“We’re complicated, I know. Especially with the magic. I want you, and I care about you, and I know you feel the same. I’m not giving up on us, Fox. I only ask that you don’t give up on us, either.”
“I said we were dangerous to each other,” I told him again, just as I’d told him before. “But maybe that’s not right. Maybe we’re just…dangerous. And we should fight with the weapons we have.” I looked down. “And a bag of gold coins will probably buy a lot of weapons.”
“I expected sentimentality, which was ridiculous of me.”
I was quiet for a moment. “I need to talk to Wren. But maybe…staying here wouldn’t be so bad. I can try to plan for a different kind of future.”
“Really?”
I looked up and found the sweetest, most boyish expression of joy on his beautiful face. My heart warmed in a way that had nothing to do with the ember. “Really. I’m not sure how to thank you for all this.”
His smile went absolutely wicked. “Have you ever been naked atop a bed of golden coins?”
I grinned at him. “No. Let’s see what it’s like.”
We met each other halfway to the manor. I’d been walking to retrieve her, but the Lady had already kicked her out, and she’d been walking to the palace to retrieve me.
She carried nothing more than the worn linen bag that held her few possessions. Since I wasn’t sure what Wren would want to do, I also had a bag. I’d left behind the dresses he’d given me, taking only the one I was wearing, the cloak he’d given me, the boots. And my old tunic and pants, just in case. I didn’t need the rest. Not right now.
“She told you?” I asked.
“That he bought our bonds. So we work for him now.”
“No. He paid them off. And gave us coins for saving his life.”
She stared at me for a moment. “Paid them off?”
“In full. I have them.” I pulled the portfolio from the bag and extended it to her.
For a long time, she simply stared in quiet contemplation. “It’s the most expensive thing I’ve ever held.”
“You held the Moriad. The sapphires.”
She shook her head, sniffed. “Those were rocks and metal. Freedom is…priceless. And it doesn’t seem real.”
“No, it doesn’t,” I agreed. But it was very real, and a little scary. Freedom, after wanting it for so long, dreaming of it, felt like a precipice. The edge of something new, dangerous and unknown. Equally thrilling and terrifying.
“He’ll give us jobs if we want them,” I said. “Or we don’t have to stay in the stronghold. We could walk out of the gatehouse tonight and leave all of this behind. Start new somewhere else. Climb the mountain, or take up Savaadh’s offer and go see Vhrania.”
The thought of leaving, no matter how long I’d wanted it, made my heart ache. I didn’t so much care about leaving the stronghold, and I didn’t want to leave him. But Wren had worked to keep me safe in the palace, and I owed her. So I’d packed a bag; it was her turn to chart our futures.
“I…have no idea what to do.”
“You don’t?”
She shook her head. Maybe, like me, she’d always secretly believed that the life she was living was the only life that she’d be able to live.
“Then we won’t decide today. Would you like to go to the palace, or an inn?”
She scratched her temple. “The palace is free. And that bed is really, really comfortable.”
I’d hoped she’d say that. “Then we’ll go to the palace. And when we’re ready, we’ll go to an inn. We’ll get rooms, and sleep and eat until we’re bursting. And if we get tired of that, we’ll rent a room in one of the markets. We can take time to think about what we want.” Another luxury that coin afforded—the opportunity to plan, rather than having to react.
She pushed a lock of hair behind her ear and gave me a sideways look. “I want my own room. I’ve gotten used to sleeping in peace.”
“I’m sure the prince will accommodate you.”
Thirty-four
