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It had been a year since his betrayal in the woodlands of Notos, a year of hunting him down to no avail.
Wilder Hawthorne reached for the lone piece of hair that had escaped her braid and tucked it behind her ear. ‘Thea…’ he murmured, his voice broken and hoarse.
‘But when it’s used on someone you love?’ he said. ‘There is nothing more powerful.’
‘I don’t want you,’ she told him, knees buckling. ‘I don’t believe you.’ He closed the small gap between them, still clutching her hand. ‘My shirt smells like you,’ he murmured, the sound a low rumble in the shell of her ear. ‘I still have your marks on my back from our last night together. You claimed me long ago, Thea. You don’t get to say I’m not yours now.’
‘If you need something to believe,’ he said, his blood heating as he closed the gap between them and hauled her body to his, ‘then believe this.’ He kissed her. It was the kiss he’d been dying to give her, the kiss that fractured every doubt between them and reforged the cracks with something golden. She tasted just as he remembered, like hope and salvation, like home and his.
He had been someone to her. He had been everything to her. Panic inched its way into her body, gripping every muscle painfully, making her head tight with tension.
Finally!!!!
‘Thank you,’ she croaked, tears stinging her eyes. ‘Thank you for knowing me better than I knew myself.’ After a moment of shock, Cal returned her embrace. ‘What are friends for, eh?’
‘Come find me at Thezmarr, little brother,’ he said. ‘We’ll be Warswords together.’
‘We’re not following the guild, Thea. We haven’t been for some time.’ ‘What do you mean?’ ‘It’s you we’re following,’ Kipp said.
‘He loves you. That was never in any doubt. Not to us. I’ll wager that everything he does is for you.’
‘I told myself that it was enough,’ he murmured into her hair, his voice hoarse. ‘That I should be grateful for the time we had. It was more love than most people get in a lifetime. But the truth is, Thea… A thousand lifetimes with you wouldn’t be enough.’
‘We think he’s been using his empath ability to get others to do his bidding for some time now, and framing Anya for their work.’
Thea nearly choked. For at her fingertips danced little bolts of lightning. Power crackled through her, and that dormant beast within her awoke from its slumber. She stared at her magic. Wilder’s deep voice rumbled against her, warm and full of pride. ‘There you are, Princess.’
Wren’s nose wrinkled. ‘I didn’t need to know that.’ ‘Here I was thinking you needed to know everything,’ Torj chimed in with a smirk. ‘I do not need to know everything,’ Wren muttered. Torj had clearly found his way under her skin again. ‘But the essentials would be nice.’ The Bear Slayer only grinned. Wren ignored him
‘Do you think she’ll find out where the former women warriors of the guild are?’ ‘Find out?’ The Bear Slayer laughed. ‘Thea… Audra’s known exactly where they went since the day they left.’ ‘But…’ ‘But what? Osiris interrogated her? Threatened her? For years and years? Surely you know Audra’s as tough as they come. She never broke. She never will, if you ask me
Torj tensed suddenly at her side, and Thea saw why. Wren had reappeared in the doorway, her eyes red and puffy. Thea made an instant move towards her sister, but Torj’s gentle hand on her shoulder stopped her. ‘Allow me,’ he said softly. Without waiting for her answer, he went to Wren, his huge frame enveloping her, leading her away from the commotion and out of sight. Thea smiled to herself. Funny, how things turn out.
‘When I stand against the gods at the end of my days,’ he told her fiercely, ‘I will regret nothing. Not the lies I’ve told, nor the lives I’ve claimed or the rivers of blood I’ve spilt. I do not regret a single moment, because every one of them led me to you.’
‘A new Warsword stands before us, then, sisters… One who can command storms as well as blades, it seems.’
‘No,’ Thea admitted. ‘It’s not. But it is my question all the same.’ ‘No man who came before you asked such a thing.’ ‘I’m not a man.’
