What the fuck am I supposed to do with that?
She mounted the golden steed beside him, settling like she’d been born there.
“Lead the way,” she said, briskly.
Right. North. The Fire Shard.
He stared, just for a moment, at the absurdity of it all. At her, the good little Hale heir, actually coming with him. She looked back, calm and resolute.
“I could be wrong, you know,” he said. “About all of it. Did you think about that?”
Kara nodded. “Yes.”
“And?”
“And I still untied you.”
Sebastian didn’t know what to say to that so he simply clicked his tongue, and the valmare leapt forward at his command. He could hear Kara behind, following without hesitation. He risked a glance over his shoulder. Her braid was coming loose, strands of ebony hair flying in the wind. Lavender and something he couldn’t name. That’s what her hair smelled like – he’d caught the scent when she’d held him on the mountaintop. He hated that he’d noticed. Filed it away. He dragged his gaze forward again. He should not be doing this. He should have told her to go, that he didn’t want her help. Left her standing in the cold.
But he didn’t.
Of course he didn’t.
Hales and Thornes don’t mix.
That’s what she’d said. What everyone said. It had taken approximately one day of knowing her for him to decide that didn’t matter. But she found a new way to hurt him every time he reached for her. At the Arcalon, she pulled away when he leaned in. Today, one moment she was in his arms, the next she had him bound. The patternwas becoming embarrassing. She’d burn him, and every damn time, he came back for more.
See. A fucking idiot.
So why was he riding with her now? Letting her come along?
As the wind blew through his hair, he forced his thoughts back to the mission. The only thing that mattered.
He couldn’t afford to want her.
He couldn’t afford to trust her.
His fists flexed restlessly on the reins. How the hell was he supposed to sleep tonight with her only a few feet away – the woman who’d already betrayed him once? He couldn’t let her get close.
If she turned on him again, he didn’t think he’d survive it.
CHAPTER 18
NORTHBOUND
The road to forgiveness is rarely walked in straight lines.
–Lyran proverb
Kara twisted Whisper’s reins anxiously in her hands as they rode north.
What am I doing?
She’d betrayed her House. Her oath.
My father.
The shame rose worse than the fear – knowing she’d become a disappointment. She was riding beside a man marked as a traitor. The man she was meant to stop.
