Page 254 of Onyx Cage: Volume II
“You should be the one who leads them into battle.” The words were like stones in my throat, each one heavier than the last.
Was I really sending my wife to lead an entire army through enemy territory to wage war against a tyrant when all I wanted was to protect her, to take her as far from Socair as possible until this was over?
Her eyes met mine with uncertainty, but pride shone through them as well.
“All right,” she said finally. “If you’re sure.”
Of course I wasn’t, but that was my selfishness speaking.
When I thought about everything she had said about choices, thought about what I knew she was capable of in this fight, and married that with what I already knew was the best possible plan, I was left with no other options.
“I’m sure,” I said, my voice betraying how little I wanted to go through with this. “After all, we’re in this together, right?”
She dipped her chin once, then she trailed her hands along my lapels, gripping them and pulling me down until my mouth was on hers.
I backed her against the desk, hungrily claiming her lips with my own. Lifting her hips, I set her down firmly on the desk, not caring that the motion scattered and bent the paperwork there. Not caring about anything but the literal force of nature that was my wife.
She would be all right. When this was over, she would still be safe, still here, still mine.
I told myself that over and over as I slid her gown up to her thighs, trailing my hands along her skin.
Each of her kisses was more fervent than the last, each one filled with all of the unspoken words between us.
All of them but goodbye, because this would not be the end for us.
I would make storms-damned sure of that.
CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED ELEVEN
In the two weeks since Rowan had left before me to sneak through the enemy’s territory with her men, I had wished more than once that I could return to the moment I had proposed the plan and choose silence instead.
But this was our best chance at winning, and I did trust her, even if I hated the necessity of being away from her.
Even if I wondered whether that last night we spent together would be the last time I ever held her in my arms.
There was no time to dwell on that now, though, surrounded by enemies as I pulled up to the Obsidian Palace.
I had less than three seconds to climb down from the carriage before the grating sound of Nils’s voice reached my ears. He didn’t bother with a greeting or false niceties.
Instead, he took the opportunity to vocalize his fury at my presence here, which wouldn’t have bothered me on its own. It was hardly equal to the hundreds of deaths I could pile at his feet.
But then he strung together the wordsLochlannianandwhore, belittling the woman who had quite literally blasted through his army and decimated his soldiers.
Insulting my wife.
Degrading her in front of a room full of dukes.
Red lined my vision, and I slowly turned to face him, ready to tear his traitorous head from his shoulders, when a different face appeared in my line of vision instead.
“Sir Arès,” I growled through a smile that was more a baring of my teeth.
“Sir Evander,” he returned with a dip of his head, just barely concealing the ire in his own eyes when he glanced at the sparkling black edifice before us.
He had lost men, too. Not to mention that Iiro had attacked the estate that housed his unborn grandchild.
“I thought we might head in together,” he said pointedly.
I arched an eyebrow, my eyes drifting toward the door where Nils had already retreated.