in that inn.

Damn him for putting us both in this position.

And I didn’t want to talk to him.

Or, more accurately, I couldn’t.

What was I supposed to say?

Remember that time you said you wanted to share your life with me? Remember when you promised we were in this together? Remember when you handed me off like a piece of property to my former betrothed without bothering to consult me?

Taisiya helped me remove my armor while my thoughts raced.

While I tried not to let months of bloodshed and death and betrayal physically drive me to my knees.

Though, the fatigue was likely to do that. I had been exhausted before I even joined the battle, from the lightning bolt. From the marching and the effort it took to gather the men, from the not knowing what we would find when we even reached the castle.

Then I had fought for hours.

Then I had seen Evander.

His voice came through the door again, with a more insistent knock this time.

“Lemmikki.”

I hated that word.

Ilovedthat word.

It would be so, so easy to open the door. To let him come in and put his perfect lips against mine and disappear into a place where none of this mattered.

But what happened the next time he thought he knew best?

The next time I was in danger?