“Wait,” I said slowly, my gut turning. “Are we… does this mean we are…”
He laughed. “We’re not related.”
I looked away as the wave of relief spilled through my limbs, as warmth made its way up my neck. Darcke chuckled again, then he tapped my knee and hummed a low melody as the moon continued its descent. I had to shut my eyes when the sorrow and heartbreak in it burrowed through my veins.
“I’m sorry about your people,” I whispered.
He was silent for a few seconds. “They were your people too.”
“I think knowing someone and losing them is worse than not knowing them at all,” I said as I picked at a thread on my trousers.
Darcke’s fingers tightened around my leg, and I lifted my gaze to his.
“I think you might be right,” he replied after a long look.
“I’m doing this for my people,” I admitted when we’d been quiet for a while and I couldn’t stand the crushing grief that rolled through the warrior beside me. “Everything I’ve done so far, I’ve done for them.”
Darcke cleared his throat. “I know.” His elbow gently pressed into my side. “You don’t need to tell me anything. There is no tree threatening to crush me anymore.”
“But what if I want to?” I blurted out.
His smile was slow. Real.
Steps sounded behind us, and I went still when Darcke lifted his hand to my face. His lips lifted higher as he wiped with his thumb a tear that I hadn’t noticed, staring at it before letting it slide down his finger and absorb into his skin.
“Save that for someone who deserves it,” he whispered as Ottoh and Vero stumbled into the small clearing we sat in.
“You survived,” Ottoh said as he helped his sister to where we were seated.
“Don’t sound so surprised,” I shot back, shifting away from where my body burned from Darcke’s touch.
“I’m not,” Ottoh said.
I arched a brow.
“He is a little shaken after that trial. We nearly didn’t get out because Ottoh here freaked out when you two disappeared,” Vero said. “You should take the compliment.”
“That’s a compliment?” I asked at the same time as Ottoh snarled, “I wasn’t the one who cried.”
I moved my lips to the side as the Briggen twin scowled at her brother.
“We should get going.” Darcke jumped up to his feet, not a line in his face betraying what we’d been through. “The bay is over there.”
“We’re going to rest,” Ottoh said, lifting a hand when Vero muttered something I didn’t pick up. “You’re still injured, and we don’t know if there are going to be more tests between here and the beach.”
“What do you want to do?” Darcke asked me.
“You’re asking me something instead of lifting me up and carrying me wherever you wish to go?” I pretended to press myhand to my chest, grateful when the strange tension that had twisted around us faded as his glower returned.
When Darcke muttered something under his breath, I stared out over the expanse of bushes and the golden oaks that glittered in the sun that began rising over the sea. The scent of sap wove around us, and if I took a deep enough breath, the smell of newly polished and chopped wood, still warm from the work, joined it.
Somewhere along the beach that skirted the bay there would be ships.
How many depended on how many of us made it out.
I threw a look behind us, but the darkness was quiet, with no sign of any other heirs. Or their seconds. Thankfully. I wasn’t sure if I could keep it together yet if I ran into Viljan or my mother.
Darcke bowed his head before I had the chance to speak. “We’ll stay for a while.”
