Dax looked from Theo’s protective grip to Roa’s face. His eyebrow lifted slightly, asking a silent question.
Roa lifted her chin.
“We owe him our lives,” she said, holding Dax’s gaze.
In the distance, she heard the hammers already driving stakes into the sand. New tents were rising quickly due to the strong, deft hands of their rescue party. Theo had brought provisions. Proper ones. They’d survive until morning because of him.
“If Theo hadn’t come—”
“There’s no world in which I wouldn’t have come, Roa.”
She looked up into Theo’s face to find him staring down at her.
Dax rolled his eyes as he turned Oleander around, nudging her toward the tents. “Why don’t you bat your eyelashes at each other while you’re at it. I’ll see you both back at camp.”
His horse kicked sand in their faces as he left, taking Essie with him.
Roa and Theo glowered at the retreating king.
“Best not underestimate the sand sea again!” Theo called to his back. “She’s not a merciful mistress!”
Roa lifted her hands to the fire. The rest of the caravan had long since gone to sleep, but she, Lirabel, Jas, and Theo were still up. Theo’s tent was open on one side so they could look out over the camp but closed on the other three sides to keep out most of the cold.
In Roa’s lap, Essie slept with her head tucked beneath her wing. She’d seemed distant tonight, just like the hum. Quiet and exhausted. As if finding her way back to Roa had taken all her strength.
When she looked up from her sister’s sleeping form, Roa noticed Lirabel glance toward Dax and Roa’s tent—the one Theo had brought for them—which glowed warmly from the inside, throwing Dax’s shadow across the canvas. Roa looked where she looked, watching the king’s silhouette as he unlaced his shirt, then tugged it off.
Lirabel never once looked at Jas across the fire. And Jas, chatting with Theo, never once directed a question Lirabel’s way. It was odd. Jas and Lirabel should have more to talk about than anyone else. Ever since Dax made Lirabel his emissary to the scrublands, she’d been seeing a lot of Roa’s brother.
When the glow in Dax’s tent dimmed into darkness, Lirabel rose from the carpet of sheepskin and drew her sandskarf tight around her shoulders. Her curls were plaited in a long braid down her back. “It’s getting cold. I’m going to sleep.”
Roa watched her head off in the direction of the king’s tent.
Jas didn’t even say good night.
In Lirabel’s absence, Roa studied him. He was the contemplative sort, her little brother. But it had always been a cheerful contemplation. Lately he was... broody. Like a storm cloud had settled inside him, blocking the sun that normally shone out of his eyes.
Is it because Lirabel has finally put him off?Roa wondered.Or is it because he’s worried about Song’s rift with the House of Sky?
The latter was her fault. Another consequence of the decision she’d made. If she hadn’t married Dax, there would be no trouble with Sky, and therefore no burden laid across her little brother’s shoulders.
Not long after Lirabel left, Jas stretched and yawned, rubbing a hand over his face. “I think I’ll retire, too.” Rising, he caught his sister’s eye. “Coming, Roa?”
Roa shook her head no.
Her brother’s forehead wrinkled as he gave Roa what Essie liked to call hiscautious study. He’d learned it from their mother, who used it whenever Roa and her siblings did something she disapproved of: pinched brow, narrowed eyes, lips pressed firmly together.
But Jas’s disapproval over his sister sitting alone after dark with a young man who wasn’t her husband was nothing compared to the guilt that racked Roa. She needed to make sure things were right between her and the boy she’d betrayed.
Seeing his efforts were futile, Jas sighed, then leaned over Roa and planted a kiss on the top of her head. “It’s been a long day,” he said, touching her shoulder. “You should go to sleep soon.”
Roa caught the warning in his tone.
If you give them a reason to believe you’re disloyal...
She shook his voice out of her head and said, “I will... in a moment.”
“Good night, Jas,” said Theo. Jas frowned a little, then nodded and stepped out of the tent.
