Page 116 of Beds and Blades

Our quarters.

Skip closed the door behind us and turned.

“Sit down,” he said.

I sat.

He did not. He crossed to the fire and stood with his back to me for a moment, assembling the words he intended to use rather than allowing the first available ones to escape.

His anger was present and real. Beneath it remained the fear that had produced it.

He turned.

“You went beyond the wall after dark,” he said. “Into an open field with the command layer. What were you thinking?”

“I wanted to face the enemy. And, for the record, I handled myself and defeated one of them.”

“I am not angry that you defeated it.” His words came slowly, shaped with deliberate care to preserve the distinction. “I am angry that you placed yourself in that position to begin with. You went beyond the wall, at night, knowing the command layer was there. That was an unnecessary risk.”

“Because of Morvanna?”

“Yes, because of Morvanna.” His control broke around the words. “She is looking for you. That is why Mira came here. That is why the creature in the ruins spoke to you. Morvanna watches this fortress through every pair of turned eyes she sends against the wall. She knows you are here, and she knows what you mean to me.”

His fear and anger moved together, too tightly intertwined to separate.

“I am not saying tonight’s incursion was staged for you,” he continued. “Those vampires were moving toward a village. But Morvanna does not need to design every attack around you. She only needs to recognize an opportunity when one presents itself. The moment you rode beyond the wall, you gave her one.”

I felt his fear, stripped of performance and left entirely exposed.

“Skip, I am not going to spend the rest of my life confined inside a fortress. I am finished living that way. I spent my life on Earth retreating from danger, from decisions, from anything that might demand more of me than observation. I will not do that here.”

“I am not asking you to.”

“You are asking me to remain behind the walls while you face everything outside them.”

“I am asking you not to enter obvious danger without warning or a plan.”

“I can handle myself. Tonight proved that. This claiming is a mutual bond. I accept that your responsibilities place you in danger. You have to accept that I am capable of facing it too.”

“I do accept it.”

“Then stop treating me as though capability only matters when I am standing somewhere safe.”

His breath caught for a moment.

“That is not the woman I am, Skip. Not anymore.”

“I know.” His voice dropped. “That is why I love you.”

The anger began to leave his face. His eyes brightened, and what replaced it was tenderness, followed by grief.

“I cannot lose another claimed,” he said.

The words were quiet, as though they had been true for years and he had never before permitted himself to give them this exact shape.

“Not in the way I lost Mira.” He drew a breath. “I cannot lose you. I would not survive it.”

I looked at him.