Asha froze. Torwin pressed his forehead to hers, listening.
“Torwin?” It was the boy again.
Torwin bared his teeth.
More footsteps. “I swear, he was right here....”
A second voice grumbled an answer.
Torwin leaned into Asha, forehead to forehead, keeping her pressed against the heat-soaked wall. Releasing her wrists, he slid his thumb slowly over her bottom lip. When the footsteps got closer, his thumb stopped. When they moved farther away, it started again. Asha leaned forward to kiss him, but he didn’t let her, continuing his gentle torment. His thumb brushed alongher jaw and down her throat. It trailed over her collarbone and shoulder.
Asha closed her eyes, tilted her head back, letting him explore her.
It felt like forever before the footsteps moved away. When they disappeared completely, Asha exhaled.
Torwin kissed her throat. “When I finish playing... Asha, can I come to your tent?”
“My tent?” The thought terrified her. “You’ll be seen.” Not to mention: she shared a tent with Safire.
“I won’t be.”
It was too much of a risk. It put him in so much danger.
I’m supposed to be keeping my distance. For his own protection.
“Please,” he murmured against her skin. “I’ll be so careful.”
She thought of all the times she’d put his life at risk before now.
His forehead fell against hers. His hand cupped her neck. “What if you came to me instead?”
Asha squeezed her eyes shut. She thought of his tent on the beach. Of sneaking away in the middle of the night. Of lying next to him under the stars.
In the morning, she would go to war. A war they might not win.
And he would leave.Leave for good.
This was their last night together.
Say no.
There was no future here. No way she could ever be with this boy. She needed to cut off whatever feeling was growinginside of her. Kill it at the root. He was leaving and she was staying, and even if things were different...
She thought about Safire’s parents, one draksor, one skral—how they burned her mother alive, how they forced her father to watch.
The thought of Torwin dead made something crack inside her. But it had the opposite effect. She didn’t say no. Instead, she pushed herself up on her toes and kissed him.
Torwin smiled a rare smile. One that involved his whole mouth instead of just half of it.
“Is that a yes?” he whispered, breaking away.
She nodded.
He walked backward, out of the smithy, like he was memorizing the sight of her and taking it with him. “Then I’ll see you tonight, fierce one.”
Forty-Three
Asha lay in her tent long after the music stopped and the voices died down. Long after New Haven grew silent and still. Her body was on fire, screaming for her to get up and go. Now, while everyone slept. Now, while there was no one to see.
