“If he had laid a hand on ye, I would not have rested till I had cut it off.”
Senga bit back a smile. “No need. I cut his hand myself when he tried to grab me.”
“Aye, lassie, ye always could take care of yerself,” Noah laughed, shaking his head.
Senga leaned forward, resting her forehead against his. She closed her eyes, letting out a shaky breath.
For a moment, they stayed like that, justbeingnear each other.
“Ye truly thought I was dead?” she whispered.
“Aye. Dead or gone. Either way, I would not have been able to exist in a world without ye. It seems foolish that I ever believed that I could.” He gave a bitter laugh. “That’s all my life has been since ye left. An empty existence. I am nobody.”
“That’s not true. Ye are not nobody, no more than I am. Ye are not nobody tome.”
Senga opened her eyes tentatively when Noah drew back and found him watching her, his deep brown eyes heavy with meaning. Heat blossomed in her chest. She lifted her hand, stroking her fingertips across his forehead, smoothing one eyebrow with the pad of her thumb.
“I would rather not be parted again, Noah,” she whispered. “I know that ye want to forget, I know that. But I do not want to be without ye. It’s been hard enough going through life without ye at my side. I knew, even from the beginning, that I would not be able to forget, and I haven’t.”
Noah swallowed hard, shifting so that he was kneeling in front of her. He lifted his own hands to cup her cheeks, his palms rough and warm and reassuring.
“Ye will never have to forget me again,” he told her, “because I never intend to leave ye again. I will never believe lies about ye. I will spend the rest of my life making up for the years we spent apart. If… If that’s what ye want, that is.”
She gave a tearful laugh. “That’s all I’ve ever wanted, Noah.”
Without giving him a chance to respond, she lunged forward, fitting her lips to his. She wrapped her arms tight around his broad shoulders and felt his hands go around her waist. She kissed him like she was drowning, and he lifted her off the chest and onto his lap, pressing her against him as if no closeness would ever be enough. His tongue traced the seam of her lips, and Senga gave a ragged gasp, half swallowed up in their kiss.
They were obliged to pull apart to breathe, and she squeezed her eyes closed, their foreheads resting together again.
“Ye will stay with me tonight, won’t ye?” she whispered, voice cracking.
“Aye, lass, this and every other night,” Noah responded, his voice deep and heavy with desire. “Aye, I will. Nothing would tear me away. Not after all this time wasted.”
“We have no need to waste more time, eh?” she remarked, smiling. “Not anymore.”
Chapter 10
The Dead Are Buried With The Past
Senga woke up half cold, half warm. She had fallen asleep curled against Noah, warm and safe, but her back must have been facing the side of her tent as she slept. Now, the bed was empty, and while she was curled around the warm part, a damp coldness crept through the side of the tent, chilling her back.
She shivered, tightening into a ball.
“Ye are awake, I see. I was about to wake ye. We are preparing to leave soon.”
She glanced up and found Noah crouched in the corner of the tent, washing his face from a bowl of chilly-looking water. He wore no shirt, and the water dripped down his bare chest, getting tangled in the dark curls of his chest hair.
“Leaving?” she echoed, trying to wipe sleep out of her eyes.
She felt moderately less tired than yesterday, but the damp cold seemed to be getting right into her bones.
“Aye. It’s not safe here. We’re going back to the Keep, and we’re taking the surviving villagers with us.” Noah explained, drying his face on a scrap of fabric. “We only have so many horses, and they’ll want to take rests, considering the state they are in. So, we need to leave early to account for that. Here isn’tsafe, as I said, and I want to spend the least amount of time on the road as possible. They’ve already begun taking down the tents and preparing to leave. We need to go as soon as possible.”
“I understand,” Senga nodded.
She climbed out of bed, biting back an exclamation on the bitter cold, and began to dress hastily. Last night seemed very far away, but of course Noah was right.
She felt moderately better once she was dressed and ready, her almost-silver hair brushed out and rebraided. Crawling out of the tent, she blinked in the early morning sunlight. The sun had just come up, and most of the tents were already taken down. Nobody seemed to have noticed that she emerged from Noah’s tent, but it was difficult not to feel self-conscious.
