“Two nights ago I slept in a castle. Tonight? I’ll be lucky if I get a bed at all.”
“We should reach Hythe’s Gap within the hour,” Viktor offered.
He picked up his horse’s feed bag and began tying it to the saddle. Evander cracked one eye to watch, then sighed and rose to do the same, swinging his own with theatrical misery.
“Fort Sevrak is the worst elven camp. Why”—he gestured helplessly at Amerei—“when your father can go anywhere, does he insist on that place?”
Amerei took the bag from his hands, stepped between him and the horse, and tightened the straps herself. Then—over the saddle—she caught Viktor’s eye. And smiled, as if to saywhat would I do without him?
There was something unguarded in her smile, a gift she didn’t know she’d given—but he felt it all the same, a spark low in his chest.
Evander’s foot slipped in the stirrup as he tried to mount, but he caught himself with a grunt and scrambled upright. Amerei waited until he steadied, then swung up behind him.
Viktor rode up beside them and pointed down the trail.
“The sun’s behind us now. Once we cross the valley, we’ll lose tree cover—but anything in the sky will cast its shadow in front of us.”
Evander spoke for them both.
“What do we do if…”
But Viktor was already urging his horse forward.
“Let’s just make it to the mountain pass.”
He didn’t look back. Didn’t need to. He could feel Amerei’s eyes on him—the weight of that smile still warm across his shoulders.
He knew that look.Dask, he knew.
And for the first time since Oustinon, he didn’t feel like he was running alone.
Chapter Four
Before the Dark Finds Us
Before the dark could find them, Viktor made his vow—she would reach Sevrak alive.
Her laughter still lingered somewhere in his chest when twilight found them riding hard, the stream far behind.
The gulley fell away into a crescent-shaped archway—the mouth of Hythe’s Gap yawning black before them, wind tunneling through like a low hymn.
Hooves struck sparks from stone as the horses pressed on, shadows stretching long beneath the sinking sun.
Exhaustion dragged at Viktor’s eyes, every blink a battle. He was still fighting it when Evander jerked his reins too sharply. Amerei jolted with a startled gasp.
Viktor’s hand caught her before she slipped, fingers closing around her arm.
Heat shot through him at the feel of her—soft where everything else in his world was steel.
He steadied her until she looked back at him. Only then did he release her, slow and certain.
Evander muttered a curse and pushed his horse ahead.
Viktor ignored him.
His attention stayed on her—on the tremor in her balance, on the way her breath caught when his hand fell away.
The cavern took them, cool air rolling over Viktor’s fevered skin like winter wind.
