Page 140 of Children of Virtue and Vengeance

Then Roën presses the lit end to Harun’s skin again.

“Now, I’m not asking you, because I never ask,” Roën speaks through his teeth. “I said stand down. You hear me?”

“Yes!” Harun gasps between his screams.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t catch that.”

“We’ll stand down!” Harun writhes. “We’ll stand down!”

Roën flicks the cigar to the ground and rises back to his feet. Harun rolls on the mountain stone. Smoke rises from his neck.

“Take the crew,” Roën spits. “I’m done rotting away in that cave. But if I catch so much as a whiff of you going against my orders, I’ll hang you by your own intestines.”

The ice in his voice makes my stomach clench. There’s no bluff in his stormy eyes. No sign of the tender man connected to my heart.

The mercenaries drag their wounded leader down the mountain path. As they retreat, Roën clenches his teeth in pain. His mask of power falls and he doubles over, grabbing his wounded shoulder.

“You don’t have to hide,” he calls out.

“How did you know?” I ask as I step out.

He puts two fingers to his heart and taps. “It always beat faster when you came near. Now it beats harder, too.”

I know the pull he speaks of. This close to him, it’s like a caged hummingbird beats within my chest.

He sits back on his ledge and all I want to do is embrace him. But the cigar still smokes on the ground. The scent of burning flesh stains the air.

“What was that about?” I ask.

“Nothing.” Roën removes the cigar from the ground and inhales. “Nothing now.”

“You’re really going to give up your crew?”

“I couldn’t run it even if I wanted to.” His eyes close when he exhales. “Compromised myself and my men the moment I fell in love with you.”

He speaks the words as if it were a simple fact. As ordinary as the mountains around us.

“Don’t worry,” he says. “I don’t expect you to feel the same after that display.”

“I know you’re a mercenary,” I whisper.

“But you’ve never had to see what that means.”

I step closer to him, considering what he says. On the warship, we stayed on his boat. During the ritual, it was an all-out war. In everything he’s done to help me, I’ve been shielded from the truth we both know. There’s no more hiding now.

The monster is out in the open.

“Back in the mountains, you told me about your mother,” I say. “You said she used to sing. You hummed her song to me.”

Roën lowers his head, but he extends his hand. I lace my fingers with his.

“Why then?” I ask.

“It was worth remembering.” He shrugs. “She was worth remembering.”

He looks up at me and I see the heart he pretends not to have. I can’t hold myself back. Every objection quiets when I bring my lips to his.

His embrace sends a shiver through my skin as I dig my hands into his hair. His metal fingers are cold to the touch. He has a way of holding me that makes time stand still.

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