It was an order and a direction, and the First Knight and Protector of Ardenia sprang into action. Back into the fray, which pressed outward, past the confines of the rose garden now and toward the hill to the stables.
Ferdinand began sprinting that way, only to spot a single torch coming toward him at a fast clip—a trio of armed people barreling straight for him yards and yards ahead of the Torrentians meeting the cavalry atop the hill. He reset his grip on his sword and dagger, ready to take out a threat… when he recognized those in advance.
Urtzi in front with the flame, Ula with her big sword, and—it couldn’t be.
“Ferdinand?!”
But it was.
“Osana?” They crashed together in a fevered greeting, his thumbs about her face as if testing the truth of her. Her dark hair tickled his wrists and a trickle of blood—not hers, someone else’s—smeared under his fingertips. “You came? Here? Now?”
In answer Osana grabbed his face back and pulled him to her waiting lips. Hard. Hungry. Satisfied, she pulled away, a teasing grin at the ready. “I had a ship to return and a boy to rescue.”
“Kiss later, time for steel,” Urtzi grumbled over his shoulder from several paces ahead, still advancing.
Ula clamped a hand around Urtzi’s wrist, pulling his attention. The torchlight danced. “We’ll be fighting all night, let them have a moment to remember why.” Then, to Ferdinand and Osana, “Meet us in the rose garden when you want to be soldiers instead of lovers.”
“We won’t be fighting all night if we do it right,” Urtzi argued.
“Come on.”
And then they were racing away.
“How did you know I needed rescue? My letter simply told you where I was going.” It said other things, too. Like how much he missed her. How he wasn’t going to give up. All of it was written in the code of the Warlord watchers… something he hoped Zavier, or any other interceptor, couldn’t read.
That teasing grin twisted further. Osana drew him toward the castle wall, creating space between them and the path made for the Ardenian army, which was gathering at the stables atop the hill, preparing to charge as soldiers on horseback trickled through a spot in the outer wall.
“I should’ve been clearer. Father had no plans to bring me to Pyrenee. He didn’t want to give you another chance to steal me away, so when I received your letter, I simply removed myself. Stole theGatzaland raced here. It was only when I landed at the harbor that I learned you’d been captured.”
Ferdinand hugged her close. “I don’t deserve you, Osana.”
“Youdodeserve me, Ferdinand. And more.” She cupped each of his arms in her firm grasp—sling gone, strength back. “You’re not the sum of your blood—who your mother was, your father, your sister. You’re not tarnished by the way you were raised nor by who. Stop punishing yourself for a lie you had no way of unraveling as a child. Or the lie you told to help save Ardenia. You heard Ula, and you know she’s right—stars,she’s right about so much. If you need a reminder of why we’re fighting tonight other than to win, it’s that you’re fighting to ensure you get the life you want. The one you deserve.”
The lump that had formed in his throat cracked, days of pain rushing out.
“I want you. I don’t want to lose you when your father comes. I’ve lost so much—my father, Koldo, now Geneva.…”
“Geneva?”
He nodded but didn’t elaborate. He only gripped her harder now, mindful of her injury but nothing else except the drumbeat of her heart against his body. “I’ve lost so much. I can’t lose you. I won’t lose you.”
“You won’t lose me, Ferdinand.”
“But your father—”
“Myfathercannot reclaim me now that it’s convenient. I’m not a book on loan. Or a piece of furniture. Or whatever object is fashionable to stand in for a woman these days. I am a princess, apparently, but first and foremost, I’m a human being. I have rights, I have agency, and I have a heart and mind of my own. And if my father objects to my choices, I will object right back.” Osana’s hands slid down to his wrists and squeezed hard enough to test the bone. “There are many things I’ve learned from your sister over the past few weeks, and how to wage a war for my own life is the best one.”
He kissed her again and, in that moment, the ground beneath their feet began to rumble; the Ardenian regiment was at full strength now and racing down the hill with the Torrentian fighters flanking the charge on foot, the rose garden, hedge maze, and Bellringe beyond.
Ferdinand bent and stowed the dagger in the empty sheath in his boot and took Osana’s hand. “From what I understand, my father used to say, ‘Survive the battle, see the war.’ Let’s win this battle and fight our war.”
Osana raised the sword in her other hand. “I love the way you think.”
He lifted his own sword, but before they could even take a step, Osana tilted her head, squinting at the weapon in his grip. “Hey, that’s notEgia.”
Even in the low light, she’d know King Sendoa’s sword anywhere, apparently. He shouldn’t have been surprised.
“No, it’s not. They took it when I was captured.”
