Even now, he couldn't say it. But I could. “It means the curse is broken. It’ll happen.” My words carried quiet steel. “I’ll make sure of it. We will, together.”
Rolling me over, he buried his face in my neck, his breathing ragged. He tightened his arms around me like I was a precious thing.
“Together,” he vowed.
The room felt colder the moment he eased back and let go.
Reluctantly, I slid to the edge of the bed, the blankets tangling around my legs as I rose. His hand lingered on my arm, sliding down until his fingertips reached mine. Even that fleeting contact buzzed through me like fire. I turned, catching the way he watched me as if I might disappear if he blinked too long.
“Get up,” I said, aiming for lightness I did not feel. “We’re going to be late to our destiny.”
Lore propped himself up on one elbow, his hair a wild, dark halo around his face. The bruised shadows beneath his eyes hadn’t faded overnight, but his expression held something else now. Determination. And hope, tenuous and breakable, but still there. For the girl we spoke of. For us.
“Bossy this morning, aren't you, wife?” he drawled, but a smile still played across his lips. It softened his sharp edges enough to make something twist and throb in my chest.
“Don’t make me drag you out of bed,” I said, though the words came out soft.
“I wouldn’t try to stop you,” he said.
“You would,” I shot back, smirking as I reached for my clean leathers Moira had draped over the chair beside the bed. “You’d flip me on my back and cage me with your body.”
“That I would.”
As I dressed, the soft scrape of leather broke the fragile quiet between us. “You’re welcome to stay here,” I teased. “And dream about that little girl while I go find what we need to break this curse.”
My back was turned, but I could feel the shift in him, the way his mood dipped and then steadied again. “Reyla.” My name, wrapped in that low, gravelly voice, made me pause. “You really believe we’ll do this?”
I pulled my tunic over my head and as I fed my arms through the sleeves, I glanced over my shoulder. His silhouette in the dim morning light was a reminder of every battle he'd fought and every scar he’d once carried. His strength was undeniable, but his vulnerability, this terrifying crack he revealed only with me, was what made him real. It also made me love him all the more.
“I don’t only believe it, Lore.” I faced him fully now, the hem of my tunic brushing the tops of my thighs. “I know it. There’s no other option. Not for us.”
He nodded, drawing in a slow breath that seemed to still the storm churning behind his eyes.
“We fight,” he said, his voice steady.
“Side by side.”
I wanted to stay here forever, wrapped in the fragile hope that was more precious than any crown. But destiny wasn’t patient, and neither were the dangers waiting for us outside these walls.
He swung his legs over the side of the bed and rose in a single, fluid motion. Seeing him pull on his leathers was like watching a blade being sheathed—and equally dangerous. He buckled his belt with practiced ease. Even now, with barely more than a thread of light slipping through the window, Lore was beautiful in the way only something forged in fire could be.
“You’re staring, Wildfire.” His voice was a low rumble, his teasing edge back enough to curve my lips into a smile.
“You’re worth staring at,” I said simply. The honesty of it caught him, and the muscles in his jaw loosened.
“Careful, or I might start believing you mean it,” he said, strapping on his last dagger.
“You should.” I fastened the sheaths for my own throwing knives to my thighs and calves. We grabbed pack from the closet, me taking the one I'd brought with me from the fortress, placing my precious things in a box on a shelf. This pack had served me well for a very long time, and I sensed it could bring me luck.
I even tucked the velvet bag with the tiny blade and the diary in my pack. Rushing to the bed, I lifted the mattress.
NoEmber’s Shadow.
I pawed around beneath the mattress, but it wasn’t there. Not on the floor or anywhere around.
“What are you looking for?” he asked.
I explained about the book, and he helped me search the entire room, though we didn’t find it. Finally we both sighed.
