Like before, they’re full of longing. Sorrow. Regret.
Want. Need.
“Jax,” he says softly. “Please.”
Ah, he’s going to break my heart. I yield to his grip and sigh. “As always, I know what you’re sworn to do. I just . . . ?didn’t expect you to have to do it immediately.” I scowl and glance away. “I don’t know how anyone here believes in fate when it only seems to offer misery.”
“Fate brought me to your forge.”
I snort. “Well, it brought Alek, too.”
He sighs and moves to let me go, but I lift a hand and let my fingers rest over his. It’s tentative, and a part of me expects him to pull away.
But he waits. It’s always startling to consider that he has the skill and strength to fend off an army, but a gentle touch has the power to hold him still.
I brush a thumb across his knuckles because I can’t help it. I’m gratified to hearhisbreath catch.
But heisthe King’s Courier and Iamjust a blacksmith, and despite everything else, there’s still a distance between us that won’t be solved on this pathway.
As if to prove the point, I let go—and so does he. I swallow.
For a moment, we stand in the sunlight, and regret fills the air between us. I think I could ask him to return me to Briarlock right this instant, and he’d do it.
A part of me wants to. But there’s nothing there for me. Not anymore.
And our positions would be no different. He’d still be putting himself at risk, working in service to the king. I’d still be longing and lonely and waiting, just somewhere else.
I turn back to the path and start walking, because one of us has to.
“How does your expression go?” I say. “Fate has already drawn a path beyond this moment, right? So we have to follow it through.”
Tycho’s eyes light with surprise, but then he gives me a rueful look. “Did Grey say that to you? He says it all the time.”
“Yes.” He said it in battle, when we faced dozens of armed Truth-bringers and everything seemed bleak and hopeless.
“You don’t believe in fate, Jax.”
“I don’t know what I believe,” I say honestly. “But he was right.”
Tycho glances over, and he nods. “As you say.” His fingers brush against mine again, then drop away. “Let’s follow it through.”
CHAPTER 8
TYCHO
Every time I’m with Jax, it seems destined to end too quickly. I thought we would have weeks to move past this weird distance that’s formed between us—and now it’s a matter of hours.
After a week on the road with the soldiers, seeing him with shining hair in the sunlight nearly made me forget my own name. When he touched my hand, I had half a mind to tell Rhen to get on his own horse if he wanted to send a message to Grey so badly.
But of course I won’t.
Jax is right about fate, though. All we can do is follow this through.
I’m determined to show him everything I can, so I start by leading him to the cool dimness of the stables between the army barracks and the Shield House. Mercy is kept in the royal stable beside the castle, so I’m not as familiar with this one, which mostly shelters horses reserved for the army. We’re nearing the dinner hour, so the aisles and courtyards are busy with soldiers coming off patrol. Anyone we traveled with is off duty now, so no one here looks familiar, but the sight of their gold-and-red livery throws tension back into my spine.
I shove those worries away. There are too many others to focus on. Jax and I weave between people and horses until we get to the stall of an aged gray gelding.
“This,” I tell him, “is Teddy. His real name was Iron Hammer or something like that, but he hasn’t seen battle in at least ten years, so you can honestly call him whatever you want. He’ll be yours until you’re ready for something more.”
