Chapter 15
Chapter
Fifteen
Iwake the next morning and find myself alone.
I frown, wondering for a moment if I’d dreamed the entire evening, but when I inhale deeply and smell Killian all around me, his woodsy, wintery scent lingering on the pillow and furs, I know that it was all real.
I stretch across the large bed and take a few minutes to just revel in everything that happened, in the knowledge that I’m not alone in these feelings, in the warmth of his bed cocooning me.
I snap my eyes open when I hear him enter the tent, stomping snow from his boots.
I push myself upwards and brush wayward curls from my face, wishing for a moment that I’d taken the opportunity to get up and make myself a bit more presentable before he came back, but when he looks at me, he stares as if I’m dressed in all the finery of a royal, and I don’t worry about my tangled hair or rumpled nightgown.
He strides over and hands me a steaming mug of something that smells sweet and delicious.
“Is this…Abrashian chocolate??” I gasp, taking another greedy inhale over the cup. I haven’t had chocolate in years, not since I left Lyanna. Something about the way the Abrashians create the mixture makes it melt before it could ever reach Helios. It can only be found in the north.
“It is,” he nods with a grin. “I have a slight addiction to the stuff, truth be told, and I’d heard rumor that Barony kept cases full of it in Lyanna. I assumed that might have been for you.”
I make a noncommittal sound and blow across the top of the mug, the dark brown liquid rippling gently.
Tesni actually hates it. It’s Barony himself who has the weakness for chocolate of all kinds.
Deciding I can’t wait another moment, I take a heaping mouthful and moan loudly, despite the scalding of my tongue and throat. Worth it.
Killian chuckles. “I don’t know if I should be offended that your moaning over hot chocolate sounds extremely similar to you moaning over my tongue on your pu—”
I choke, coughing and spluttering, and he throws back his head, laughing. I wipe my mouth and glower at him, but can’t fight my smile. I glance over his shoulder and bite my lip.
“Do people…I mean, does anyone know that I’m in here?”
“It’s not for my men to know or comment on my activities, but no, I don’t believe anyone is aware.”
“Is this something that should be kept secret?” I gasp quietly as a thought occurs. “What will Dorian do if he finds out that you’ve been bedding his captive?”
He strides over, that cocky swagger firmly in place and so damned attractive that my blood heats and my heart races. He leans down so that our faces are only inches apart and holds my gaze.
“First off, I haven’t bedded you yet, Tess.
You wouldn’t be able to walk this day if I had.
” I gulp at that, clenching my thighs at that challenge and promise all wrapped up in one.
“And secondly, let me worry about Dorian.” He closes the small distance between us and kisses me, slow and deep, and soon my head is swimming. He pulls away.
“Mmm, you taste good,” he rasps, voice low and gruff and making my toes curl. Memories of him saying something very similar last night when he knelt before me flash and I shiver. He seems to know exactly what I’m thinking and nips playfully at my lower lip. “I can’t wait for another taste.”
Before I can pull him down into the bed and forget every promise I made to myself last night about waiting to have sex until he knows the truth, he pulls away and taps the tip of my nose with a forefinger.
“Get dressed. We’ll be leaving in a few hours.”
He leaves to take care of army things I assume and I peek outside, making sure no one is nearby before I dart to my own tent.
I find it empty, though Soren’s spot still holds a bit of warmth, so he must have left only recently to hunt.
He likes to do it before first light most mornings, taking down enough for himself and to bring back for Cookie to help feed the army.
Any who weren’t completely comfortable with the frost cat being in the camp at first quickly changed their minds once they started having fresh meat almost every day in their meals.
-A good evening I take it?- the cat purrs inside my mind.
-Go away.- I splash my face and neck with cold water from the basin and close my eyes, trying to sort through everything that happened and wrap my mind around the intensity of these feelings, of the sureness deep in my soul.
-Aren’t humans typically in a better mood after they’ve been satisfied? Perhaps the rumors about the Commander’s prowess in the bedchamber—or cave I suppose, in this case—are entirely fabricated…-
-I’m in a fine mood,- I grumble but then purse my lips. -…and what rumors have you heard?- I pinch the bridge of my nose. -You know what, I am not having this conversation with you- He laughs. -Finish hunting. We’re leaving in a few hours.-
He slides out of my mind, the pathway dimming. I get dressed and braid my hair into a crown across my head, one long plait resting over one shoulder.
