was a struggle to stay alive. To find food. To maintain a shelter.”
“You obviously survived.”
“I had to, because of my sister. If I died, she died, and I couldn’t let that happen. She was my whole reason for living.”
“What happened to her?” she asked.
“She got married.” He couldn’t help the sulky tone of it.
Kayda’s laughter proved real and vibrant. “Oh, perish the thought. Your sister found love. The horror.”
“It was—has been—hard for me. My whole reason for existing is gone. I tried to fill it with other things. I worked every chance I could, but that void wouldn’t go away.”
“What of your friends? Or do you not have any?”
Someone not paying attention might have taken it as an insult, but he knew better. “Lots of friends and even a man, Benny, who was like a father to me and Casey. But none of those people really need me. It’s what made me expendable for this mission.”
She stopped and gazed on him fully. “I highly doubt your friends saw you as expendable. If they did, then you need better ones.”
“Oh, they’d miss me. But they’d move on.”
“Is this your way of admitting you came here to kill yourself?” She arched a brow. “I didn’t take you for a coward.”
He scowled. “Not trying to die either. I just wanted to feel useful. Like my life had meaning.”
“Want to trade spots? I’m tired of being needed. I’d just like to wake up and lie in bed. A comfortable one. And not worry about patrols coming in late. Not have to reassure people that everything will be all right when it won’t. I wish…” Her voice broke. “I wish things could go back to the way they were when my father was here and I knew I could count on him.”
Before he even realized it, Cam was holding her, her frame slight in his arms. He folded her gently against him, crooning softly, cradling her head. And because he was an idiot, he said, “Lean on me.”
That brought an audible gasp from her. Then she sobbed without sound, and he only knew it by the hitching of her shoulders and the dampness on his shirt. During it all, he held her. Held this woman who was his opposite in so many ways.
She was perfect.
When she stopped, she pushed away from his chest, rubbing an arm across damp eyes. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me.”
“You’re allowed to be human.”
She snorted. “Might as well call me weak.”
“It’s not weakness to share a burden.”
“Except it’s not your burden,” was her retort.
“Yeah, don’t be so sure about that. Maybe another person could walk away and tell you to deal with it, but I can’t.” The simple truth.
“You have your own mission to complete.”
“An impossible task you mean?” He arched a brow. “You and I both know I can’t stop a volcano.”
“And I doubt I can take what’s left of my kingdom and guide them safely to the border. Guess we’re both screwed.” Her slim shoulders rolled.
“Only if we give up. If I made it through the doctors peeling the skin from me and breaking my bones, we can do this.”
Her lips rounded in horror. “Why would anyone do that?”
“To test how far my healing ability went. I spent the first seven years of my life being a test subject, thinking I would never be free. And then, when I did manage to escape with Casey, we spent a few more eating any plant we could find, the raw meat of the things that attacked us, and licking dew off the ground. I didn’t survive all that to die now. Just like you didn’t come this far to give up.”
She placed a hand on his arm. “I’m sorry for what you went through.”
“I didn’t tell you for pity, but to show you things can get better. To always have hope, no matter how hard.”
The smile when it emerged proved soft and gut wrenching. “I’d pretty much lost all hope until you appeared.”
He knew how she meant it but tell that to his heart, which pounded in his chest. He had to change the subject before he said something really stupid. “How much farther to the tower?”
“The exit for it is not too far, but we have to wait until nightfall to climb the stairs.”
“Because the ledge has a dragon.”
“Soon as the sun sets, it should be gone. We’ll head out at that point and go to your tower.”
“My tower?” he riposted.
“This is, after all, your idea.”
“Got