Page 23 of Fragile Oath

That makes two of us.

I switched back to the matter at hand, rather than focus on the crushing feeling that was returning with Gwyn’s admission.

“Did we take care of the guards and the driver?” I asked her.

While Gallagher had been tasked with distracting who we thought was a guard, after we…convinced the innkeeper to lure him out of Galina’s room, Gwyn and Ewan had come with me to take care of any remaining men.

She sighed. “The guards, yes. The one I took out just woke up, and the other was sleeping next door until his shift. They’re both awake now, downstairs with our men. No sign of the driver, though. He must have left before we locked things down.”

“Of course he did,” I bit out.

By all accounts, the driver had been Lochlannian. He would have recognized us, and it wouldn’t have been hard for him to blend in with the party who was leaving when we arrived. I rotated my neck until it popped, trying to relieve some of the tension that had taken root in my soul.

“Ewan can take his place,” I decided.

Gwyn snapped her gaze to mine, turning with the lightning speed she usually kept at bay, and I braced myself for her fury.

“You’re not seriously going to escort them to the border.” Sure enough, her hazel eyes burned like twin flames of indignation.

“I thought you said Gal caught you up,” I said evenly, rather than respond outright.

“I hoped he was joking.” She let out a disbelieving exhale. “You need to get back to Lithlinglau.”

I sighed, running a hand over my face. “There are other things at play here.”

“Are there?” she demanded. “Or are you only seeing what you want to see? She’s married. To someone else. If she was in trouble, Davin, she could have told you when you were alone in the room with her. She has to know we outnumber them, but she’s still just clinging to him like you’re the enemy here.”

She gestured through the window where Galina was, in fact, hanging on to Alexei’s arm while she waited for a soldier to open the carriage door.

I wanted to bite back at my cousin, but instead, I forced myself to consider her words. Was this niggling feeling in the back of my mind only an unwillingness to come to terms with Galina’s choice?

Maybe Gwyn was right, and Galina, too. Maybe I was only seeing conspiracies where there weren’t any. One by one, I weighed the things I knew, trying like hell to be objective about them.

Past my hurt, past Galina’s resting Socairan face and even her hateful letter, there was a smattering of facts that didn’t quite add up.

It was true that she hesitated every time I asked if she was sure about leaving her family, and went visibly pale when she received letters from her uncle. She also still wore Alexei’s charm on her bracelet, but there were no letters exchanged between them the entire time she’d been at Lithlinglau. He hadn’t been reason enough for her to stay in Socair, and she had vehemently denied any romantic involvement with him. She had left, forcing herself to ask for help, leaving the parents she loved, risking Unclanning.

Then she had thrown it all away and married him anyway, all for the sake of the obligations and duties she had willingly abandoned months ago. Or rather, had run away from.

I thought of her fingers caressing his arm, the way she leaned into him just as she had the night before we left Socair. Maybe shedidwant to marry him, for whatever reason. She had certainly made it clear shedidn’twant to marry me.

But there was a missing piece here, somewhere between the rebels and Alexei, our missing guards and Galina’s impromptu flight.

“No.” I responded to Gwyn at last. “There’s something here.”

She shook her head, her voice barely above a whisper. “How many times are you going to risk yourself for her, Davin?”

Frustration oozed from every word, laced with a heavy dose of exasperation.

“This isn’t just about her.” It was almost true.

“Then let me escort her, and you go back home,” she said, her eyes wide and her tone challenging.

Right, because that wouldn’t end in mass bloodshed…

“That would be an excellent plan,” I replied diplomatically. “Except that we need information, and you aren’t exactly a shining example in the art of subtlety.”

She arched an eyebrow. “What could you possibly need to know more than you need to get back?”

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