Chapter 24
Twenty-Four
Hanna
We gathered at our new base camp with our rebels, shielded by magic from the prying eyes of Edric’s spies. We would need to gather soon with the rest of our allies and move against Edric, but first, we needed to regroup.
Our small fires sputtered against the icy ground in front of our tents, casting magical warmth that spread through the cocoon of invisibility erected by our magic.
Seeing Thorne and his mother reunited with Alys and Coril filled me with joy for his sake, even before he put his arm around me and squeezed tightly.
“Thank you,” he murmured, his mouth against my hair.
“Always,” I whispered back.
His dark eyes glittered with pride. “You wielded the Shadow Weaver’s powers without being lost.”
“Thanks to Dare,” I reminded us both.
I barely remembered now the feeling of fear and despair I’d had as the shadows whispered around us both. Was that true? Had the goddess almost defeated Dare as he fought to keep me grounded in myself? Had she fought him for my body?
I wasn’t sure anymore.
“What do you need from me?” Alys asked briskly, pulling away from her mother. One of her eyes was swollen shut, her face mottled with bruises.
“Let Dare heal you,” Thorne told her.
“I’ll be healed by seeing Edric and his goons crushed beneath our boots,” she assured him. “Now tell me what you need, because what I need is to work.”
Thorne hesitated, but gave in. He knew his sister, and he knew what brought her relief. “We need a way to shield Kaelan from his father’s mental intrusions.”
She nodded curtly. “So those are true, not just rumors.”
“The rumors reached you in prison?” I asked.
Her dark gaze met mine. “Along with rumors about what you can do. Amazing that a shadow queen would choose my ridiculous brother.” Her lips for the first time since she’d been rescued arched up, as if teasing her brother made the world a little more right.
“Dare’s sending out some of our spies to spread those rumors,” Thorne told us both. “People today saw Hanna’s powers used to protect everyone from Edric’s mages. It’s a powerful moment, and Dare knows how to use it.”
“Good for Dare,” she said. “Now I need a workshop.”
“Can Ekardo help you?” I asked.
Ekardo emerged from one of the tents. He’d been left behind, nervous and uncertain, and he clutched an armful of papers. He dropped them, his eyes widening, when he saw Alys.
“You saved that asshole,” she said casually to her brother.
“Was I not supposed to?”
“He can be useful,” she said, and then she crossed to Ekardo, wrapping her arm around his neck and dragging his mouth down to hers.
“Gods,” Thorne muttered, rubbing his hand across his face.
“Truly abhorrent taste,” Kaelan agreed with him, clapping his hand onto Thorne’s shoulder. “Though your family does have odd tastes. I remember when you fell in love with Hanna without even meeting her…”
“Do you remember that?” Thorne asked with deceptive mildness. “Because you didn’t seem to prize what you had in her.”
“I was under an enchantment—her enchantment, by the way, which—”
I smiled, listening to their banter, watching Alys and Ekardo gather up the papers and begin to argue about the design as if they were picking up where they had left off without a missed beat.
“Hanna.” Dare’s voice was soft, as soft as the cloak he draped over my shoulders. I glanced at it, surprised, and he said, “You don’t seem to realize how cold it is.”
“I do,” I said.
“You took all those hits with the goddess, and you seem unharmed,” he said, and there was just the faintest emphasis on the word seem that worried me.
“I’m fine, Dare. I fought with the Shadow Weaver’s powers, and I didn’t lose anything. Not my emotions, not my memories, not time itself.” I took his hand in his and smiled up at him. “Thanks to you.”
He nodded, but he was studying my face as if something worried him. “I think we almost did lose you. I think the goddess was fighting to take you from me.”
“But you didn’t lose me. And now we have Alys back, and we need to get her and her assistant their bonesteel.” Gods forbid that Edric attacked Kaelan again—and won—in front of our allies. Our position was still weak and tentative.
But we would be ready for our next fight.
Dare frowned at my abrupt change of topic, but let me go.
Later that night, I perched on Dare’s lap and had the strange experience of watching Kaelan cook over the fire.
“I didn’t know you could cook,” I said mildly.
“Of course I can cook.” He knelt in the ice around the fire pit and gave me an offended look. “A man feeds those he loves. A dragon provides for those in his nest.”
“Yes, but sometimes men think that means the providing part, not the cooking part.” I scooped a handful of snow up to throw at him. It dusted in his dark hair, but he didn’t even acknowledge me; apparently, when there was stew to be made, he couldn’t be distracted by my bratting.
Dare grinned and squeezed me, pressing a kiss to my cheek.
“I’ll provide you with anything you need, from a good meal to that spanking you seem desperate for,” Kaelan finally said, and I let out a laugh.
“He cooked for us all the time at the front,” Thorne said, settling onto the log beside Dare. He lifted my booted feet from the ground, pulling my calves across his lap.
“Are Alys and Coril and your mother settled?” I asked as Thorne began to unlace my boots and pulled them off.
I wriggled my toes at the sudden cold before he brought his hands over my feet, igniting warming magic, before he began to massage the aching balls of my feet.
I hadn’t realized my feet were cold and hurting until he began to touch them.
“Coril and my mother, yes. Alys won’t settle down. She just wants to fight in her own way.” Thorne looked pensive. “She won’t talk about what happened to her in the prison.”
