When his mouth releases mine, everything is so still and quiet. I’m captured, unable to move away, his breath a warm plea against my wet lips.
“Stay with me,” he whispers. “Just stay. We don’t have to do anything but sleep. I just need to feel you.”
There’s no hesitation in me as I unbuckle my sheath and let it drop on the floor. No reluctance as he begins unlacing my trousers while I tug off my tunic. In moments, I’m slipping beneath the sheet and curling against his chest, nothing between us save for skin.
Tears come then, the events of the night rushing through me. As ever, those crashing waves.
It’s a gentle weeping, and Alexus holds me tight through it all, kissing away my tears, tenderly wiping my cheeks. “I’m here,” he says. “I’m always here.”
But he almost wasn’t, and it seems that near loss has numbed the old bitterness and hatred the reversal of the rune reinvigorated.
When I stop crying, I give in to the drowsiness making every muscle in my body heavy, and as I drift, I swear my consciousness touches the edges of a dream not mine.
It’s his dream, of us, making love beneath a willow tree in a soft rain, the ruins of an ancient city in the distance.
54
NEPHELE
The next morning as I dress, Hel bursts into my room. “Time to go. The Dread Vipers are coming. Joran went to see if they would retaliate. There are droves of them searching the city, and they’re headed this way.”
She’s gone before I get a chance to ask how we’re supposed to leave. On foot, I imagine.
When I get downstairs, Raina and Alexus are there. I give him the hug I couldn’t share last night, then they guide me to the rear of the inn. We step out into the pink light of early dawn into a dirty alleyway where everyone else and five horses await.
Five.
“It’s all I could manage,” Orlena says to Alexus, though I spot swords on each animal, which is a blessed feat. “There are bedrolls and meager supplies in your rucksacks,” she continues. “The food will see you to the Ske-Trana provinces, but from there, you’ll need to replenish and find camels for the ride into the desert. And from there, once you reach the Jade River, you’ll face Fia Drumera’s shield wall. No one gets through anymore save for her magi and whoever they allow passage.”
Alexus takes the reins of a sable horse and smooths his hand down its silken flank. “We’ll figure it out once we get there. But thank you, Orlena. I owe you a great debt.”
She smiles. “Or perhaps I owe you. Thank you for trying to protect Tiressia and the Summerlands.”
Alexus inclines his head in a gracious bow, then glances over everyone as Orlena waves goodbye and slips back inside the inn.
“Mount up,” Alexus says. “We’ve quite the ride in front of us.”
Though it makes my heart so happy, I’m a little surprised when Raina swings up onto Alexus’s horse without prodding, and him behind her. As everyone else begins pairing off, I start toward a horse near the back of the line, its coat a golden, pale blond.
I freeze in my tracks. Joran—Neri—appears from behind Rhonin who holds the reins of his horse while Hel mounts. Calmly, Neri slides his hand along the blond horse’s reins, peering at me from the corner of his eyes.
“Looks like it’s you and me,” he says, a smug smirk on his face as he glances at my neck where he knows his pendant lies.
Annoyance crawls through my chest as I glance around. Everyone has coupled off—Raina and Alexus, Rhonin and Hel, Keth and Jaega, Zahira and Callan, and… me and Neri.
“Ladies first.” He motions to the saddle and gives a theatrical bow that makes me want to vomit on his shoes.
For a second, I consider asking someone to switch, but Alexus clicks his tongue and leads his and Raina’s horse out of the alley, and everyone else starts to follow.
“Would you rather walk?” Neri says.
“Very much,” I spit.
He rolls his eyes, and once Rhonin and Hel start down the alley toward the street, he smiles, and my, my, my, how clearly I see the wolf in him now.
“This will give us plenty of time to discuss your requirements,” he says. “Consider it business.”
I think about stabbing him and leaving him in the dirt to bleed, but I can’t kill a spirit, unfortunately.
