Page 92 of In Darkness Forged

“Again,” Tal reminded her, “it was you who warned me of the dagger before it was planted in my back. But what I also do not understand is why you view this as a problem. Why should I not save you, no matter where you are?”

“If I always need saving, someday you’re going to get tired of it,” she burst out. “Tired of me being weak and helpless.”

Tal released her. “Aislin, please. Look at me.”

She turned, and whether from exhaustion or frustration or sadness, there were tears trailing through the dirt and soot on her cheeks.

He cupped her chin in his fingers and marveled that she had somehow grown more beautiful since the last time he saw her face.

“I will always save you,” he said softly. “Not because you are weak and helpless, but because I love you.”

Her lips parted in surprise. Tal brushed his thumb across their softness, wondering why he had waited so long to say those words.

“You… you do?”

He nodded. “And for as long as you allow me to stay beside you, I suspect you will have ample opportunities to save me as well. Whether it is from hungry aranthas, human busybodies, or litters of kittens, you will save me.”

Her lips curved beneath his thumb, her smile as brilliant as the moon. “Because I love you.”

Tal nodded as triumph rushed through him, heady as battle and twice as sweet. “And that is what love is. To both give and receive care without any need for accounting.”

“This won’t be easy,” she told him. “I don’t know whether any of them will be able to accept you.”

He shrugged. “Whether they do or not, I will stay until you tell me to go. Because there is nowhere else in this world I care to be.”

Aislin’s eyes shone, her tears reflecting the moonlight as she reached up to place her small, warm hand on his face. “I’ll never tell you to go, Tal. I won’t give up. Even if we have to take my family to some other village or make our way alone, I won’t stop fighting for you.”

She’d already found her way past his defenses, but with those final words, his walls crumbled completely, and suddenly he was clinging to her as if she were the only thing holding him together.

Perhaps she was.

Her arms were around his neck, her face buried in his shoulder, her tears wetting his skin, but this time they were tears of happiness.

“We should go and find Mother,” she murmured into his shoulder. “I want her to know that I’m back and our home is safe.”

“Perhaps we should wait at least until dawn?” Tal suggested. “Morning seems soon enough for you to terrify your family with my unexpected presence.”

Aislin drew back and grinned up at him, her eyes crinkling with mischief and amusement. “Are you nervous?”

“Should I not be?”

“I promise not to let my grandmother hurt you. My mother will love you no matter what, but you can earn her devotion forever if you promise to chop firewood so I don’t have to.”

Tal laughed and took her hand, but before they could melt away into the darkness, someone approached from the direction of the manor. He was tall and had once been well-dressed, but all other distinguishing features seemed erased by a layer of dirt and soot.

“Sandric,” Aislin blurted out, before amending it to “My lord,” and adding a belated curtsy.

The man scrubbed a weary hand over his face and grimaced. “Enough of that. I don’t want to see any bowing or scraping ever again. Not after this. Not after what he did.”

Aislin’s fingers rose towards her throat with that reminder, but she quickly lowered them to her sides, each hand curled into a fist. “I do not blame you,” she said firmly. “You tried to stop him. But is… is he…”

“Dead.” Sandric’s tone was flat and empty. “He chose for himself what he valued, and I had to do the same. I had to save the others from his folly. And in the end, there was no time. When I found him, it was already too late.”

“What will you do?” Aislin asked quietly.

“Rebuild, I hope.” There was little of that hope in the way he stood, swaying on his feet, eyes grim and perhaps a little lost. “But differently. I would not choose to begin again on the foundation my father laid.”

“I’m glad.” Aislin offered him a firm nod. “And I think you’ll find that the people of Brightvale will support you, provided you never forget the value of the loyalty they offer. Never take them for granted or treat them like possessions to be discarded on a whim.”

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