Page 115 of Down Comes the Night

Wren grabbed their shoulders. “Save it. Both of you. If this plan is going to work, I need to make him look like he hasn’t been dragged a mile from the back of a carriage.”

Una sneered but turned away. She paced the room, her hair billowing out behind her like a war banner. Heaving a sigh of relief, Wren crouched by Hal’s side and began to tend to the worst of the bruises on his face.

“How did you…?”

“Una helped.” Exhaustion and overuse made slow, painful work of it, but Wren watched his face smooth out under her magic’s silver glow. “I know she’s thorny, but I promise you can trust her.”

Hal looked entirely unconvinced but said nothing.

Once she finished, she rested her hands on his cheeks and turned his head from side to side, inspecting him for any further visible damage. “How does that feel?”

“Better.” He frowned. “But they’ll still recognize me.”

“Only if they look too close.” Wren opened her bag and dropped a neatly folded uniform in his lap. “But with Una and me, they won’t. We’re going to walk out the front door.”

Hal lifted the black greatcoat as though it would bite.

“What?” Una said peevishly. “Too proud to wear Danubian colors?”

He remained implacably blank, and then with frosty derision said, “No. Only to share colors with you.”

Una barked out a bitter laugh. “So he does speak.”

Wren wanted to shake him, to beg him to let Una see even aglimpseof what he’d shown her, any scrap of kindness, any scrap of remorse. He wasn’t exactly making her case easy, even if it had been Una’s idea to free him in the first place.

“Can youtryto be nice?” she muttered.

“For you,” Hal said tersely, “fine.”

He began to remove his tattered shirt. Wren averted her eyes, trying to ignore thepopof buttons and theshushof discarded fabric.

Finally, he said, “I’m ready.”

When she turned, she bit down on her lip to stifle an embarrassing response. Even if he hadn’t always wanted to be a soldier, Wren had to admit he was born to wear a uniform. As she admired the crisp lines of his shoulders and the braided silver aiguillette draped across his chest, heat spread across her cheeks.

“You look…”

“Please don’t finish that sentence,” Una said.

“I was going to sayready.” Wren huffed. “We’re ready.”

From a shadowed corner of the room, Una’s eyes were as dark and cold as the underside of a stone. “Before we do anything, Cavendish, understand this. I may be serving as your glorified bodyguard until you’re safely home, but once this is over, you will pay for your crimes. Whether it’s two weeks or two decades from now, I will make sure of it.”

“You speak with such conviction, but I have seen officers like you before,” Hal said icily. “You cling to an image of yourself as impartial and cold, but you’re governed by your grudges. I doubt you will last long enough to see your promise through.”

Una unsheathed the sword at her hip. “Insult me again. I dare you.”

“That’s enough!” Wren growled. “Both of you, stop it.”

“Yes, go on!” Una snarled. “Hide behind her. Hide behind all your goddessdamned shields like the coward you are.”

“I said—”

“Captain Dryden is right.” Una lowered her sword at the same moment Hal bowed his head. “I don’t expect or deserve your acceptance. Please forgive me for my rudeness.”

“Ah.” As Una slunk closer to him, her boots tapped out a deadly rhythm on the floor. She placed the hilt of her blade under his chin, forcing him to look at her. There was a predatory glow in her eyes, as if she intended to carve out the flicker of vulnerability he’dshown. To study it. To destroy it. “There it is. Weak for a girl, like the worst of us.”

The acid in her voice, however, couldn’t disguise her fear.