Chapter 27
KORMAC
Valance returned as dawn began to break. I waited in the bedroom for him, standing by the door.
He smiled as he saw me standing there. His hair was frizzy and damp, filthy with what looked like dirt and ashes, smears of it on his pretty face, too.
I grabbed him as he closed the door, pulling him close. “What happened? You stink of smoke.”
He told me, breaking free of our embrace.
Dead? Lasair dead? I couldn’t believe it. “You did what?”
“I tried to offer peace. Lasair rejected it.”
“So you destroyed her army.”
“A small portion of it.”
Oh, gods. The shadows in his eyes, the menace in his body language. He stood so straight, so still. So fucking tense. His chest barely moved. I’d seen him angry many times, the worst of it being when he suffered from the berserker curse.
This was different. This was cold, somewhere so far away I wasn’t sure if I could reach him.
“Valance?” I tried anyway, taking his hands in mine. “Breathe. Please, breathe.”
The dark pools in his face snared mine. He drew a deep breath, releasing it slowly.
“And again,” I said.
He responded with deep breaths, repeating the pattern until his shoulders sagged.
“Find a calming place,” I whispered. “Imagine a well…”
I practiced meditation a lot. I envisioned my thoughts as rocks being thrown into a well—those thoughts I didn’t want to weigh me down.
“Come and sit on the bed with me,” I said.
He did.
“The well,” I continued. “I’m there, too. Within woodland, somewhere far away from everyone else. Only you and the trees, a quiet place. Are you there?”
“I am.”
Mine was in an autumnal wood, the golds and reds a wonderous fire in the trees on such a sunny day. I walked to the well, carrying my rock of Lasair, the good and the bad memories of my once leader.
She was gone.
She was really gone.
Another part of my past crumbled into ruin.
I left the well behind, dragging myself back into the opulent room of purple and silver, hot tears running down my face.
Shit.
Valance noticed, turning his body to the side. “I’m so sorry, Kormac. I know you had history with her. But—”
I brought a finger to his lips. “No. She’s… Whatever friendship we had is in the past. Her being dead is a shock, that’s all. I didn’t expect it, not yet.”
“It obviously hurts you,” he said. “You’re crying.” He caught a tear with the back of his left little finger. “She did mean something to you.”
“Once.”
“It’s okay to be angry with me.”
“Is that what you want?” I questioned.
“No. Of course not.”
“Because I’m not. I’m sad, but I’m not angry with you. I’m angry at her for her choices. But I made those same choices before…before us. I could have been slain by dragon fire myself because without you, without our soul bond, I would’ve followed her.”
He reached out and stroked the side of my face, gently rubbing his knuckles across my stubble. “I know.”
“Don’t you feel so confused by everything?”
“Every hour of the day.”
I lay back on the bed, my mind exhausted. The well wouldn’t be sufficient to aid my worries.
“I’ll leave you to rest,” he said, getting up. “You need some time alone.”
I sat back up. “Where are you going?”
“To take a long, hot bath.”
“Can I join you?”
We sat side by side in the steaming pool in the bathing room. No sex, no touching. Just us and the steam, allowing the heat to work on our bones and muscles.
Valance raked his hands through his wet, silver hair after a long stretch of pleasant silence.
Until the screams from outside changed that.
Valance launched himself out of the bath with me right behind him. He slammed, naked, into the balustrade.
“No!” he cried.
A strange beam of metallic fire blazed across the dawn sky, heading straight for Winter Keep.
Iron fire.
The enemy’s retaliation.