Chapter 45
Ididn’t wake up in the morning so much as gain consciousness for the twelfth time since I first closed my eyes. Sleep wasn’t the right word for the restlessness Kier and I shared all night.
“Oh, look, we’re matching,” I said, attempting humour as I stared at my face in the small mirror above the sink in the bathroom attached to our new chambers. It beat the spire any day. “I think you win the eye bag competition though.”
“Thanks,” he drawled, settling his arms around my waist, leaning his head on my shoulder.
“Lazankh will still be there. Our family will still be there.” It had become a chant of sorts. I’d said it so many times last night, like my own prophecy, that the words rolled off my tongue easily now. “Say it.”
“Lazankh will still be there,” Kier murmured against my shoulder. “Our family will still be there.”
Whether it was a lie or not, at least we shared the delusion.
“What kind of breakfast do you think there is in a world made of fog?” I asked, splashing water on my face to make myself look less corpse-y. At least I had clean clothes, courtesy of the commander who’d spoken up for us.
“We had vegetable broth last night, so they can clearly grow things here.”
“What are the chances of a fried honey dough?”
“Low, wife. Very low.” He kissed the side of my neck and released me with a sigh, carding a hand through his hair. A rakish strand fell over his forehead no matter what he did, bringing a smile to my face.
“Whatever happens, we face it together,” I said, holding out my hand.
He laced our fingers, and straightened his back.
“We face it together,” he echoed, his voice hardening, deepening, slipping into that soldier who’d commanded hundreds in battle.
I ignored the fact that he’d killed my people, because my people had killed hundreds of his.
We’d have to face that ugly fact at some point, but delusion would carry me through the days until we reached that point.
We could face our problems and solve our issues when we had a chance to breathe in one place for longer than three damn weeks without being threatened.
Strangely, I looked forward to it—to building an unbreakable bond, to punching all our faults in the face and finding compromise between our stubbornness, to the ordinary, everyday moments.
“Kier,” I said, halting him as he headed for the door, for the castle downstairs and the warrior leaders no doubt already discussing everything he told them about Cleodora yesterday. “If this all goes sideways—”
“I’m strong enough to call the Haar now,” he interrupted softly, bringing my hand to his mouth for a lingering kiss. My stomach rippled when he kissed my wedding ring, finally returned last night along with my necklace and Kier’s. “And I have my dragon.”
“Who still needs a name,” I pointed out.
“If all hell breaks loose, we'll fight our way out of here.” His blue eyes were serious, full of steel. “My priority will be getting us to safety. Just don’t leave my side this time.”
“I didn’t have a whole lot of choice in it last time,” I sighed, but nodded. “I’ll stay beside you. Then when it all cocks up, we run.”
“Can you—”
A violent blast from outside the castle decimated whatever he’d been about to say, and we exchanged a wide-eyed stare, half panicked, half resigned.
I didn’t let go of his hand as we rushed to the tall, arched windows, gazing down at the courtyard that led to the bridge that brought us here. Smoke hung in a curtain in the grey sky, darker than the fog, tracing all the way to the walls of the castle and—
“They fired a cannon?” Kier asked with a frown. “At who?”
I squinted, searching for an enemy to warrant the cannon fire, but all I saw was the castle, the fog, the ocean, and across the bridge, the sprawling city in the distance.
“Do we find out what the cannon’s all about, or run?” I asked, peering up at Kier’s clenched, stubbled jaw.
A knock on the door interrupted that decision, and I sighed.
“Your highnesses?” a voice called through the door, unfamiliar but pleasant, respectful. That was positive at least. “An announcement will be made in an hour, and your presence is requested.”
“Announcement,” I murmured.
“About whether to return to the Bluescale Court,” Kier said, squeezing my hand. “About whether to help us fight.”
I looked from the smoke hanging in the sky outside to the door. “We’d better go and see what they’ve decided then.”
If all else failed, we’d call the Haar and get the hell out of here.