Page 114 of Obsidian Throne

But Rowan, who had never bothered to live her life by anyone else’s rules, had seen what the rest of us hadn’t.

Though, in fairness, I wasn’t sure they would have even fought for me, at least, not as anything more than mercenaries. But if I had thought of it, if I had thought we had another chance, would things have been different?

I nearly slammed my fist into the wall in frustration. With myself. With Iiro. With Nils.

With every storms-blasted thing that led us here, to me standing outside my wife’s rooms wondering if she was going to speak to me today. If she was going to forgive me, ever.

I never would have left Rowan if I had believed we might actually survive this assault. But given the information I had, I would make the same choice every time.

There was no part of me that could have brought her back here to die when I had another option.

I just hoped she could understand that one day.

If there was one thing I knew about Rowan, though, it was that she didn’t take well to being pushed. I would have to wait her out, even if it killed me.

Even if I almost stopped breathing when she finally stepped into the hallway.

My gaze roamed over her face, from the guarded set of her eyes to the slight bow in the lips that I had missed more than I could stand to think about.

Yesterday, she had looked ethereal and deadly, wearing armor and spattered in blood.

But today, she just looked like...herself. Gorgeous and perfect andmine.

I flinched, realizing that the last part was far more tenuous than I wanted to admit.

CHAPTER SIXTY-SEVEN

ROWAN

When I was clean and fed and feeling almost like a human, I finally found the strength to step out into the hallway where I knew Evander was waiting.

Sure enough, there he stood, looking heartrendingly gorgeous with his pristine military coat and his freshly shaven face and his perfectly swept-back midnight hair.

Tension crackled in the air between us, thick and cloying and achingly familiar.

I sort of wanted to slap him again.

He opened his mouth to speak, but I cut him off. “I need to see to my men.”

He nodded once. “I’ll escort you to them.”

I was a little taken aback that he didn’t argue, but relieved, all the same. My shoulders dropped slightly, and I gestured for him to lead the way.

“Your men have been fed and the wounded tended to,” he told me in a neutral voice.

I glanced up at him in surprise. Not because my requests had been seen through, but because he had referred to them asmymen and had clearly overseen their care himself.

“Casualties are still being tallied,” he went on, ignoring my look. “But Andrei estimates you lost close to two hundred men.”

That was a staggering number. I squeezed my eyes shut.

“I would imagine it would have been far higher, had the fog not hidden their approach and the lightning distracted them.” Evander said the words casually, but it was evident he knew I had done those things.

And that he was offering me comfort.

Of course, he had alwaysseenme...until he chose not to.

I gave him a dip of my chin, and we walked the rest of the way down the stone halls without speaking. It wasn’t the comfortable silence I had come to enjoy with him. This one was weighted down with everything we weren’t saying.