“Is this real?” she asked Sebastian.
“It’s my father’s hand. I have no doubt.”
They’ve pardoned us. They’ve actually pardoned us.
After everything, being hunted, called traitors, her trial, the pyre. And Sebastian had told her what they’d done to him, beaten him whilst he was bound, broken his ribs. He’d almost been killed saving her but now the Council had proof–
They want us to go back.
They had to return, Kara knew they had to. And just as that thought formed:
“Absolutely not.”
Kara’s gaze shot to Sebastian’s. “What–”
“I am not taking you back within the Council’s reach.” He shook his head vehemently. “They could change their minds and have you tied to a pyre before the sun sets.”
“We have to–” she began but he spoke over her, their bond hot with his resolve.
“No. My father, I trust. But the others...” He broke off, pure hatred on his face. “I won’t entrust your life to their hands, Kara, I won’t.”
She fell quiet, his words sinking in. Beneath the steel in him, she felt it – not just anger or hate, but terror. He would kill them all before he let them take her again. Kara understood. But Vallenna needed them.Believedthem. This was what they had been fighting for.
“Then what are we going to do?”
“We stay here. Until the battle. We ride then, meet them there.” His hand found hers. “And not a day before.”
He flipped over the parchment and turned to Veyra, who had been listening quietly.
“Three or four weeks. Draknor will land,” he told her.
“Then we must be ready,” she said solemnly.
“Do you have something I can write with?” he asked.
Without a word she handed him a quill and ink from within her robes.
“Thanks,” he said, turning his attention back to the parchment and scrawling his reply on the back.
Father,
I will not risk Kara by leaving her to the whims of the Council.
The Arcanth is whole, and we will be ready.
We will meet you on the battlefield in three weeks.
Tell me where.
Sebastian
He secured the message and let the hawk go. They watched it beat its wings against the night sky, carrying Sebastian’s refusal with it. Kara’s throat tightened. The Council had offered Sebastian everything they’d taken from him – his name, his freedom – and he’d defied them,again, without hesitation, to keep her safe. She laced her fingers through his. Whatever was coming, they would face the storm together. Kara was certain of that. But as they walked back through the quiet streets, only one thought beat in her mind:
I might only have three weeks with him.
She knew he could feel her dread. It was thrumming loudly across the bond. He felt the same, she could tell, but not as keenly. Battle was something he was used to, what he was trained for. It focused him – an enemy to fight. He was likely already thinking strategy, formations, tactics. But for her, who’d spent most of her life healing behind thesafety of Hale’s walls, it was utterly terrifying. It was the day she might lose him creeping closer with every hour.
And yet... hadn’t she known this all along? That it would come to this? Words on parchment shouldn’t change anything. But they did.
