“I’m not saying it for your benefit. I’m saying it for mine.”
His eyebrows go up.
I shrug and refuse to elaborate. “Whyareyou here at such a late hour?”
The smile slips off his face. “I have been ordered to return to Emberfall.”
“In the middle of the night?”
He nods, then takes a sip of his own tea. “I should have crossed over the border by now. My safe house will be locked up until morning.”
I stare at him for a long moment. “So … what will you do?”
“I can ride through the night. Mercy won’t lead me wrong.” He pauses. “I won’t sleep on the road. I have messages from the king, and now that I have no rings, I have to be vigilant.”
He’ll leave again. I don’t expect it to hit me like an arrow, but it does.
But I study him across the table. He doesn’t look like he’s in any hurry to move.
“You could sleep here,” I offer. “Leave at daybreak.”
For an eternal moment, his eyes hold mine, the brown of the irises glittering gold in the candlelight. There are a thousand reasons he could refuse.Shouldrefuse, most likely.
Before he can, I rush on. “Surely that would be safer than traveling alone in the darkness. If nothing else, I wouldn’t have to worry about you galloping headlong into a tree.”
“You’d worry?”
Warmth crawls up my cheeks. “I’m sure you’d cross my mind at least once.”
He smiles. “Then I’d best do as you say.”
CHAPTER 37
CALLYN
So turn me in. We can hang beside each other, just like you wanted.
I’ve been hearing Jax’s voice in my thoughts all day.
All night, too. Nora is snoring across the hall, but I’ve been staring at the ceiling. I remember my conversation with Jax when I was begging him to re-create the seals.
If we’re committing treason,I said,we should know.
Now I’m the one holding messages, and I’m the one who doesn’t know. Alek showed me one innocent letter, but none of the others. The magistrate dragged Ellis out of here, but I’m still not sure what they caught him doing.
I’m so tired. My parents worked hard, and our lives weren’t necessarilyeasy, but … their relationship seemed like it was. Ourfamilyseemed like it was.
None of this is easy. None of this is fair.
In the midnight silence, the bakery doorbell chimes.
I sit straight up in bed. It wasn’t a full chime, as if the vibration startedand was immediately stopped by a hand on the steel. Such a short burst of sound that I could almost pretend it was my imagination.
But it wasn’t.
I slip out of bed carefully, my bare feet padding across the floor. I can see Nora in her bed from here, an arm flopped over the side, her mouth open and her hair splayed across her pillow. Sound asleep.
I hold my breath, my ears straining.
