Torvin shifted, bowing his head. “I was wrong about her. I won’t be again.”
Others nodded, grumbling their agreement.
Kairos studied them, unreadable behind the shadows of his helm. Lightning cracked overhead, casting him in a bloody hue, and when it faded, he spoke in a low voice.
“If you ride with me, you protect her before me.”
A ripple of tension passed through the group.
“You put her on the mairen before me,” he growled, each word an iron spike driven through stone. “You shield her body with your own.”
Gods, what is he doing?
A twitch pulled at Torvin’s jaw. Barra swallowed hard.
Kairos stepped forward. “And if a choice comes between my life and hers…you choose hers.”
My throat closed, and suddenly I couldn’t breathe right. This male who’d held me through nightmares was standing in front of his warriors and telling them to let him die. For me.
I opened my mouth to argue, but Uther caught my eye. A small shake of his head.Don’t.
The warriors exchanged glances.
Torvin’s brow furrowed. “My king?—”
“This is not a request.”
The warriors were motionless, the stormlight bleeding over their armor. These were fae who had followed Kairos through the centuries, across battlefields and betrayals.
Barra dropped to one knee, fist pressed to her chest. “I swear it.”
Torvin stared at Kairos, then he knelt beside Barra. “I swear it.”
One by one, the others went down—seven dark shapes kneeling in the red light, the wind tugging at their cloaks as they bent their heads.
My vision blurred, and I blinked.
“Rise,” Kairos said.
They rose.
Kairos’s gaze found mine, and warmth settled in me like an ember. I didn’t know what I saw in his eyes. I only knew I couldn’t look away.
Then we rode north.
Dusk bled into darkness as Kairos sat tall on his mairen, and I clung to the saddle horn. Uther and Elwen flanked us, and behind them were the warriors.
The deal pulsed beneath my ribs, a merciless, ticking countdown. The pain had dulled, at least.
“I still don't like this,” I said quietly. “A handful of us against an entire city?”
“The moment Vaeris sees a battalion marching north, he’ll mobilize everything he has. We’d be dragged into skirmishes for days while he sits in his palace.” Kairos glanced at the bleeding sky. “A small group moves fast and quiet.”
The landscape changed. Fields gave way to flooded lowlands, rows of barley lying broken in the mud like bodies. Water rose past the mairens’ hooves, cold and dark,slowing our pace. The trees grew sparser—bent at unnatural angles, branches stripped bare, reaching toward the sky. Then we crested a ridge, and my heart dropped.
A village. Or what was left of one.
Buildings torn apart like toys. Walls collapsed into rubble. Roofs ripped away to expose the bones of homes where families had eaten breakfast and lived ordinary lives that would never come back.