“Can you do mine like that?” Mia asks, peeking into the flap of my tent.
She glances around, clearly hoping to find Soren here, and her face falls ever so slightly when she doesn’t spy the snowy white bastard.
I smile. The two of them have become thick as thieves, even more so since her almost entombment.
“Sure, come sit.” I gesture to the bed. She runs and leaps atop it, and I turn her to face the side of the tent so I can stand behind her and work. “Where’s Dessa? She normally does your hair, doesn’t she?”
“She’s in some meeting about the war. I think there’s a big battle coming.” My fingers still in her strands, just a few shades lighter than my chocolate this morning.
“Why do you think that?”
She shrugs. “I heard them say something about a big group moving in, much bigger than the others so far. I think Commander Blackheart wants to attack, but Odessa shooed me along before I could hear more and told me it wasn’t my place to eavesdrop on army business.
” I can hear her rolling her eyes and smile despite the worry starting to course through my belly. A bigger group. A larger battle.
I wonder if Killian will tell me about all this himself now that we’re…together? I suppose we are, aren’t we? We didn’t make any declarations outright last night, but it was clear how we felt…wasn’t it?
I shake myself. Regardless, is army business, as Mia calls it, something he’ll include me in now?
Do I want to be included? I chew my lip as I braid Mia’s hair.
I honestly don’t know if it would be worse to know what’s happening, going out of my mind with worry about it when he’s gone, or to be in the dark of exactly what’s going on out there.
I finish with her hair and an hour or so later, the army is on the move again, the groups slowly making their way ever north.
The temperatures are dropping by the second, the clouds overhead thick with coming snow.
We’ve had a reprieve from it for the last day, though it’s still thick on the road beneath the horses and wagon wheels.
It’s nice to be on a proper road on this leg of the journey instead of bumping along beaten paths in The Perilous.
I raise my face to the sky as we ride, the feel of true winter calling to me, comforting and familiar.
Everyone is covered nearly head to toe now, thick woolen scarves pulled up over mouths and noses, hats pulled low, thick fur-lined gloves keeping fingers from getting frostbitten.
Kendall grumbles about wishing he had a constantly toasty ass like a certain red-headed fire wielder he knows, though it’s all muffled behind his scarf.
I give him a half-hearted apologetic smile and Jonathan draws his sword, smacking Kendall on the back with the broad side of it.
“Must you always abuse me??”
“Yes, I must. I believe it the very reason the Makers put me on this earth.”
I snort as Kendall mutters artful curses behind his woolen mask, putting even Math to shame. I’ve learned the two are cousins, raised more like brothers, and can’t go more than ten minutes without bickering like this.
The next few days are uneventful, though Killian becomes increasingly on edge.
“There’s something coming, I can feel it,” he says while I lay on his chest, his fingers sifting through my hair, his voice contemplative.
“Did something happen?” I ask, pressing up so I can look at him. His hair is a tangled mess, dark strands tumbling across his forehead. His stormy eyes are narrowed in concentration, staring deep into the distance, seeing far more than what’s inside these four canvas walls.
“Not exactly,” he says. “Just more reports of a larger contingent moving in from the west. Still not large enough to be of much worry, which is the worrying part.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, why? Why isn’t Amon coming with a larger force? What we’re hearing is that he only has a fraction of his might with him. If he’s coming this far into the northlands to attack us, why would he not bring his full strength?”
“I…have no idea.” I frown, remembering that I had similar questions about all of these strange small attacks. “It really doesn’t seem to make any sense.”
“And Amon is no fool. He has led the Nocadian army for decades and won nearly every battle he’s engaged in. It’s why almost every kingdom was so quick to join Lyanna’s alliance once Nocadia was on board. No one was stupid enough to want to fight Amon.”
“Except for you,” I point out, smiling, and he shifts his gaze to me, answering with a smirk of his own.
“Yes, except for me.”
“And Tithmoore and Helios, too,” I add.