Page 82 of Obsidian Throne
My mouth dropped open, but he had already returned to issuing orders.
“Round the soldiers. We leave at dawn.”
And just like that, we were headed to war.
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
EVANDER
Ibraced myself for my cousin’s ire on top of the spectacular quagmire today had already been. Sure enough, he followed Rowan and me down the hall instead of going back to his own room.
“It’s my duty to lead the soldiers to war, Van.” His voice echoed off the cavernous walls.
I didn’t hesitate before responding. “You have a duty to your wife and your child as well.”
“Yes, and it’s to keep them safe,” he fired back, taking a few steps closer.
“Which you can do from here,” I reminded him.
He opened his mouth to argue again, and I held up a hand, effectively silencing him. “Depending on how this war goes, you may yet need to go charging into battle, Cousin. But that time isn’t now. And as your Duke, it is my prerogative to decide if and when you do.”
His features hardened.
“For what it’s worth,” I said in a softer tone. “I’m not doing this just to keep you out of the line of fire. You know as well as I do that one of us needs to go, and one of us needs to stay. Right now, it makes sense that the one of us who stays would be the one with the expectant wife.”
His lips parted, likely to form another argument, when Rowan chimed in beside me.
“Shall I tell Mila how hard you’re pushing to leave her right now?” She raised her eyebrows, her tone politely inquiring.
His mouth snapped shut.
“Ready the soldiers, then go back to your wife, Taras.” I sighed. “I’ll send word if anything changes.”
He clenched his jaw, but nodded, reaching out a hand to clap me on the shoulder.
“May the stars light your path and may the mountains tremble in your wake, Cousin.”
I nodded in response to the soldier’s farewell as he turned to leave. Heading to a warfront without Taras at my back wouldn’t have been my first choice, but there was no one I trusted more to care for the Clan in my absence.
When Rowan and I finally made it back to our rooms, we had barely shut the door before she finally asked what I knew she had been dying to know.
“You’re really not going to put up a fight about me coming?” Her tone was laced with suspicion.
I leveled a look at her. “Lemmikki, short of locking you in this room, do I have any real hope of stopping you?”
She didn’t hesitate. “No.”
“Then I’d rather you be with me than traipsing around Bear where I have no way of knowing if you’re safe.”Or alive.“Seven weeks of that was more than enough,” I added.
Besides, it wasn’t like we would be fighting on the front lines, either of us. My job was to command all of the troops, and I had to stay somewhere neutral to effectively do that.
For now, she was safest at my side. And if that changed...that was a battle I would fight if and when it occurred.
Rowan closed the distance between us, putting her hands on my face and guiding it until I was looking directly at her.
“What does this war realistically look like for us?” she asked.
I mentally surveyed the map we had just left, putting it together with what I knew of my own forces and Iiro’s mentality before responding.