Fear of Fire and Shadow (The Fade #1) - Samantha Young Page 0,49

have been children again, planning new ways to harass Syracen, consequences be damned. He looked me over, and his gaze sharpened. “Rogan, sweetheart, look how well you turned out.”

Wolfe stiffened beside me while I laughed off Kir’s roguishness. He’d been a terrible flirt even as a boy. In fact, he’d once kissed me on the cheek when he’d accompanied Syracen on a visit to the palace. Kir had gotten away from him and come to find me. I think I’d been hiding out in the gardens, terrified to be in the same building as Stovia. Sensing my unease, Kir had teased me into playing a game of tag. A few games in and we heard Syracen bellowing for Kir from the bottom of the gardens. Kir’s eyes had hardened but when he saw me watching, he’d turned his bright smile on me and swooped down, planting a kiss on my rosy cheek, promising he’d return for me.

“You haven’t changed a bit.”

His expression told me he disagreed before he turned to Wolfe. “What about you, Wolfe? How is life treating you these days? Got a wife yet?”

Wolfe grunted.

Kir chuckled at the captain’s monosyllabic response. “Well, you look like you both could do with a bath and some food.”

Haydyn’s face swam across my vision. “Actually, Kir, we really need to leave.”

“Where are you traveling to?”

I wasn’t sure we should share that information with Kir, and apparently Wolfe agreed when he lied. “Ryl.”

Wolfe didn’t quite trust Kir either. I felt a pang of guilt that I shoved away. Nothing and no one could get in our way of saving Haydyn. Not even an old friend.

Kir nodded. “Well, you’ll need horses, which I can supply, but I need time to acquire them. I have a lot of explaining to do to the gang, and well … you both look like you could do with some freshening up. Let me have the bath filled, and Wolfe, you need to take care of that wound.”

I opened my mouth to argue but Kir shook his head. “It’ll take me time to get the horses, so you may as well bathe and rest here in the meantime.”

Kir had men fill the bathtub with hot water, and I left the room with Kir while Wolfe bathed. He took me to another room down the hallway, away from the gang members. It, too, was kept quite clean—a couple of armchairs, painted theatre posters on the chipped walls. I sat down, confused by the strange mix of alien and familiar in being with Kir. I smiled in thanks as he handed me a glass of water, which I greedily drank.

My eyelashes fluttered when Kir touched my face, but he was just tipping my cheek to the side for a better look. His green eyes darkened to the color of the forest at night.

“Who did that?” he bit out.

Not really caring if I got Jesper in trouble, I told him. Kir cursed profusely yet his fingers were gentle on my skin as he stroked my cheek.

“I’ll kill him for that.”

I pulled away when his gaze dipped to my mouth. “Please don’t.”

He quirked an eyebrow, retreating. “You don’t want me to punish him for beating you?”

“I think I punished him enough.”

Kir laughed. “I forgot how bloodthirsty you can be. What did you do to him?”

I told him, and Kir laughed harder.

Wiping tears from his eyes, he sighed, his expression soft with nostalgia. “I have missed you, little Rogan.”

Smiling sadly, I shrugged. “It’s been a long time, Kir.”

“It has,” he agreed. “But we went through a lifetime together in only a year.”

As we both remembered, a chilly silence fell over the room. I flinched, still hearing his screams as the captain of the Guard lashed him over and over again with the horsewhip.

“Do you dream about it?” he asked so quietly, I almost didn’t hear him.

My teeth clenched tightly as I gave him an imperceptible nod.

His rough hand clasped mine. “No one understands, Rogan. How could they? No one understands but you.”

I nodded, feeling as if the last eight years were melting away and I was huddled in Kir’s arms as we cried together by a campfire. In Silvera we saw one another once or twice a month, but I remembered how empty I felt when I heard he had run away, like some of kind of bond between us had snapped. “You left me,” I whispered.

His features hardened as if he were in pain, and he grasped my hand tighter. “I had to