Page 128 of The Arrow and the Alder

It had always been that way with Serinbor.

They’d once been an unstoppable pair, until their aims and philosophies diverted. That aim was singular now, and as Alder leaned back—as Serinbor stabbed his blade in the space Alder created, impaling one of the witch’s guards—Alder couldn’t help but think how much he’d missed his friend.

Except…

“You cut off one of my buttons,” Alder said as he watched the guard drop to the ground, dead.

“Better your button than your head,” Serinbor said. “I’m still angry, you know.”

“I know.”

“And—” Serinbor ducked as a depraved dove, and Alder fired a shot. The depraved flapped and screamed and crashed into another guard. “I still think you’re an arrogant bastard.”

“And you’re a self-righteous ass.”

Serinbor met Alder’s gaze, a smirk on his face, which Alder returned.

“What changed?” Alder asked.

Serinbor whirled around and plunged his sword through the belly of another guard. The guard collapsed, and Serinbor looked at Alder as he pulled his sword free. “Josephine. I like her. And I want to believe that she’s right about you.”

Alder held Serinbor’s gaze, and his chest felt suddenly tight.

A nearby explosion brought him back to the present. “We need to get closer.” Alder nodded ahead.

Serinbor gave him an actual smile before he bowed grandly. “After you, milady.”

Alder chuckled then pushed his horse forward while Serinbor covered him with his sword, until—finally—he caught sight of Süldar’s gate.

A shiver rolled through his body, momentarily paralyzing him with old fear.

“Marks!” Serinbor yelled his old nickname—the one Serinbor himself had given him—as a depraved dropped from the sky and landed right beside Alder with an arrow sticking out of its skull.

He caught Serinbor’s gaze and nodded a quick thanks.

“Are you all right?” Serinbor asked, searching as if he suspected there was more to Alder’s sudden paralysis, and Alder wondered how much Josephine had said to Serinbor while he’d been away.

Alder clenched the reins and nodded once. “I’m going to the gate.”

But Alder didn’t make it far before Massie’s bone-masked riders filed through, followed by none other than Massie himself.

Alder felt a rush of fury, and he yelled as he charged forward. Serinbor called out to him, but Alder did not stop, his sights set on the kith high lord.

The man who had destroyed his life and slaughtered his family.

Alder hardly noticed the battle surrounding him. He hardly registered cutting down the depraved in his path, but the next thing he knew, he was right before Massie, feinting right but veering left and knocking Massie out of his saddle with the butt of his sword.

Massie cried out as he fell and tumbled, and he thrust forth his palm. He saw the enchantment Massie tried to throw, but it washed right over Alder as the little moonstone ring tingled upon Alder’s chest.

Oh, how he loved that woman.

Massie’s features warped with fury as he staggered to his feet and searched for his blade.

Alder considered running right over him, but he dismounted instead. He didn’t want to give his horse the honor.

Instead, Alder yelled and ran at Massie.

Massie tried to throw another enchantment, but like the first, it washed over Alder as he collided with the man who had betrayed his mother.

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