Her eyes flicked up to meet mine. “They don’t trust me.”
“Some don’t,” I admitted. “Most do.”
“That’s not good enough.”
“They’ll follow when it matters.”
She studied me, like she could read the things I wasn’t saying. “And if they don’t?”
I hesitated. “Then I’ll make them.”
Her brow furrowed. “By force?”
“If necessary.”
“I don’t want that.”
“I don’t either,” I said quietly. “But I’ll do whatever it takes to get you out of here alive.”
Her jaw tightened. “It’s not about me.”
“It will never not be about you,” I said. “Not for me.”
Our gazes held. In her eyes, I saw it. A different future. One where we gave in to the moments we had left. Where we lived as long as possible for our own happiness. Our own hearts. Even if that time would be unbearably short.
It never would have been enough.
Even a thousand years would have been only the beginning of what I felt for her.
Maybe it was useless to try to pretend anything else. Maybe?—
Eirnan cleared his throat then.
I looked away.
“My men have their orders. We’ll be ready to move in the hour before sunrise.”
“Thank you,” Aurelia told him. “I know this can’t be an easy request to make. Once the army realizes what’s happening, they’ll send everything they have.”
“We’ll be gone before they can,” Eirnan said with more conviction than I knew any of us felt.
Aurelia looked at him like she wanted to believe it. Maybe she did.
With a nod, he left us alone again.
We sat together, both of us studying the map. Neither one talking about what we intended to do to the enemy camp drawn roughly before us. Or what might be done to us if we failed.
Eventually, the others quieted as soldiers found their bedrolls.
“If something happens to me,” Aurelia began.
“Then it will happen to me too,” I finished.
She didn’t argue. Only nodded and rose.
“Good night, Rydian.”
“Good night, Furious.”
