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Laurent fought like he talked. The danger lay in the way he used his mind: there was not one thing he did that was not planned in advance. Yet he was not predictable, because in this, as with everything he did, there were layers of intent, moments when expected patterns would suddenly dissolve into something else.
never to take your eyes off a wounded boar; that once you engaged an animal in the hunt, you must fight it to the finish, and that when a boar was wounded, that was when it was the most dangerous animal of all.
Laurent said, ‘He had a choice.’ ‘No,’ said Damen. ‘You only made him think he did.’
‘All right,’ said Laurent. ‘Anything else?’ ‘Yes,’ said Damen. ‘Then speak your mind,’ said Laurent. ‘Not that you have ever done anything else.’
‘I like him,’ said Damen. ‘You should be pleased with him. He was the right choice for Captain.’ There was an unhurried pause. Aside from the sounds Damen made when he picked up a vambrace, the tent was quiet. ‘No,’ said Laurent. ‘You were.’
It frustrates me that I cannot put you to best use.’
‘Sometimes I think I understand you, and at other times I can’t make you out at all.’ ‘Believe me, that sentiment is mutual.’
‘It was an impressive fight.’ ‘Yes, I know,’ said Laurent.
‘Auguste was like you,’ said Laurent. ‘He had no instinct for deception; it meant he couldn’t recognise it in other people.’
‘Because a kingmaker would always choose the weaker man. The weaker the man, the easier he is to control.’
Damen suddenly realised that ‘probably’ did not mean ‘definitely’,
Laurent’s blue eyes were full of mischief.
‘I have recently learned that sometimes it is better to simply smash a hole in the wall.’
‘To get what you want, you have to know exactly how much you are willing to give up.’
‘Your face is well balanced.’ She slapped him encouragingly
‘You have very long eyelashes. Like a cow.
‘I wanted to tell you that, because you,’ said Laurent, as though he was forcing the words out, ‘You remind me of him. He was the best man I have ever known. You deserve to know that,
the first truth of battle: soldiers won fights.
He was aware of Laurent alongside him—he could not be unaware.
‘I wish it could have been different between us, I wish I could have behaved to you with more honour. I want you to know that you will have a friend across the border, whatever happens tomorrow, whatever happens to both of us.’
‘Friends,’ said Laurent. ‘Is that what we are?’
The kiss was barely a suggestion of itself, with no yielding of the rigidity in Laurent, but the first kiss became a second, after a fraction of parting in which Damen felt the flicker of Laurent’s shallow breathing against his own lips. It felt, in all the lies between them, as if this was the only true thing.
‘No, I don’t care. Tomorrow you leave. But you’re mine now.
For a moment, looking felt like kissing, an exchange in which the distinctions of intimacy blurred.
‘I…find it difficult to let go of control.’
To get what you want, you have to know exactly how much you are willing to give up.
‘they had no idea what they did when they gifted me with you.’
‘Old friend, you have come to a place where nothing is as any of us thought.’
