“Of course not, my lady.”
“Then everything is fine. We’re just here for the view.”
Manu’s guard reaches the top floor, and I hear him speaking just as I enter the room. I spot Manu instantly. He looks from the guard to me, black brows lifting in surprise. “Lady Rissa?”
“You have the better house,” I explain curtly as I look around.
We’re in a solar tower room, with a few chairs gathered around a dark fireplace. Against one of the walls, there’s glass littered around an overturned bookshelf and broken bar cart.But there are no dead bodies and it’s not burnt down, which is more than I can say for most of the other houses in the city.
I can feel all three men staring at me as I head for the window where Manu is standing. I stop in front of it and look out. “Much better,” I say, because now, I have a full view of the castle and its walls.
And the battle raging in front of it.
We’re still quite a distance away, but I can see people in the snow in front of the protective walls. I can tell the difference of who is who just by the colors. Fourth Kingdom is easy to spot in their black armor that shows up starkly against the snow, while the fae are blobs of gray.
There are far more gray blobs. We’re very clearly outnumbered.
I wring my hands again as worry starts peeling at me, leaving my heart in strips. I strain to see. To find him in the fray.
Where is he?
Manu is careful not to stand too close to me. Despite how cold it is here, he has the window open to see better, and ice has gathered along the windowpane. The only light we have comes from the patchy dawn that’s trying to sew itself into the sky. A deplorable hour, if you ask me. But now, I’m desperate for the muted light.
Osrik tried to explain the main points of their plans, but I have no mind for battles or strategies. All I heard was violence. All I could imagine was him running straight into danger.
If he gets himself killed, I willkillhim.
Then there’s another loud sound, and this time, I see it: timberwings dropping chunks of stone onto the fae who stand on Ranhold’s wall. In response, the fae are shooting some sort of magic into the sky that streaks across like dripping yolk.
It lands against one of the timberwings, and the winged beast screeches in pain as it starts to plummet. I flinch when it crashes to the ground in a spray of snow and doesn’t move again.
Alarm blares through my ears and I turn away from the window and start to pace.What if that was Osrik on that bird?
I’m going to be sick.
This room isn’t overly large, especially not with three men in it, but I walk the entire length of it from wall to wall like I can walk off some of this worry.
The ground shakes again with a distant rumble, and I think I hear another building crashing down.
I go still. “Manu, what’s happening?”
I don’t know anything about battles other than I’ve never wanted to be near one. Which just proves how vastly different my life has become.
If Osrik had tried to send me away from him, I would’ve released my temper in a way he hasn’t even seen yet—and he’s seen quite a bit.
Not that Iwantto be near an active battle, but I’d rather choose this than be separated from him.Thatwould be more dangerous. It would eat away at me, bite by bite. It would chew up my thoughts, consume every emotion. I’d dissolve into a puddle of anxiety that I wouldn’t be able to digest.
I don’t have the sort of strength it takes to wait.
Though I have to admit…being in the barracks during the battle at Cliffhelm and being here, listening and seeing it…it’s horrible.
And yet, I can’tnotbe here.
There is no good scenario. Either way, I do end up waiting. Either from afar or up close. At least up close, I can get back to Osrik faster. Whether it’s to throw my arms around him and feel that he’s okay…
Or be here where he dies.
Furious fear makes a tear drip from my eye at the thought.
