Page 60 of The Sundered Blade

“Just… try to be as careful as possible,” Niell requested carefully. “We don’t want them on their guard, so a trail of bodies is not going to help us.”

Kyrion’s eyes glowed silver as he turned his gaze on Niell. “I am angry, but that does not mean I have become a fool,” he growled.

“Apologies.” Niell lifted his hands in surrender. “Shall we go?”

“I will find my own way and meet you within the city.” Kyrion was clearly anxious to be moving, and unwilling to wait for the humans. “Can you gain entrance into the palace grounds?”

“Yes.”

Karreya and Niell spoke at the same time, then threw each other a quick, unreadable glance in the darkness.

“The garden folly,” Niell said quietly. “If you can bear to revisit it. No one else will go there.”

“We will meet by nightfall,” Kyrion agreed, and then he was gone. Vanished into the darkness like wind and shadow that had accidentally taken on flesh.

And Karreya was alone with Niell.

Alone with the night and the urgency of their errand and the memories of him about to saysomethingthat she desperately wanted to hear.

But he was not looking at her. He was looking towards the walls of the city, and then he sighed, as if something pained him deeply.

“You do not want to go back?” she guessed.

“I do not,” he said softly. “And yet I do. I was never happy here. Never had anyone I fully trusted. But I have fought so long to expose Modrevin that… Somehow I came to care about everything he was destroying. Everyone he has manipulated and used. I need to see this through, for me, and for them.”

“Then that is what we will do,” she said simply. Whatever was required, they would see it through together. At that thought, some of the tightness around her heart seemed to ease, and as they both stared out across the dark fields towards Hanselm, she reached out and took his hand.

Curled her fingers around his palm and held it firmly.

She sensed his surprise. Watched as he lifted their joined hands to stare at them for a moment.

“Sometimes, I wonder how it’s possible that you haven’t stabbed me yet,” he mused, and she could hear the smile in his voice. “And then you find ways to comfort me when I didn’t even know I needed it. Is this for anything in particular or…” He trailed off, a question in his hesitation.

“You once told me that you are scared of the dark, Abreian.” He’d meant it as a flirtatious joke, but he had not lied. “But if you do not wish to hold my hand, then…”

“No.” He snatched it towards him and pressed the back of her hand against his chest, clenching his own fingers tighter. “It’s mine now. You gave it to me, and I am not giving it back.”

To her shock, Karreya found herself smiling in the dark. “Very well. But I can only spare it until we reach the city. Then I will need both hands free if I am to protect you.”

He did not release her, only kept her hand pressed tightly to his chest as he turned his head to look down at her. “Only remember what I told you in Viali, Karreya. I meant it then and I mean it now more than ever.”

He had told her many things. But which one now put that worried note in his voice?

“Do not even think about dying for me, do you hear? I won’t have it. You are…” Something seemed to choke him for a moment before he forged ahead. “You are so much more than a weapon to be used. So much more than the blades you wield. You are wise and honest and beautiful and courageous and I hope that someday you will see all those things as clearly as I do.”

Wise. Honest. Beautiful. Courageous.They were only words, but to Karreya, they meant far more than the sum of their letters. They were the words of a man who saw her, who cherished her, and who wanted more for her than anyone else ever had.

And they reminded her of what she’d known the first time he told her not to die for him.

She was far more likely to kill for him.

But she would never tell him so, because beneath those laughing eyes and crooked smiles and polished manners was a fragile heart—one that had been broken too many times to count. He had taught her to see herself as more than a weapon, but that did not diminish her abilities, and she would use every one of them if it meant keeping Niell alive.

“Come,” she said instead, tugging on his hand and pulling him into the predawn darkness. “We have several miles to go, and you walk like a pampered nobleman.”

Niell sighed, but allowed her to pull him forward. “You say that as if it’s a terrible crime. Iama pampered nobleman, and I’m particularly repulsed by the idea of long walks. That’s what horses are for.”

All true, and for some reason, that made Karreya smile again.

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