“Don’t come into my presence again without your crown.”
The doors closed on the sweep of her skirts.
The library was silent once more.
Amerei looked to Xavien, but he had already turned his back.
He didn’t speak.
He moved.
A map weight sat half a thumb off square—he nudged it flush, adjusted its twin. A loose ribbon trailed from a codex; he smoothed it, shut the cover. On the shelf, two spines were out of order—height, hue—he corrected them. Thumb, knuckle. Once. Twice. Thrice. Back to the first. Each pass bled the tension from his body.
Amerei watched.
A man emptying anguish from his hands.
Carefully, she lifted a velvet diadem case, waited until his pattern brought him near. “You forgot to center this,” she whispered.
He reached—then stopped.
His eyes lifted from the case to hers.
She didn’t move. She didn’t run.
His fingers closed over the case where hers still rested. He set it true to the table’s edge, aligned the inkwell.
“Thank you,” he said, exhaling.
His eyes lingered on the torn seam at her bosom—the knot, the blood—then rose to hers.
“She sends him soldiers.”
His voice cracked through the silence of her soul.
Tears slipped free before she could turn away, hot trails she hadn’t meant him to see.
He started forward, stopped—as though remembering himself—then crossed the last step in a single stride and pulled her into his arms.
Amerei froze at first, shocked at the press of him, at the audacity—but the fight bled out of her in shuddering breaths. Relief, raw and aching, uncoiled through her chest.
Her cheek found the hard line of his shoulder, and her whisper trembled against him.
“She sends him soldiers.”
Chapter One Hundred
Until the Rain
Tonight, one bolt. Not three.
Twilight settled over Castle Amethyst, glowing with the quiet radiance of stormlight. Inside, the hushed movements of the guards, twice as many as before.
Amerei saw none of it.
Evander led her soundlessly through the hall, her eyes never leaving the floor.
At the consort’s turn, Xavien stilled. Waiting before he entered his own chambers.
