I let out a startled squeak—half scandal, half delight. I knew the mood he was in.
And besides…I liked it.
“Oh, Emrys,” I murmured again, my voice soft enough to calm him, my cheek pressed against the cold steel of his armor. “I missed you.”
His arm tightened in a gentle squeeze around my middle—wordless proof that somewhere inside all that fury, he was still with me. With each step away from the throne room, his steel sabatons clashed on the stone like crashes of thunder. The great doors groaned open ahead of us with a flick of his magic.
Anwen waited behind. I clung tighter, so happy to be back in his arms, but equally dreading what would happen after we left this bubble of safety she’d created for us.
Once we were out in the courtyard, Emrys pointed his face away from me, and let his voice boom with magic, ringing out against stone and sky. “Two fresh horses or so help me I willburn your city to the ground!”
The echo hadn’t even faded before a young stable hand scrambled into view, leading two saddled horses. Anwen appeared behind us on the castle steps at the same time.
“Take them,” she called down. “And return them with your answer?”
Her sword belt was loose, scabbard empty. She must’ve abandoned it earlier, unwilling to provoke Emrys further. From her, that seemed like quite the concession.
Emrys offered her no response, only a harsh glare that cut through the following silence.
Still dangling over his shoulder, I tilted my head to meet her eyes. Not caring to disguise my long-suffering sigh, I said, “I’ll write back even if he doesn’t. Your entreaty will get an answer, Princess.”
One corner of her mouth twitched upward. “It may be enough for now that my court can see him leaving in peace after…everything. Thank you,truly, Lady Isca.”
She curtsied then, a deep, sincere gesture of appreciation that she allowed me to feel. She’d dropped her mental protections to show her respect, not for the prince who’d just threatened her gates, but for me.
I smiled back. I hoped I’d get to see her again. Princess Anwen was my opposite in so many ways, but I thought we could work well together if given the chance.
Then I was lifted again, weightless for a heartbeat before Emrys settled me onto one of the horses. He swung up behind me in a single fluid motion. I wasn’t dressed for riding. My ankles were awkwardly exposed, and I had to manage the mountain of fabric that was my skirts in front of me.
One of Emrys’s hands took hold of our mount’s reins, but the other never loosened from his sword hilt. A thread of magic attached the second horse’s reins to the back of our saddle. Without another word, he urged us forward. We left the empty castle courtyard through the first set of fortress gates, the second horse trailing behind.
The scene beyond was no less quiet, but twice as menacing. Dozens and dozens of armed and armored men lined the cobblestone pathway leading out of the city in a gauntlet of bodies. Emrys’s heartbeat was racing through the layers of steel between us. Mine was doing the same.
Once we stepped past the first gates, the tidal wave of the soldiers’ fear slammed into me. They were so tense, so filled with dread that it seeped through the defenses I’d erected around my mind against it. The terror and martial readiness of so many minds feeling exactly the same way all in one place overwhelmed me. My wobbly legs could barely keep me in the saddle.
Not a single one of the steel-plated fighters met my eyes as we passed row after row. Yet, their interest followed us with grim fascination so sharp it sliced through my back.
Emrys, in turn, was poised to tap into the immense well of power he carried with him everywhere at a moment’s notice. He was a crouching lion, ready to strike out at the first thing that moved too fast.
I would’ve fallen apart without his warm, reassuring presence. He’d keep me safe; the certainty of it was as clear as our path forward. Even through my inner turbulence, my fingers itched to reach back, to remind Emrys I was here. That he didn’t need to burn a kingdom to ashes for retribution, didn’t need to hurt anyone for us to return to Darreth safely.
Yet, despite being surrounded by men who should’ve been enemies, after what he’d likely done to get this far, Emrys managed to control his curse—without my magic. I was proud of him.
Finally, by a miracle born of Anwen’s command and Emrys’s control, we passed through Tir Gelida’s final set of gates without incident. We were both so tense that we didn’t speak until the city was nothing but a jaggedsilhouette against the brightening sky. The whole way, Emrys checked the road behind us over and over, like each shadow might sprout a battalion.
When we were beyond the hills outside the city, he dismounted and rifled through the second horse’s saddlebags.
“What did you find?” I asked.
His voice was rough, cracked with dehydration and fatigue. “Provisions and a tent.”
That caught me off guard. It was almost like Anwen had had our escape planned. I hoped I wasn’t being too trusting, but I had a good feeling about her—even if she was moody and had tried to intimidate me at every turn.
In that way, she was a lot like Emrys.
He pulled out bread and cheese, a skin of water, thrusting them toward me. “You trust her?”
“Enough to eat the food she packed,” I said, taking the offering. “Emrys, you look half-dead. Eat, drink while we travel.Please.”
