planned on fixing that once they were alone. They might only have one night, but she wasn’t going to let it go to waste. They just needed food first.
“We’re blowing a mountain onto a camp,” she answered. “Kian knows most of the technicalities. He’s done it before. The Hornbuckle family made their blasting agent they use in the mines.”
“And we heard about Seanev,” Zayden said softly. “Are you okay?”
“We’re fine,” she answered tersely. Her brother was a shut-in, trying to come to terms with his loss. He’d had just enough energy and willpower to get his remaining warriors to the village, then shut down on everyone. “I’m fine, and he’s going to be. If he’s not by the time I get back, I’ll beat him into being fine.” She didn’t mean to say those words as seriously as she had, but when she looked up, she was met with four shocked and concerned male faces. “Not literally. I don’t want him wallowing. We all know how bad that can be.”
Mave felt weirdly frantic as she chopped vegetables Emerian put in front of her. Once everything was cooking, she helped her husbands get out of their boots and armor, something they could normally do on their own. She just wanted to touch them. She wasn’t going to be able to savor it. She needed to take every chance she could to have the physical contact she wanted with them.
“Emerian is going on the mission,” she reminded them. “It’ll be his first.”
“It’s a big mission for a first-timer, but I believe in him,” Luykas said, looking over her head and winking. “Mutt to mutt, you’ve got this.”
“Thank you, sir,” Emerian said, putting plates on the table. “The food is ready, so I’m going to step out and head home. Trevan and Dave should be back.”
“Get a good night’s sleep,” she called after him. He nodded sheepishly, suddenly acting more like the boy he seemed to be at the beginning of summer. Much of that had worn off over the summer as he followed her around and became entrenched, helping her at every turn. It was somewhat cute that he slipped back to it just for a moment.
He takes his duties to me seriously. I’m fucking honored to have him.
Once he was gone and her males were nearly nude, she felt better. She slowed down for just a moment to eat.
“It’s going to be okay,” Mat whispered. “We promised you we would come back. We’ll always come back.”
“But I have to leave again so soon,” she whispered. She regretted all those moments when she got pissed at Alchan for not sending her out. She might have missed them returning home, not that she really understood why Alchan had made her wait. She would be able to leave without them weighing over her. They were all home, and they were all safe.
“I want you to give us the same promise,” Mat continued. “To all four of us. You promise to come home, okay? The Elvasi have tricks up their sleeves, and the game is changing. We were chased all over the damn Dragon Spine on the way home. If you need to walk away from a fight to come home to us, do it.”
She listened, and once he was done, she looked around her table. Bryn, Zayden, and Luykas didn’t seem all that surprised by Mat’s request. Maybe they had planned it, but she didn’t think so. They had become a unit around her, but in reality, they had always been a unit—four members of the Ivory Shadows, ready to band together to get done what needed to get done.
“I promise to come home. Eat, and let’s enjoy our only night together,” she ordered, tapping the table.
The plates cleared quickly. She spent that evening wrapped up in too many limbs, her body exhausted by the time they were done saying hello and goodbye once again.
Mave was on her horse the next day, ready to leave. Emerian sat next to her on a gelding, while Kian was wrangling a stubborn stallion. Around them, another twelve warriors, their entire unit. Kian and Mave were in charge, but she deferred to her father. He had real experience with this specific type of mission.
They were due to leave as dawn was just beginning to brighten the horizon. Mave had a pleasant soreness she knew would fade and turn into a less pleasant one by the end of the day, but at the moment, she enjoyed it. She smiled