River’s smile is thin. “No. I’m betting on us.”
We’re dismissed after that. No fanfare. No welcome. Just a mutter about debriefing tomorrow and a flask handed off like an apology neither of us wants to accept.
We find an old tent near the edge of camp—just canvas and dust and a cot that creaks if you breathe too hard. River peels off her weapons and rubs at her temple like she’s carving the headache out from behind her eyes.
I sit on the cot, watching her move. The tight lines of her body. The tension she carries like armor. She doesn’t belong here.
She never did.
Not in the city, not in the woods, not among the Rangers. Too soft for the killers. Too hard for the healers. Too human for the monsters, too monstrous for the humans.
Same as me.
Maybe that’s what draws me. Maybe it’s the way she doesn’t ask for permission before carving herself a place in a world that doesn’t want her.
Or maybe it’s just her mouth.
Her fire.
Hereverything.
I speak before I mean to. “What are we doing?”
She doesn’t turn around. “Trying not to die.”
“No.Us.You and me.”
She goes still.
Then she turns. And walks toward me.
She sits beside me on the cot, shoulder pressed against mine. I feel her warmth through the cloth. The weight of her presence. The ache behind my ribs.
She doesn’t answer right away.
Just reaches for my hand.
Her fingers slip between mine, tight. No tremble, no hesitation. But it’s not comfort she wants. Not heat. Not sex.
It’sconnection.
“I don’t know what this is,” she says quietly. “But I know it’s real.”
I grip her back. Just as hard.
We don’t say anything else.
We don’t need to.
Not tonight.
15
RIVER
The gown settles over my skin like a bruise—but one that’s still throbbing. Satin pressed tight from my waist to my throat, mocking every breath I draw. I stare at my reflection—pale painted mask, rich fabrics, a gilded cage. No one who sees me tonight will know what I was once made of: dirt, chains, silent terror.
Skeela stands beside me, a silent shadow in the flicker of torchlight. Her mask is iron-toned, her eyes bright with purpose. She’s no player in this. She’s the blade that will cut the world open.
