When I woke up in the night, my fingers were fisted in the fabric, gripping it tightly. As if it had been a struggle not to hold her in my sleep.
The next day, Corbyn and I were making plans when one of his messengers came up and reported that Bismyth was arriving.
“Go,” Corbyn told me. “This will keep.”
I wanted to go to them, to make sure there were no casualties, but I was already moving in the opposite direction instead. To the one who would share my relief. I was halfway there before I fully understood what I had done.
“Cara!”
She came out of the tent quickly, looking for another problem, her braid swinging over her shoulder.
“Bismyth’s home,” I said.
The look that came over her face—hope and dread intermingled—was the expression I felt but never showed. She ran out of the tent barefoot.
“You’re going to cut your feet,” I told her, sweeping her up into my arms.
“Fear,” she protested, but she didn’t argue for once.
I caught the smiles on faces as we passed.
Asrael and Anayla were in the lead of the Bismyth shifters, and relief lit my heart as I saw one familiar face after another.
“Is everyone here?” she asked.
“I can’t see everyone, but judging from Anayla’s face, everyone came home,” I assured her.
Then Anayla and Asrael moved apart, and I saw who was at the center of the formation.
Tall. Dark-haired. Armed as always with his father’s sword, his mother’s throwing daggers gleaming in his bracers, and an annoying sense of superiority.
“Ander.”
What was he doing here?
“What?” She looked for him, tensing against my body, then over my shoulder. Searching for Tesa, who I’d seen up this morning, trying to make a place for herself at the camp by being useful. She’d been teaching Corbyn’s lieutenants everything she knew about the layout of the palace.
“Remember your promise.”
“Patronizing dick.” She said it through the smile on her face, because we were being watched.
Ander’s gaze found us, and for the first time in years, his face lit when he saw me. It was because I had Cara in my arms.
Her fingers on the back of my neck tightened enough to dig in. “Fear.”
“If he’s here, it’s because there’s danger for his clan, and it would be no favor to distract him now.” I reached for her wrist and removed her hand from the back of my neck. I was tense enough already.
Ander paused while Anayla closed the distance between us, and I set Cara down on her feet.
Anayla gave me the brief summary, beginning with the most important: full survivors.
“And you brought me a gift.” Of irritation. I looked to Ander.
Anayla smiled, slight and grim, as if she knew what I was thinking. “He has a message you need to hear.”
“From the queen?”
“No.” Anayla gestured him over.
