Page 89 of Obsidian Throne

We rode until well after nightfall before stopping at an unfamiliar inn where we stayed in a two-room suite on the top floor. It was different from the soldiers’ lodging Evander normally chose, but I wasn’t complaining because there was a sizable bathtub.

It was impossible to relax knowing that forces were marching toward my pregnant best friend and toward our estate, knowing that Iiro had found yet another way to make our lives miserable and our people pay for his unending quest for power.

But neither was I complaining about the opportunity to be truly clean after weeks in the tents, or truly warm.

And of course, there was the bonus of the added privacy, when we had been in a thin canvas tent surrounded by soldiers for longer than I cared to think about.

Once Evander and I were both clean, he didn’t wait for me to get dressed before he tugged me gently over to the bed, sitting down and pulling me in between his knees. That still just barely put us at eye level.

His kiss was slower than normal, deeper. Instead of the current that usually zapped through me, this one made a slow, gentle heat spread across every inch of my skin.

He took his time, running his hands over my body like he was memorizing the way I felt under his fingertips. It was slow and sensual and utterly terrifying, because for the first time, I realized how concerned he was about this upcoming assault.

I returned his touches with urgency, gliding my fingers through the short, silky strands of his hair, then down across his freshly shaven jaw. My fingers clutched his shoulders, pulling him more tightly against me, like I could keep him alive, keep us in this moment forever just by willing it so.

At least I was here, with him. At least he had kept his promise to remember that we were in this together.

That would be enough, even if everything else wasn’t.

CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO

EVANDER

It took everything I had to pry myself away from Rowan’s perfect, warm body.

But this was the only way.

I tucked the blankets in around her, keeping my arm around her shoulders until I could be sure she wouldn’t stir. Leaning in, I gave her a kiss on the forehead before I dressed silently and went to meet Korhonan in the hall.

She was a sound sleeper when she wasn’t having nightmares, but I knew she would wake soon after I left. That’s why I had waited until close to dawn. I had minutes, at best.

My lungs seized, my entire body rebelling at leaving her this way. Without a goodbye. Without explaining anything.

But I only barely found the strength to leave her at all. If she argued, I would cave.

Then she would die in the attack, or worse, by Iiro’s hands.

Korhonan was right where he said he would be. He looked troubled, but then, everything about this situation was a mess.

“Thank you for coming.” It might have been the nicest thing I had said to him in years.

It was impossible to feel any kind of ire toward the man who was saving Rowan’s life, at great risk to himself.

He nodded. “Of course.”

I checked down the hall to be sure we weren’t overheard, conscious that we had very little time.

“Tell me about the forces,” I said quietly.

So he did, giving me updated numbers and locations, each one twisting the knife deeper into my gut. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I had held on to hope that this wouldn’t be necessary.

That I could walk back into the room and climb into bed next to her and pretend that none of this ever happened.

But we would need a miracle to survive this, and I wouldn’t bank her life on that.

I thanked Korhonan again, then handed him one note for him and one that I had written Rowan while she was in the tub.

“The top one is for Rowan,” I told him. “When she wakes up.”