happy, Leena. So long as we’re together, that’s how it’s going to be.” Placing a gentle kiss on my lips, he stole my breath away.
Happiness. Yes. This was it. I pressed my forehead against his, closing my eyes against the wellspring of hope opening up inside me.
No matter what the future held, we would tackle everything—together.
Epilogue
Noc
Returning to Cruor—our home—with my brothers and Leena filled my soul with a kind of warmth I’d long since forgotten. Before, it’d been a place of refuge. A sanctuary. It was still that, and yet it was so much more. Full of potential and life. After checking on the wounded, we’d each retreated to our quarters for a while, Leena following me to my room and picking her side of the bed. She’d made a big show of testing out the pillows before laughing and throwing them at my face. I had no choice but to fight back, and the sheets were quickly covered in feathers. She’d collapsed into the bed and they billowed around her, caught in her hair. One stuck to her nose. It was the most innocent thing I’d ever seen, and after everything we’d been through, it was exactly what I needed.
For a while, we simply lay together without saying a word, until our stomachs protested and we met Kost, Calem, and Ozias downstairs for dinner. It was so good to simply feel again. To talk with them, to listen and answer and not worry that my words might condemn them to death. The laugher of our conversation lingered long after we’d cleared our plates, and we sat together around the crackling hearth with brandy and coffee, finding joy in each other’s company.
Reclining on the couch, I draped my arm over Leena’s shoulder, and she leaned in to me, eyes light and glued to the tiered game board erected on the table before us. Klimkota. She’d mentioned seeing a handful of assassins playing it when she’d first arrived, and Ozias and Calem were eager to teach her. Even Kost joined, after some dogging from Calem, as they needed four players. I’d settled for being Leena’s partner. It wouldn’t have been fair otherwise.
“This is futile.” Kost studied his emerald knight on the lower level of the board and scooted the armchair an inch closer. “We’re not playing against Leena—we’re playing against Noc. He’s never lost.”
Leena raised her brows. “You’ve never lost? Not once?”
I grinned. “Never.” Lazily, I dragged my fingers across her hand and guided her toward an obsidian crown. “Move this one three spaces up and one to the left.”
“How is that even fair?” Calem griped from his seat on the floor as Leena moved the piece on top of a gleaming ivory sword. She knocked it off the board with the flick of her wrist and a giggle.
“But I’m not really playing. Just offering suggestions.” I nuzzled the side of her neck, and gooseflesh bloomed down her throat and across her collarbone. She spared me one heated look before batting me away.
“Not now, I need to win.”
Gods, I loved this woman.
Kost lifted a brow. “If you tell her every move, then it’s the same thing.” He dove his fingers into his breast pocket and pulled out a bronze key, summoning Felicks from the realm. “Seems fair to even the playing field.”
His beast let out a happy bark before jumping into his lap. After two quick circles, he nestled against him and turned his sharp stare to the board. The gem atop his head clouded.
Calem threw up his hands. “Yeah, because that’s fair.”
A grin tugged at my lips. What kind of challenge would this pose? Would I still be able to outmaneuver them? My gaze tore apart patterns across the board, searching for viable outcomes. Of course I’d let Leena make the moves, but I was eager to see what would happen if I ever truly played against Kost and Felicks.
The orb cleared, and Kost offered a wry smile. “Assassins don’t fight fair, Calem. You can thank Noc for teaching us that.” With light fingers, he snared his knight and moved it a few spaces up. Safe from Leena’s lingering ebony shield. He was the only one who ever came close to besting me in a game.
Seated beside Calem, Ozias chuckled. “I’m just here for moral support.” He toyed with his last ruby tower, finally moving it diagonally across the board. “You guys always beat me.”
Calem pounced, careening an ivory archer toward Ozias’s tower. With an unnecessary flourish, he sent it