The heavy rain had made their travel challenging, but they were entering the Wette, a swampland where the grass sank into mud and navigable paths narrowed. Resh had charted their course days ago, but the land tended to shift with each Cycle. During Growth, plants burst from the ground and caused landslides and avalanches, sometimes forming hills and cliffs where none had been before. The Kelvasari hadn’t passed this way since the last Growth and knew little of how the terrain had changed.
Behind him, the flap to the Commander’s tent rustled as it opened. Resh joined him without a word. They stood side by side in silence until the sound of a shifting wind broke the still.
“She’s staying,” Resh said.
Zarrek turned. “What?”
“Auryn. In my tent. Tonight.”
Zarrek blinked. “While yousleep?”
“She asked,” Resh replied, voice low.
“You sure?” Zarrek asked. “She’s still sick. You want her that close tothat thing…when you can’t protect her?”
A flicker passed over the Resh’Agar’s face. Weariness. Fear. Hope.
“I’m tired of pushing her away.”
Zarrek huffed. “About time.”
Resh scratched absently at the back of his neck. “Stay close, Zar. You know how to wake me. Or get her out if you have to.”
Zarrek didn’t argue. Not aloud.
But he did cross forearms with his Commander and slapped him hard on his armored shoulder.
He would do what had to be done.
He always did.
“There’s rarely a time when you’re wrong, Zarrek,” Resh admitted. “You don’t have to say what’s on your mind right now for me to hear it loud and clear.”
“Then I won’t repeat myself,” Zarrek grunted.
With a slow exhale, Resh reached into his belt and pulled free an ornate dagger made of pure Polis and aethersteel. He deftly turned it in his palm, examining the detailed etching on the hilt. Symbols lost to time. When Resh pressed it into Zarrek’s waiting palm, the grizzled warrior nodded.
“Don’t hesitate,” Resh said, his blue eyes sharp. “It won’t kill me, but Auryn—”
“Sleep,” Zarrek cut in. “I’ve got your back.”
Resh nodded, then disappeared back inside. Despite his assurance, Zarrek’s stomach coiled tight as he watched the tent flap settle behind the man he followed into battle—and the girl that had come to mean too much to all of them.
Zarrek made his rounds, checked the perimeter, and stopped by the Lioness’s tent to give brief instruction not to disturb the Resh’Agar tonight.Thessia looked less than pleased, no doubt misunderstanding the reason for his orders. Valid, he supposed. Something had visibly changed between Resh and Auryn in the last several days—ever since he’d gone to check on her in the bath.
Before his life as the Resh’Agar’s Second, Zarrek had been a prime Source for Breeders and Lifegivers. He’d been with enough women and sired enough progeny to know the signs. Thelook. The glow on their skin when they’ve been with a man and experienced fulfillment. Auryn already pulled in plenty of attention, but now—now even his disciplined Reskala couldn’t help but stare as she walked past.
He’s making a mistake. Maybe the little star is too.
But their strange and tangled connection seemed fated. Decreed.
Zarrek believed in nothing save for the weapon at his back and the strength of the man next to him in battle. But seeing what Auryn could do. Seeing her reshape a man in months that hadn’t changed in centuries—was making a believer of him.
Not in some deity sitting on his ass up in the sky.
Just in her.
In what she was becoming to all of them.
