Page 139 of Beds and Blades

I heard her voice.

Thank you, Meghan.

Then silence.

Chapter twenty-three

True

Icrossed to Skip.

My hands were not steady. My eyes were still wet. My heart pounded hard enough to feel in my throat. I did not need steadiness. I needed a function, and I had one.

I drew the knife from my belt and cut through the ropes around his wrists, then the one around his chest. The gag came free beneath my fingers.

He was breathing. I had known that through the bond, but I put my hands against him anyway, one at his throat and one against his chest.

His pulse beat beneath my fingertips. His heart answered my palm. Alive.

The cuts across his arms and chest were real. They had been real for hours. His skin was burned and bloodied. His face was pale, his eyes dark with pain and exhaustion.

He would need Caen.

Later.

“Meghan.”

I caught his face between my hands.

“Skip.”

My mouth found his with all the fear I had carried into Nema, all the grief still tearing through me, all the rage of seeing him bound and hurt. I held nothing back.

He made a rough sound against my lips and pulled me into him.

His hands closed around my waist, then moved up my back as if he had to prove I was real. I pressed closer, careful of his wounds and not careful enough to stop. His mouth opened beneath mine, and the kiss deepened, desperate and hungry.

Through the bond, his relief broke loose. It struck me with such force that my knees nearly gave. Something that had been held too tightly for too long was finally released.

I kissed him harder. His fingers tangled in my hair. Mine slid behind his neck. For a few breaths, there was no council hall, no blood on the stones, no dead waiting behind us.

There was only Skip. Alive beneath my hands. Holding me as though he would never let go again. I let him—for one moment.

Then I drew back, though every part of me resisted it.

His forehead rested against mine. His breath came unevenly against my lips.

“You shouldn’t have come here,” he said. His thumb caught a tear on my cheek and wiped it away. “But I’m glad you did.”

“There isn’t a military force on any planet that could have stopped me.”

Something almost like a smile moved across his battered face. Our foreheads stayed together for one final breath.

Then I straightened and retrieved my sword. Flavia’s voice came from behind me, low and rough through the pain.

“Lady Meghan,” Flavia said, “I’m going to need some help.”

I turned.