Page 208 of Of Iron and Moonlight

He saw movement below.

Two shapes detached themselves from the town, little more than blurred shadows.

Then recognition struck. Njall’s body jolted with instinct. He ran down the slope. He saw nothing but Elara running toward him with reckless abandon, hair loose, cloak whipping wildly behind her, drenched through.

Several unbearable heartbeats later, she collided with him, legs locking around his waist, arms winding tight around his shoulders.

Njall caught her, lifting with both hands, and held her against his chest. “What happened?” he asked, pulling back to see her face. Those wide brown eyes. The scatter of freckles across her nose he had memorized without meaning to. He lifted a hand and brushed his thumb along her cheek, as though to confirm she was there. “Are you hurt?”

“I’m sorry for how I left before.” Her voice wobbled. “I needed to say a true goodbye.”

Njall shook his head, feeling suddenly lightheaded. “Please don’t go,” he blurted quietly, the plea stripped of all defenses. “I don’t want you to go.”

Her breath caught where her chest pressed against his. She searched his eyes for a long moment, then cupped his face in both hands and pulled him to her.

The kiss tasted like rain. It was certain. It rushed through him, a surge of warmth that reached every part of him he had tried to keep closed. His arm tightened around her waist, while his other hand came to the back of her head, fingers sliding into her damp hair.

“I can’t bear to be parted from you,” she whispered against his lips.

A smile Njall had not worn in centuries broke across his face. “Nor I from you.”

“About time.”

Gavriel brought his hands together in an exaggerated clap.

Njall laughed, lighter by significant degrees. He set Elara carefully back onto her feet, though he kept one arm around her. “I have a plan.”

“That is my line,” Elara teased, tilting her face up toward him with a grin like the first spring dawn after a long winter. The light in her eyes after weeks of emptiness nearly unraveled him.

He bent to kiss her again, unable to resist.

“I am going to Aurumierra,” he said after pulling away. “I intend to seek a place in King Miraval’s court, if he is willing to receive me.” He looked at Elara, then at Gavriel. “Come with me. Both of you.”

“I will,” Elara answered without pause.

Njall looked to Gavriel. “And you?”

Gavriel was already angling toward where Kalaetzu waited on the crest of the hill. “I began searching for a reason to leave this moons-cursed place the moment I returned.”

Arms spread in unabashed delight, Kalaetzu greeted them with a grin stretching nearly ear to ear. “What a pleasant sight to wake to.” He paused. “Even if my nap was cut short.”

“They are coming with us,” Njall informed him, surprised by the glee in his own tone.

Kalaetzu clasped his hands together with almost childlike pleasure. “Denzato,” he declared loudly, turning toward the western sky with playful solemnity, “at last I return!”

Njall closed his eyes and pulled Elara against him, breathing in the rain and holding to the feel of her hand in his. He knew the past would not loosen its grip so easily. Oorlon would not forget him. Nor would the faces of the humans he had dragged from their homes.

Aurumierra would not wash that away. Nor would Miraval’s court.

But Elara had come back. And for the first time since he had turned against Norrelia, the road ahead did not feel like exile. With her at his side, it felt like a road that might finally lead home.

“It appears we have an answer to our question at last,” Kalaetzu noted, gleaming.

“Indeed,” Gavriel agreed. “But first I must send one final message to a duke. If I can do nothing more to save the Vaelclair Empire… he must.”

Chapter 94

Duncan