The Wind's Call (The Broken Lands #4) - T.A. White Page 0,124

two's relationship was serious, but he knew Darius wasn't the type to fool around with people in his own chain of command. The woman from snake clan might have lost everything when her clan leader betrayed her oaths, but she hadn't let the moment define her. She’d even managed to land on her feet.

That alone made her a woman worth respecting.

Caden didn't think it had advanced to the physical yet, but he knew that look in his friend's eye. It was only a matter of time.

"Do you think this has to do with what we've been hearing?" Caden asked.

"It's a pretty big coincidence otherwise," Darius muttered, looking over the garden with somber eyes.

The two men traded grim looks.

"Why do I get the feeling this entire city is a trap?" Caden said.

"For the same reason I'm beginning to believe we were lured here," Darius muttered under his breath.

Caden gave him a sharp look.

"Don't look at me like that. I'm not casting accusations at your herd mistress. I have a feeling she was just as much misled as all of us," Darius said.

Caden let out a deep breath. "The mythologicals are playing a deep game."

"At least one of them anyway," Darius said.

"But which one?"

There was no answer, but Caden didn't really expect one. Sometimes when spiders wove their webs, the only thing you could do was let them hang themselves with a noose of their own making.

*

Eva yawned and hugged her legs closer to her chest on the small window seat next to her bed. She leaned her head against the cold glass as she watched the moon high above.

It felt weird being under a roof again with four walls surrounding her after months of sleeping outside.

She'd only lasted a few minutes in bed before finding her way to the window and the stars beckoning outside.

This place made her feel penned in, stifled, as she yearned for the freedom of the outdoors, where the only roof you needed was one made of blackness and glittering, icy perfection. Where walls were only in your mind and a mattress made of grass cradled your bones.

Odd, but she'd never felt the loneliness when she was out there. Not like she did tonight where it was an ache deep inside—one that made her yearn for impossible things.

She didn't know if it was because she had gotten used to drifting off with the snores of the warriors echoing in her ears, or if she missed a certain Anateri’s presence as he bedded down a few feet from her, but it was long past the time to visit dreamland, yet here she still sat.

"What are you doing, Eva?" she asked herself.

She didn't know—and that was alright.

She could drift and think in the quiet. It was her time, lonely though it might be.

Humming to herself, she watched the night. She didn't know how long she sat there before her gaze gravitated to the courtyard below as shadows shifted and danced.

She fell silent as she caught sight of Caden.

He looked up just then, his gaze piercing. She held still, not withdrawing or trying to hide. She should do both. That would be the smart move, but she was tired of being smart—of being pragmatic.

What had either trait ever gotten her?

Sometimes it was good to step out of your comfort zone and let life simply breathe through you.

He took a step toward her and then another. Eva teetered on the edge of an abyss, caught between two decisions. Let the inevitable happen or stick to her safe and placid world?

Before she could decide, he disappeared from view. Minutes later there was a knock at her door. She opened it to find Caden lounging against the frame. His fleeting smile made her insides curl, setting her stomach to trembling.

Eva stepped aside, making room for Caden.

Now that the moment was here, nerves fluttered in her stomach.

Caden took in the small room, noting the narrow bed, the window seat Eva had occupied and the small blanket she had dragged over.

He didn't say anything, but Eva didn’t mind. Sometimes words got in the way of what was important.

This moment felt too fragile to fill with inane chatter.

The same isolation and loss she'd read on him after the fight with the wood people still lingered. His back curved, the weight of the day crushing him as he faced the window.

This time it was her turn to provide comfort against the torments his inner demons had brought. She came to stand by his side. He turned to