And she thought about this—being asked. Being consulted. Being given the space to choose.
"Krenna," she said, testing the word. It felt strange on her tongue. Foreign. And yet... right. "I don't know if I believe I deserve everything you're describing. I don't know if I can be the person you see when you look at me."
"I know you can."
"Let me finish." She borrowed his words deliberately. "I don't know those things yet. But I want to find out. I want to walk toward that horizon and see if I can become the woman you think I am."
He looked at her with bright intensity. "Delia—"
"So yes." The word came out steady. Certain. "Yes, I'll be yourkrenna.Yes, I'll let you want a future with me. Yes, I'll try to believe it's real." She gripped his hand against her face. "But you have to be patient with me. When I can't believe it. When it all seems too good and I start waiting for it to fall apart. You have to be patient."
"I will be patient until the mountains crumble." He pulled her into his arms, ignoring the wound, ignoring everything but the need to hold her. "I will be patient until the stars fall and the world ends. I amnot going anywhere."
She buried her face against his chest, breathing in the scent of him. "The stitches will hold," she mumbled against his skin. "And we're close to Northwatch."
"We are." He stroked down her spine. "But I find I do not want to move."
"The guards who ran—"
"Will not return. They know what waits if they try." His arms tightened around her. "A few more minutes. Let me have this."
She let him have it.
The sun climbed higher, warming the rocks around them, and Delia stayed in his arms.
Eventually, Ralvar stirred. He cupped the back of her head and pressed his lips to her hair.
"We should go,” he said quietly.
She nodded against his chest but didn't pull away. "How bad is the pain? Honestly."
"Manageable." A pause. "Less than it was."
She leaned back to look at him, searching his face for the lie. His eyes were clear, his color better than it had been. The bleeding had stopped. Her stitches, rough as they were, had held.
"Then let's go meet your clan," she said. "Before I lose my nerve."
He rose carefully, testing his side, then reached down and lifted her as if she weighed nothing at all.
"You will not need nerve," he said, settling her against his chest. "You will need only to be exactly who you are."
She wanted to argue. Wanted to list all the reasons that wouldn't be enough.
Instead, she wrapped her arms around his neck and let him carry her toward the mountains and toward a future she was only beginning to believe might actually be hers.
Chapter 17
She saw the settlement before she understood what she was seeing.
The forest had been thinning for the last thirty minutes, the massive ancient trees giving way to younger growth, more light filtering through the canopy. And then, suddenly, they crested a ridge, and the valley spread out before them.
Northwatch was carved into the mountainside itself.
Stone walls rose from the rock face, growing out of it rather than built upon it, as if the mountain had decided to birth a fortress. Watch towers stood at intervals along the perimeter, each one flying a banner she didn't recognize—black cloth with a silver sigil that caught the morning light. Smoke rose from somewhere within the walls, carrying the scent of cook fires and iron.
It was massive. It was intimidating. It was—
"Home," Ralvar said quietly.
