Endure - Sara B. Larson Page 0,20

him kissing Vera. I’d nearly killed Eljin, and Damian had nearly killed me, before turning his sword on Vera and killing her instead.

I took a deep breath, reminding myself that she was gone. That Damian was himself. When I walked out, he wouldn’t attack me.

Pushing the curtain aside, I hesitantly moved forward into his room and immediately noticed him standing beside his desk, staring down at something in his hand, the light of the moon painting his olive skin and dark hair with a silver sheen.

The floor creaked beneath my foot, and his head jerked up, his hand closing into a fist. When he saw it was me, he relaxed infinitesimally. “Alexa,” he breathed. “What are you doing here?”

“I had to talk to you. Something’s … happened.”

“What is it? Are you hurt?” Damian set down the object in his hand and strode over to me. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m fine — it’s not me,” I reassured him as he grabbed my arms and stared down at me, searching my face. With him standing so close, his warm breath touching my cheeks and lips, the heat from his body only inches from mine, I could barely make myself continue. I had to hurry, or I might not have the strength to tell him.

“Rafe sent me a message tonight.”

“What?”

“A palace messenger boy brought me this.” I pulled the parchment out from where I’d stuffed it in my belt.

Anger flashed across Damian’s face, but he took the note and walked over to the window, holding it out in the moonlight, and quickly scanned it. When he finished, he crushed the parchment in his fist and turned away from me, staring out the window.

He knew. He knew what I was here to tell him.

I hesitantly took a step toward him, then stopped, my heart beating so hard beneath my ribs it actually hurt.

“You promised.” His voice was low, as taut as the air in the moments before a storm breaks.

“I know.” Could he hear the tears I was trying to hold back in my voice? “But we can’t just let Rafe kill him. I can’t let that happen.”

“And if I send any of my men after him, he’ll die. I know. I read it.”

Suddenly, he slammed his fist against the windowpane, making it rattle and threaten to shatter. I flinched, the tears I was trying to hold back spilling onto my cheeks.

“Damn them. Damn them all.” He hit his window again, but with less force this time. “They are determined to take you from me.” When Damian turned to me, his face was empty, his piercing eyes dulled by hopelessness. “And there is nothing I can do to make you stay … is there?”

“I’m sorry,” I whispered.

We stood motionless in the darkness for long moments that bled into minutes of strained silence. Finally, he made a noise that was somewhere between a gasp and a sob, and then he strode toward me, grabbing me in his arms and crushing me to him. Damian bent his head down, so that his face was pressed against my neck. His hand stroked over my hair, again and again. My body trembled with my own terrified sobs.

“This isn’t good-bye — not permanently,” I said fiercely.

“You can’t keep cheating death forever.” He lifted his head to look down into my face.

“I came back to you once, and I will come back again. I’m not going out there to die.”

Damian shook his head. “And what if there’s nothing to return to? I don’t know what my uncle is preparing to do, but we don’t have the strength to survive an attack from Dansii and Blevon.”

“There is no threat from Blevon. Dansii is behind all of it, I know it. You must contact King Osgand, tell him something has happened to General Tinso, and ask for help from the Rén Zhsas.”

“How do you —”

“Eljin told me about them. He told me everything.”

“I don’t even know everything,” Damian admitted. “Only what little my mother told me before she died. I couldn’t travel to the temple to find out about my heritage properly when I had to make sure no one could find out that I was a sorcerer. She was going to tell me everything when I got older. She never had the chance.”

“Well, now you don’t have to travel there to find out.” I quickly related everything Eljin had told me. Damian’s eyes grew wider and wider, and his arms tightened around me.

“That must be what Armando is after. He wants more power,