My eyelids twitched.
I will not be a coward.
“No! You don’t get to die,” he hissed. “You don’t!”
Speak more. Give me more to hold on to.
“Elvara!”
Even like this—even broken and scared and demanding—I loved hearing my name on his lips. I clung to that feeling as I pulled myself toward the light, fighting for every inch I gained on that outreached hand at the end of it.
“Elvara!”
Finally, I felt my body again. And with that came the pain. Explosive, intrusive, overwhelming pain. A low cry tore through my throat, and I felt Darcke stiffen, the panic within him clogging my own throat.
“Elvara?” he whispered.
“I’m n-not… dead,” I rasped.
Someone’s low laughter made me open an eye.
Ottoh stared down at me. Darcke was on his knees, his body covering most of mine.
On the other side was Geord, and while he looked halfway to Valhalla already, I tried to bare my teeth at him. I only succeeded in making Ottoh laugh harder.
“You sure look like you’ve already been buried,” the heir teased.
I coughed. “Th-thanks.”
Darcke stared at me like he’d never seen me before. His handscovered my cheeks as he pulled my face to his, turning it from side to side as he took in every inch and line and curve. I wanted to say something, tease him or thank him, but the way he stared had my words fade into the nothingness I’d left behind.
“We should go,” Geord said.
“Th-the others?” I asked, my rib cage cramping where the blade must have struck it.
“They’re fine.” Darcke helped me sit up. “They’re heading to the ship. We got all of them.”
“You got all of them?” I parroted, wiping blood that wasn’t mine off my face.
My eyes shut when I remembered the girl. I didn’t want to see her broken body. Not now. Not when Darcke looked at me like this. Not when he’d feel every second of my hurt.
I winced when his hand moved to my side. There was a makeshift bandage wrapped around my waist. Part of Darcke’s jacket, I guessed, since he was only in his tunic.
“Darcke did,” Geord said. “Are you going to try to kill him for it too? Or does he get a pass because you’re fucking?”
There was no pride in my second’s body. Only shame. Dark, ruthless shame that would live within us both forever.
I lifted my hand to his cheek.
Never again, I promised.
Never again would we make others bleed for a king who kept his own hands clean.
Darcke’s face clouded, and his eyes were everywhere but on mine when he pulled me to my feet and shoved my sword into my shaking hands. “Come on. We’ll talk on the ship. The king is already here.”
I didn’t want to think about how he knew that Gustief had arrived, so when Geord took the lead, limping onto a narrow path between the tallest birches I’d ever seen, and Darcke helped me start moving as well, I gave Ottoh a weak smile. “Wasn’t sure I’d see you again.”
He gave me a slow arch of his brows. “Were you going to miss me?”
