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Ah, Harper. You’ve come back.
“I shouldn’t have left, Grey. He needed me, and I was falling for him. But—my family—” I press my hand to my eyes. Grey’s voice is anguished. “He knows, my lady. I promise you. He knows.” “But he still let me go.” “Yes, of course.” When I look across into Grey’s eyes, I realize. Rhen fell for me. I think of his voice when we stood on the cliff at Silvermoon. I want to know it’s real, too. It was real. For him, it was real. He was waiting for me.
“Our orders were to evacuate all.” A man steps forward. His name is General Landon, a man who once served Rhen’s father. He stops his horse beside Zo. “My lady, if you are willing to risk your life to save us, we are willing to risk ours to save Emberfall. We did not form this army to run.”
He wasn’t trying to kill me. He was doing what I asked. He was trying to stop them. I don’t want to see him like this. I don’t want to watch these men die. But I don’t want to watch our soldiers die, either.
“Don’t stop!” I yell at Rhen. I’m crying. I’m babbling. I don’t even know if he can hear me, but this can’t all be for nothing. “Don’t stop. Save your people. Let them kill me. Let them kill me, Rhen.” He screeches again, building into a fierce roar that shakes the ground.
“Jake said you two had to ‘do something real quick’ and then we’d be going home. Hilarious. Then he shows up with three dozen people with critical injuries. How do you not have a doctor here? You have an army.
“You didn’t pull your stitches loose?” I ask. “Ah. Yes. The doctor says if I do it again, he will do me the honor of removing my arm.”
“Are you protecting the castle from Rhen?” I ask quietly. “Or the other way around?” His eyes are dark and inscrutable in the twilit darkness. “Both, my lady.”
True love is not about romance. True love requires sacrifice. A willingness to place another’s life above your own.”
“Take me instead,” says Grey. She stops and looks at him. “I am no longer oath-bound. I am sworn to no one.”
“I find your offer intriguing, Commander. I do not believe you know what you are offering.” He takes a breath. “I believe I do.” He kneels. He lays his sword across both hands. Offers it up to her.
Jake speaks into the quiet, early-morning darkness of my chambers. “If she dies, I’m going to kill you.” They’re the first words he’s spoken to me in hours. Since helping to move Harper to this room, in fact. I wait for Zo to contradict him. She does not. I sigh, then nod. “I will offer you my blade.”
I think you get cards, and you play them, but then you get more cards. I don’t think it’s all predestined from the beginning. All along the way, you could have made a different choice and this all could have ended up differently.” I pause. “Failure isn’t absolute. Just because you couldn’t save everyone doesn’t mean you didn’t save anyone.”
“Karis Luran told me the truth. You want the truth, don’t you, Commander Grey? About Rhen? About yourself? About the true heir to the throne? About the blood that runs in your veins?”
“The king himself delivered you into my arms. I served in the castle. I lost a child at birth. He said that he and I were the only people to know, and if I told anyone, he would know that knowledge came from me. I have never said one word. Never once, Grey.”
