them, but the timing of it. The way it felt like goodbye.
Sev pushed the thoughts aside and felt Kade’s mouth shift beneath his, the smile gone as heat built between them, intense and crackling. Sev floated in a haze of bliss, his only vague, distant thought mild regret that they hadn’t done this sooner, that they could have been doing this—and other things—every night for weeks.
But how could Sev regret anything when he was here, now, and Kade was his?
At last Kade pulled away. His eyes shimmered in the golden afternoon light, their color soft and liquid and more amber than ever before. “Don’t take too long,” he said tenderly. He lingered for half a heartbeat, hands heavy on Sev’s sides, then slowly backed away.
Behind him Riella watched, eyes wide, but said nothing.
Sev nodded, fixing every detail of Kade into his mind, then turned on his heel and ran back toward the courtyard.
More soldiers had arrived, and it seemed they were preparing to leave—Sev had returned just in time.
Tristan was being hauled off the ground and thrown around like a sack. He was dirty and slightly disheveled—probably as much from the fight before his capture as from his struggle after—and his eyes… they were wild, desperate, and haunted. He looked defeated. He looked lost. He looked utterly alone.
Sev unhitched himself from the wall; three quick steps, two deep breaths, and he was among them. Soldiers bumped and jostled, but Sev pushed through them, like a riverboat fighting against the current.
Except Sev was one of them, a boat among other boats, then, and they did not know that while they rushed downriver, Sev sliced up.
He came face-to-face with Tristan as he was being forced into the covered wagon. It took Tristan a few seconds to see Sev—to really see him—and then something in his tight expression eased.
Sev gripped his arm as if to help force him inside, but he held Tristan’s stare. He wished, suddenly, for Veronyka’s ability to communicate without words—but he tried all the same.
We’re in this together. You are not alone.
This time Sev wouldn’t be a spy because he thought he had to be. He would be a spy because he chose to be.
And as Rolan mounted up and prepared to lead the convoy, Sev knew, suddenly, what he had to do.
Protect Tristan. Make sure they both got out of this alive.
And make sure that Lord Rolan didn’t.
Rolan was the cause of all this. Sev could try to learn his movements, to anticipate his strikes and block his attacks, but if he wanted to stop the war altogether, he had to cut it off at its source.
Tristan reached for Sev—or tried—but his hands were bound, and a sharp shove between the shoulder blades had him falling into the darkness of the wagon. Two soldiers went in with him, but Sev remained outside, standing on the side step as the wagon lurched forward.
There were several others riding along as Sev was, heads craned to the sky in case of pursuit. Sev lifted his head too, but he didn’t look up—he looked north. To the path he had not taken.
His heart broke a little as he thought of Kade, waiting for him in the wilderness. But they would be okay. Kade knew the countryside and could find the outpost on his own. They had a horse and provisions. Kade deserved a chance to heal—he deserved his freedom.
Despair and desperate loneliness welled up within Sev, and so he closed his eyes and thought of the words he’d spoken to Kade before they parted. When all this is over, you and I will be standing together on the other side of it.
The promise held true; Sev and Kade would be together at the end this war—but it wasn’t over yet.
Day 13, Tenth Moon, 170 AE
She’s gone, Lexi. They’re both gone.
I don’t know what to do.
They’re gone, and I’m still here… and I don’t know what to do.
And so I will give you all that I have to give.
Blood, and life, and love most of all.
- CHAPTER 58 - VERONYKA
LIVE TODAY TO FIGHT tomorrow.
The commander’s words—whispered in Veronyka’s ear—echoed in her mind. Their meaning was plain and their logic sound, but they were at odds with her heart. This was all her fault. She’d lured Tristan here, and now he was paying the price, taking her place among their enemies. And he wasn’t as valuable as her. What if Rolan changed his mind? What if he decided he’d rather hurt Commander Cassian through