Page 38 of Fragile Oath

“Besides, we might need Gallagher to check up on Ruby’s injuries back at camp,” Sai’s son chimed in, looking anxiously at the woman with dark, curly hair and skin nearly as fair as the snow around us.

Fia smirked at that, and I rolled my eyes. None of them were wrong, though. We did need rest, and food. And I wouldn’t forgive myself if Ruby died after coming to our aid.

My gaze drifted to the bodies. “All right, but we still need to—”

“The boys will be taking care of that.” Sai gestured to the rest of their party.

Of course, they were used to disposing of bodies. More than one rebel had tried to find them before, but they didn’t take kindly to those who tried to invade upon their haven. I nodded, finally forcing myself to addressher.

“Galina,” I said quietly. “We need to go.”

She looked up at me, then back at Alexei’s despicable body, her expression indecipherable.

“We burn our dead.” She spoke for the first time since she ordered his death.

Was it a mistake, putting that decision on her conscience? I wanted her to have a choice, not a mountain of guilt to carry around. Though, it was impossible to tell what emotion she was hiding behind her icicle eyes.

“I know,” I assured her.

All the more reason to bury Alexei, may he rest fitfully in whatever eternal slumber awaited him. Sadly, we were too close to the forest, and frost had already settled into the ground.

“The lads will build a pyre,” Cray confirmed, and she nodded.

Another uncertain beat of silence passed before Fia gestured for us to follow on foot into the depths of the forest.

“We may as well take the fast way home.”

* * *

The savory smellof stew and the sweetness of freshly baked bread greeted us as soon as we made it to the home of the thieves. Aengus, who served as somewhat of a leader, came out to meet us. He was old enough to be my grandfather, but he moved with all the spryness of a much younger man.

Unsurprisingly, he didn’t comment on the unusual circumstances of our arrival or on Galina’s presence.

That was what I loved most about being here. We could show up in any state, after any event, and be welcomed with good food, a stiff drink, and a pat on the shoulder.

Gallagher led Galina to the fire at the center of camp, sitting down next to her on one of the logs that served as benches while I hung back to talk with Fia and Aengus. It was just as well. I needed a moment to breathe.

“How’ve you been, Davin?” Aengus asked evenly.

“Or as I like to call him, Mini-Oli,” Fia amended.

“Let the lad alone, Fia,” Cray said. “He’s a lot better than his father was back then.”

The man shivered dramatically, and Sai slapped him upside his balding head.

“That’s not saying much,” Fia responded with a shrug, but I didn’t miss the way her eyes roved over me with genuine concern, somehow twice as discerning with their different colors — one nearly golden and the other a bright blue.

I tried to shore up my expression while Cray and Sai argued over who wanted to strangle my father more the first time they met him.

“We be liking him now, and that is all that matters,” Sai assured me before they both took off in the direction of food, where Galina had gone.

Aengus, Fia, and I followed, settling across the fire.

I tried to take solace in the familiarity of Cray and Sai’s banter, Aengus’ steady presence, and Fia’s lethal protection, but my gaze returned endlessly to the figure on the other side of the campfire. Gallagher sat next to her, and they were talking in low tones.

Part of me wanted to go to her, to say something to help chase the shadows out of her eyes, but that wasn’t who we were to each other right now. Hell, I wasn’t sure that was who we had ever been to one another.

We didn’t have a history of comfort, of anything resembling a real relationship. Just fleeting moments on a rooftop in the dark.

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