The next time I woke, Blake Axefire was sleeping, a pleased smile across his lips. I closed my eyes again, savoring this moment before the dawn came, along with all our troubles.
31
In the morning, Flame and Kingsolver were sleeping in Yvonne’s stable—though it was more of an outhouse room with a small, attached shower where I assumed Blake had washed off the night before.
“Did you call for them?”
He shook his head. “Not consciously, but Kingsolver is very aware of my emotions.”
I snorted. It wouldn’t surprise me if it was Flame who’d run the moment they’d been unlocked, and Kingsolver who took off after her. Even now, he slept protectively around her.
My dear rider, she purred, before her large eyes flickered awake. She stretched and rumbled, effectively pushing a not-so-asleep Kingsolver off her body.
Thank you for coming, I said, waiting for her to approach. She sniffed around me, searching for injuries, before pressing her head to mine.
I moved my hand through her fur.
Things have changed? Between you and the Ambush Master?
A smile burst across my lips.I’ll tell you if you tell me. Kingsolver, hmm?
Blake stepped up behind, hoisting me up onto Flame, since we didn’t have tack. It reminded me in some way of that first night we’d met, though Blake wouldn’t ride behind me this time. And the pants his sister had lent me meant I showed a lot less leg.
Still, the lingering of his hands on my waist had my body alight again, cheeks pink as I looked over at him.
He was calm, the lines around his eyes hadn’t returned yet, and his body looked relaxed as he packed my things into his satchel so I wouldn’t have to carry anything apart from my ribbons and the dagger he’d given me. One of his own, just in case.
His face was bright, his expression alight with happiness, and his hair was a mess of bronze waves that showed how often my fingers had woven through them in the middle of the night and again as we kissed and pressed against one another this morning, the sun dappling in through the windows.
I soaked this image of him in, knowing the tightly disciplined Ambush Master and Twin Blade would return the second we stepped foot toward the castle.
And so he did.
Gone was the sweetness, the gentle steady hands that held me over him as I ground into the hard, solid length of him. Gone was the man who had caressed my back until I’d fallen asleep.
That Blake disappeared the second we entered the palace, one of his warriors calling for him the moment Kingsolver’s paw touched the interior of the gates. He only gave me one long lingering look before striding off.
I rushed to Edith’s rooms. I knew Flame would have warned me if anything was wrong, but I had to see for myself that she was safe. After seeing the carnage wrought by the escaped demons lastnight, something in me had shifted. It wasn’t just Blake who had changed. I still wanted to win the Culling and survive the Raveling—for the boon, for my lost memories—but now that wasn’t my main motivation anymore. I needed to protect the people I loved against the demons I had seen. I needed to protect this world and all the innocents in it, like Yvonne and Poppy. Edith, Quinn, Calla, Nelly, Thyme, even Couscous—they were my everything.
“Oh, thank Kuan Yin,” Edith cried, sprinting to wrap me in a tight hold. My hands softened in her as I pulled her tightly against my chest.
“I know,” I whispered. “I’m so glad you’re all right, too.”
“Rubi, I was worried sick.”
“I’m fine,” I promised, though the weight of everything pressed against my ribs. “It was an attack by men posing as rebels combined with demons. They came out of nowhere.”
Her face drained of color. “Demons. In the middle of the square?”
“Yes.”
Her voice went tight as tears welled. “All of those poor people.”
I took her back into my arms, tightly holding her, as if comforting her would erase my own anger and fear.
We settled by the fire, and I told Edith what had happened, leaving out the part about Blake’s sister and his reveal as the Ravager.
But I did tell her Blake was there, that he’d saved me.
