live in a world where he didn’t exist. Someone had to warn him.
“The affairs of Cana aren’t our business. Our duty is to our people.”
Her eyes caught on the sword hanging at his waist. She pulled it free before he could stop her and held it angled between her and Quinn. “I’m not leaving him to die.” She shouldered past Ekho on her way out the door.
As she burst out into the blasted sun, she whispered words into the atmosphere. “Meet on the road outside town at dusk.” Her power directed her voice to the Madrans and Belaens in town, but she didn’t know if she’d be with them at dusk.
Because in that moment she wasn’t a spy for Bela.
She had a new mission.
Keep the man she loved, the man who hated her, alive.
THREE
CANA HAD NONE of the beauty most sought. Instead of springy green grass and blossoming flowers, the land held only dirt and rock. Instead of the beautiful arching architecture of Madra or the simpler clean lines of Bela, squat buildings of wood and shale lined the narrow roads, looking like they’d crumble into dust with the approaching storm.
The weather, much harsher and more volatile than any in the Six Kingdoms could change quickly, violently. Just like today.
Ara searched the skies for the brilliant blue she’d woken to that morning before she knew the heartbreak this day would bring. She needed to feel the sun beating its searing heat down against her skin.
Instead, all she found was gloom. Dark clouds moved in, cutting Cana off from the light and casting deeper shadows into the already desperate streets. There was a reason many Canans trained as assassins, warriors sent to the far reaches of the Six Kingdoms. There was little else for them.
And yet, in her years among the resilient people, fighting the land that tried to defeat her again and again, she’d fallen in love with Cana. Not in the way one fell in love with Bela and its magic, its beauty. Nor in the way one respected Madra and everything its leaders had accomplished in recent years.
No, this love was about the strength it took not to run home. The will she’d found in her mission for the queen. She’d given up everything to come here, her family, her former life. In the process, she’d found herself.
But her time in Cana was at an end now that Eirik knew of her magic.
Once she made sure he’d live to see the back of her.
She crept along an alleyway as the first raindrop hit her cheek. And then another. Before long, the skies unleashed their fervor after gracing them with the sun only hours before.
Ara’s stomach growled, and she realized she hadn’t eaten anything this morning. But there were worse things than hunger.
Rain streamed through the silver threads of her hair, and she flipped it out of her face as she crept onto the street. She had yet to see Edmund, but he’d have heard her message. If she was lucky, he’d already be heading out of town.
But who was she kidding? Edmund Kent wasn’t a man to leave before trying to complete his task one last time. Failure wouldn’t sit well with the man who’d been by the queen’s side since she was nothing more than an outlaw.
She searched the road in front of Eirik’s home, finding it deserted. A single candle flickered inside, its tiny light a beacon drawing her forth. She wasn’t too late. Her chest inflated as she could breathe fully again.
Eirik was still alive.
She lifted a hand to push open the door, ready to face whatever consequences there were for showing up again after he’d almost killed her.
As she gathered courage within herself, a hand clamped down on her mouth, so tightly her scream only echoed in the spaces of her mind.
• • •
Ara bucked against her captor as she tried to clamp her teeth down on his hand. Still, he didn’t release her. He lifted her off her feet and carried her backward around the side of the small house.
If only she could get to her sword…
As if reading her thoughts, the man holding her ripped the sword from the scabbard at her waist and held it in one hand while keeping the other around her to drag her back.
“Let me go,” she growled. “You don’t know who I am. Lord Eirik will kill you if you harm me.” She didn’t know if that was true, not anymore.