“Of course she won’t,” Dare said, and as if he always knew just when to move the conversation away from something too painful, he added, “Kaelan gave up making me cook for us. It turns out peasant-food isn’t good enough.”
Kaelan scoffed. “Peasant food is good. Your cooking of it was an insult to your ancestors.”
Dare’s brows arched.
“He can burn anything,” Thorne told me, his big thumbs pressing beneath the ball of my foot in a way that made me arch and moan as if I might orgasm right there. Dare gave me a look, but pressed a kiss to my temple.
Kaelan stirred the pot hanging over the fire. Whatever he’d managed to make smelled rich, herby, and comforting.
“You better enjoy this. I traded some promises I’m going to regret for the bread and herbs. A minor noble’s third daughter believes I’ll attend her birthday celebration when this is over.”
Thorne snorted. “You’ll have to go. Can’t ghost a supporter.”
“I know. I’m bringing all of you. When I suffer through formal events, you suffer too.”
“I’m not going,” Dare said immediately.
“You’re married to Hanna. Hanna’s married to me. You’re coming.”
“That logic is flawed.”
Kaelan gave him a surprisingly merry grin. “And yet, I’m your king.”
“Not when it’s just the four of us,” Dare disagreed. “We’ll have to find a different arrangement.”
“He’s right.” I punctuated my agreement by throwing another handful of snow at Kaelan.
Kaelan straightened, looking wrathful—but playfully so. “Perhaps we can unite in trying to keep you halfway well-behaved.”
“You love me as I am, Kae,” I reminded him.
Kaelan looked beyond us at the tent and mused, “Do you think there’s space enough in there for your ropes tricks, Dare?”
As dusk was painting the sky, Kaelan dished out the stew, generous portions all around. Once he handed me mine, he sat down and patted his lap. “Come here.”
I arched a brow. “We’re talking strategy.”
“You can talk strategy from my lap.”
“That doeesn’t seem very professional-soldier-y.”
“We’re rebels.”
Thorne and Dare exchanged a look. Thorne’s mouth twitched.
I moved anyway, settling against Kaelan’s chest. His arm came around my waist like it belonged there. He balanced his bowl easily with his free hand.
“Comfortable?” he asked.
“Annoyingly so.”
“Good. Eat.”
The stew was excellent. I didn’t speak for a moment, just ate and let the heat sink into me from every angle, Kaelan’s hard-muscled body and the food itself.
“Tomorrow, the bonesteel. Then we’ll meet everyone else at the Dragon’s Teeth,” Kaelan said, voice shifting. Focused. “After that, we move on Edric’s main forces.”
“He’s consolidated at the capital,” Thorne added. “Every loyal house. Every soldier. And fewer of them, since word has spread of how he ran.”
“Which means we know exactly where he’ll be,” Dare said.
“We’ll face everything he has at once,” I said.
Kaelan’s hand tightened slightly at my waist. “We always knew it would come to this.”
“That doesn’t make it less terrifying.”
“No. It doesn’t.”
Silence settled. The weight of what we would carry was heavy, but not unbearable. Not when we were together.
“I’ll handle the lords,” Kaelan said.
“They won’t follow anyone else,” Dare said. “They need to believe someone of the best royal blood will rule us all.”
He didn’t quite try to hide his bitterness, and Kaelan didn’t quite try to hide his hesitation. “You’re right. When it comes to that. And…when it comes to the four of us. We’ll find another way.”
Dare ripped into his bread. “Thanks,” he said around the mouthful, and it might have been for the food, but we all knew better.
“If we’re discussing roles, I’ll be the terrifying shadow queen,” I said lightly. “Dare’s managed to make that work to our advantage.”
“The people have begun to pray to you,” Dare said. “As if you need to be any more cocky.”
Thorne scoffed. “She’s perfect.”
“You’re still the only one who’s ever thought that or ever will,” Dare said dryly. “As much as we all adore her.”
Kaelan’s chin rested on my head. “You’re more than the shadow queen.”
“I know. But that’s what they need right now.”
“After this, you get to be whatever you want.”
“You already know what I want. It’s to be yours.” I glanced around the crackling fire at all three of my men.
Around us, the camp settled, with voices fading, watches called, people leaving the fires behind for their tents.
“We should sleep,” Kaelan said at last.
Our tent was warm inside. Blankets piled high. Packs lined neatly along the walls. Temporary, and still home.
Dare dropped onto the bedding first. “I’m taking the middle. Because I’m the most huggable.”
“I don’t even have the energy to give you the sarcasm you deserve,” Thorne told him.
I curled in beside him. Kaelan settled behind me, arm draped over us both. Thorne on Dare’s other side, solid and steady.
Four people. Too little space. Somehow perfect.
“If you snore,” Thorne said, “I’m smothering you.”
“I don’t snore.”
“You absolutely do.”
“That’s aggressive breathing.”
Kaelan found my hand. Squeezed. “Warm enough, summer?”
“You’re fussing,” I said.
“I do not fuss.”
“You fuss,” Dare mumbled.
“Relentlessly,” Thorne added.
“I express concern for you fools,” Kaelan said stiffly.
“That’s fussing. It’s endearing.”
We lay there, tangled together, snow hissing softly against the canvas. Tomorrow would bring war.
But tonight, we had this.