Endure - Sara B. Larson Page 0,89
been mourning your loss this whole time, ever since Rylan showed up at the palace, sick and injured and alone.” He leaned back so that his piercing blue eyes could meet mine — so similar to his uncle’s and yet so very, very different. “What did they do to you in Dansii? How did you ever escape?”
Images of the dungeons, of The Summoner and Akio and Eljin and King Armando and more began to fill my mind until I shook my head, swallowing everything down, deep into the depths of me. I didn’t want to talk about it, not now. Maybe not ever. “I can’t,” was all I managed to force out.
Damian’s arms tightened around me, and his gaze darkened slightly, but he responded, “It’s all right. You don’t have to talk about it. You’re here now. I can’t believe it’s true, but you are.”
“I promised,” I whispered, trying to hold myself together, to keep everything locked inside of me. My only thought had been to find him, to keep my word. And somehow, against all odds, I’d done it. But now that I had, everything I’d been holding in for so long threatened to shatter me into a million pieces.
“I should have had more faith, but after Rylan explained what he’d been through and overheard, it just didn’t seem possible….” He trailed off with a shake of his head. “I’ve never felt pain like that in my entire life — not even when my mother died, because I could have saved you. Instead, I ignored my instincts, and I let you leave and go to your death. When Rylan told me what had happened when you tried to escape, I didn’t want to go on; I didn’t want to fight. But I love my people, too, and I know my duty. So I planned; I led them here, all the while hardly able to force myself to eat anything or get up each morning.” He reached up to cup my face, his fierce expression softening. “But then, I heard you shout my name. I thought I was dreaming. I thought perhaps I had finally died. But I’m not dead, and somehow my prayers were answered — because you’re here. And if I want to tell you I love you every minute of every day for the rest of our lives, no one is going to stop me. Least of all you.”
I was smiling and crying all at once as I stretched up to press my lips to his again.
“All right, you win. You can say it as much as you like. I should have known better than to argue with the sorcerer King of Antion.”
He laughed once, a tiny burst of happiness, against my mouth.
“Your Majesty, I apologize for interrupting….”
We broke apart and turned to see Mateo standing a little way off, holding his horse’s reins in one hand and a plate in the other.
“I thought Alexa might be hungry after her ordeal getting here. I brought her some food.”
My eyes dropped to the plate with sudden interest, to see what looked like some sort of meat and fruit along with a roll. The adrenaline of being reunited with Damian began to drain away as the exhaustion and hunger that had held me in its grasp for so long surged back up.
“Thank you, Mateo.” Damian kept an arm around my waist, pulling me with him when he stepped forward to take the plate. “Will you please take Alexa’s horse and see that she is fed and rubbed down as well?”
Mateo nodded, handing off the plate, then guiding his horse toward Nia and reaching out to grab her reins. Her flanks were flecked with white, and her nostrils still flared when she breathed, from galloping toward Damian after a full day and half a night’s travel without much of a break.
“Her name is Nia,” I said, gazing fondly at the mare I now considered mine. She and I had been through a lot together. As Mateo led her away, I turned back to Damian. “I didn’t know Mateo knew how to ride.”
“He didn’t. We’ve all had to learn a lot to survive the last little while,” Damian replied, guiding me toward his tent. It was no bigger than any of the others, and there were no extra embellishments to denote that it was the tent of the king of Antion. But when he pulled the flap open for me, the sight of the thick blankets and furs that made up