Page 19 of Fragile Oath

At least…

I squeezed my eyes shut, tucking every emotion I had far away in the back of my mind and bracing myself for the creeping sensation of his hands on my skin.

Instead, a knock at the door sounded out. Alexei froze, a frustrated growl sounding from the back of his throat.

“What is it?” he barked through the door.

“You told me to tell you if anyone asked after your…your guest.” It was the innkeeper, stuttering through every other word of his response.

Had I been recognized again?

Alexei’s features went flat with rage and an undercurrent of concern, but I felt nothing at all. Not relief. Not fear, even if I was beginning to wonder how sure Alexei was of whatever deal he made with the rebels, for him to look that worried.

He wrenched the door open, addressing his next words to his guard. “Stay here and let no one enter.”

The soldier gave him a sharp nod, pointedly avoiding my gaze. When he was gone, my trembling knees gave way, and I sank down to the floor. With my head between my knees and my arms shrouding me in darkness, I took slow, even breaths, shutting myself further away with each one. It felt like only seconds passed before I heard a scuffling outside the door, then a hand on the doorknob.

I shot to my feet, feeling even less ready than I had before, despite my best efforts to keep myself under control. How was he already back? Had I lost track of time trying to get myself under control?

There was no time to wonder about it further before the door swung open. I was still hastily adjusting my features to reflect something calmer when my expression froze, shock numbing me from the inside out.

Devastatingly familiar blue eyes stared back at me from underneath artfully disheveled black locks. There was a shadow of a beard on his defined jaw and a foreign expression on his perfect features, but I would have known his face anywhere.

My lips parted, his name escaping on an exhale. All the things I hadn’t been able to feel before flooded in now, panic and terror and fury and the smallest, shameful hint of storms-damned selfish relief.

Davin was here. He had come for me.

But he was going to get my parents killed.

ChapterTen

DAVIN

As much asI wanted to hold on to my anger, the first thing I felt when I saw Galina was a crushing, overpowering relief, so potent my knees nearly gave out. I had found her. She was alive, standing in a simple traveling dress, her hair braided to the side, saying my name in the same breathy tone she had used only a few nights ago.

For a moment, I was convinced that it had all been a lie. Her letter. Her leaving. That she was here against her will, but miraculously unharmed. Then she straightened, her features turning to ice.

“I told you not to come.”

I reared back as though she had slapped me. It would have been less painful if she had, rather than her cold indignation after I had spent days stewing in the panic that the Viper’s men would find Galina before we did, the horror I felt when I learned one of these guards was sharing a room with her, wondering if–

“You told me a lot of things.” The words were out before I could stop them, each one dripping with the bitterness I had sworn I would keep to myself.

She just barely winced before shaking her head and shoring up herresting Socairan face. “I’ve already explained that, but –”

I narrowed my eyes. “I would hardly call that letter an explanation.”

The low light of the hearth flickered in her pale-blue gaze. She lifted her chin, clasping her hands in front of her.

“Is that why you came, then?” she asked, arching an imperious eyebrow.

Still, there was something in her tone I couldn’t read. Trepidation? Hope?

“I came to make sure you didn’t get yourself killed, or have you forgotten about the merry band of rebels we went to great lengths to keep you safe from?” I shifted on my feet, the creaking of the floorboard echoing out through the frosty silence. “Because they sure as stars haven’t forgotten about you, if the string of corpses in your wake is any indication.”

Her eyes widened in what might have been fear. “All the more reason for me to be on my way, then.”

“Is that why you left?” I asked, trying to make sense of the motives that felt even less clear with her standing before me. “Because of the rebels?”

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