Page 248 of What Lies Within Blood & Heirs

Thalon sighed at the distraction and shook his head, glaring at the mountains. “No. Yours?”

Garrik’s silence was answer enough.

Wind whistled through the opening, disturbing the fire. Crackling pops of embers and wood in the calm quiet as they stood unspeaking for some time.

When at last Thalon spoke, his voice had eased. He asked, “Think Ladomyr succeeded in alerting Galdheir?”

Garrik’s sigh was harrowing. “Ladomyr was a covetous fool. I believe he would have wished to deliver me himself instead of boasting in missives. Especially with something as considerable as the High Prince’s treason.” Garrik’s hair fanned around him as he dropped his head to the stones, crossed his arms, and grunted at the sudden skip of his heart. “Once my shadows return, we will know. And I do not doubt Silas’s skills. He has intercepted schemes from Kadamar for years.”

Thalon nodded. Silence followed until his face turned grave. “Erissa,” was all he said.

Garrik calmly closed his eyes and explained, “Silas has dealt with things such as this before. He will tend to Erissa. Make certain she does not take the mind-securing drug. When it is out of her body, I will dawn there and convince her otherwise.”

“And everyone else? The royals at the Cullings. Those at the Hunt.”

“It will be tedious, but Silas has the means to invoke a shield around Kadamar like the ring I gave you before Nevilier. No one can leave until I steal into their minds.”

Thalon’s mouth twisted, grinding his teeth in thought.

“All is handled, brother. Get some sleep,” Garrik insisted, opening his eyes.

“I’d rather keep watch.” Garrik didn’t miss the slow scan to Alora and her maidservant.

Taking on a quality of authority, Garrik ordered, “It was not a suggestion, Realmpiercer.”

Thalon rolled his eyes with Alora’s perfection. The two must be spending too much time together for his general to mirror her flawless annoyance.

Garrik stifled a laugh.

Thalon pushed from the wall and shook his head, replying, “Pulling rank on me, shit-spoiled High Prince?” Something reminding him of elder faelings flickered in those golden eyes.

“You can be High Prince anytime you wish, and then you can make the decisions,” Garrik joked, grinning.

“And get beaten to all-hell? No thanks.”

Garrik laughed as Thalon aimed for the fire and left him to the cold shimmer of the ice wall.

Morning glowed over the Wall in iridescent shards and light flares, turning the sky into dancing auroras.

Garrik rolled Blood in his fingers, marking the cut of the stone, the rounded top, the sharpened edge. Having not had a moment for them all to gather, to set the stone in Soulstryker, instead, he trailed his eyes along the ice barrier for the thousandth time that morning.

He shivered out a fogged breath, listening to the creatures in the forest stir as the sun offered warmth to those brave enough to withstand the extreme cold. Though Garrik had not minded it so long ago. His Smokeshadows preserved his body like a corpse. This wall’s cold affected him little. But now, without his magic …

The only good thing, though unlikely, is that he was so cold thatmaybeit helped slow the decay of his heart.

A dark cloak being draped over his shoulders startled him.

He turned to bright sapphires and a blistering touch along his cheek.

Pushing from the wall, Garrik pocketed Blood then slipped his hands around Alora’s waist, pulling her into him. “Your starfire has returned,” he rasped, the sound not as thrilled as he meant it to be, choked off by the dryness of the air.

Alora frowned. “You’re exhausted.”

Garrik brushed a loose hair from tickling her face, flinching at Ladomyr’s blood still covering him, and blinked away theheaviness in his eyelids. “Nothing I have not managed before. I am alright.”

A light scoff. “You’re a bad liar, mighty prince.” Alora rubbed her hand along his bicep where he had been bleeding the night before. Her attention drifted to his head, hand following until it laced in his blood-soaked hair, drawing a low groan as she traced where the glassy crown had been. “How are you feeling?”

He leaned into her touch. Voice breathy. “I should be asking you that.”Starsdamn, her touch felt incredible. He wanted to be engulfed in it.

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