“But I am pleased,” she responded, offering another kiss as she flipped her hair behind her back.
Now that the heat of the moment had died down, I realized that we had somehow managed to lie on top of our clothes, which protected us from the hard ground. A small mercy, to be sure, but I sat up suddenly, the adrenaline rush driving something home in my mind.
Legacy’s dark eyebrows cocked. “What is it?”
"I realized why the advisors are doing what they are,” I told her. “Power."
She nodded. "We already knew that. But you seem to have something else to point out."
"Not just power from the magic itself. By merging the advisors on both sides of the war, they can ensure that this war will never end and that they will always have power, always be on top, always have a way to control both magic and the power of the Montrose and Caputo kingdoms themselves.”
Her eyes widened, and she sat up quickly. I could practically see the wheels turning in her mind, and she nodded slowly.
"Now we know,” she said. “It makes sense, but we'll have to figure out what we plan to do about it."
I flushed and leaned back to let my head hit the ground, trying in vain to hide my grin. It was such a small thing, and I might not even have noticed if not for what we had just done.
She had said “we.” With no hesitation whatsoever.
I was not the last resort for her, not an enemy or a reluctant ally anymore. We were a pair, and she had acknowledged it.
It made my heart warm.
Chapter
Twenty-Five
It didn't take long for me to heal, although I doubted that my time with Legacy had helped with that any. True, it had been an extremely pleasant experience, and I was not at all upset with the time I had spent with her, nor was I against doing it again soon, but it had certainly tired me out.
We moved in silence, companionable and smooth. That was something that had changed of late as well, where we were so comfortable with one another that it no longer mattered that we didn't speak for hours on end. Nearly as soon as I could stand on my own, Legacy and I were on our way again, still with not much of a plan, but we were working on it, at least.
What little bit of a plan we did have consisted of returning to Ehuna's camp and me sneaking inside so I could warn her about Tannin and the other advisors.
Yes, Ehuna had held me captive, but with all that had been happening lately, it seemed like that wasn't the deal-breaker that it could have been for me. After all, Legacy had kidnapped me twice already, and I'd done far more with her than I ever had with Ehuna.
How strange had my life become that kidnapping was something I could just let go of, as if it had never happened?
I shook my head with a snort, but although Legacy glanced over at me and raised her eyebrows, she didn't seem inclined to ask me what I thought was so funny. Nor did I feel like it was something I could explain without her thinking I was crazy. So I just shrugged and kept walking.
Likely that would continue to be the case since we still had a lot of time to go before we arrived back at Ehuna's fortress, and we would do better to hide and watch for a while before I tried to approach her. No doubt she wouldn't exactly be super excited that I had escaped in the first place, but I figured we could get past that if I could get her to understand everything that was going on. It might take a while, but I was at least relatively confident I could manage that.
On our way there, I knew something was wrong long before it ever came into sight. Smoke curled into the air in a tall, black plume, and I was already running before I realized my mind had made a decision.
Legacy followed hot on my heels. When I suddenly stopped, she ran into me. I grunted, but her arms wrapped around me to steady me.
“What happened?” I whispered, the sound nearly inaudible with my fingers pressed against my lips.
This fortress had been full of people I knew, had maybe even served with, and now they were all gone. I didn’t see a single soul.
Legacy stepped closer so her shoulder brushed against my back, and she touched a stone pillar on one side of the path that led to the front gate. “There are survivors.”
Relief flooded me, so powerful I might have fallen if not for Legacy’s steadying presence behind me. She had that strange look in her eyes, the one that told me she had either had a vision or was currently having one.
With that in mind, I stayed quiet, although I was bursting to ask her what exactly she had seen. Finally, she blinked a few times, her hand squeezing my shoulder as if she needed my support. I turned slightly, my hand closing over hers without thinking. My cheeks warmed a bit, but I didn't let go. She had supported me, and I could do the same for her.
"What did you see?" I asked softly.
She swayed a little, and I lifted my free hand to her elbow, backing up and pulling her with me so I could help her sit. As much as I was itching to find out what had happened to the Caputo fortress and Ehuna, right now Legacy needed all of my focus.
