Page 120 of Down Comes the Night

But she was still here. Still alive and breathing and fighting, even when she’d been stripped of the one thing she believed defined her. It shook something loose in her. Was this what Hal felt, too, when it happened? Fear that bloomed into acceptance—into relief? She was not her magic. Her worth—her existence—was more than the sum of her talents. Being just Wren was enough.

“It’s gone,” she said exultantly.

“Gone?”

Wren tore herself away from the guilt in his eyes. “I still feel it, I think. If I really pushed, I think maybe I could still… Anyway, as long as I rest, it’ll come back. Once you’re safe, I’ll find a healer to fix it.”

“You shouldn’t have—”

“It’s alright. Really.” Wren looked down at her shaking hands. “For so long, I thought my magic was the only good part of me. That it was all I could offer the world.”

She found understanding glimmering in his eyes. But if she lingered on it, if she let him comfort her, she would fall apart. She couldn’t fall apart yet.

“We should get some rest,” she said.

“We should.”

It rang hollow. Something shifted in the air. This felt like a goodbye, and Wren was far from ready to give him up. After tonight, they’d never have a moment alone again. It lit her with a desperate, frightening desire.

To her mortification, she found herself tracing the curve of his lower lip with her gaze. She wondered if he knew what effect he had on her. He surely had to, or he wouldn’t have that quirk to his mouth, vaguely pleased with himself. Hal lifted himself onto one elbow. Cradling the back of her neck, he drew her closer and kissed her throat, lingering and warm.

With a soft sigh of pleasure, Wren rolled her head back. A figure of the Maiden mounted on the wall landed directly in her eyeline. She was smiling soknowingly.

“Oh, no. We can’t. She’s watching.”

Hal followed her gaze and smirked. “Do you want me to cover it?”

“It won’t work. She’ll still know.”

The breathiness of his laughter tickled her ear, and Wren treasured the rareness of the sound. “I see.”

“It’s a sin, you know.” Wren jabbed a finger into his chest. “Strictly forbidden in this Order. You shouldn’t even be in here.”

“How many ways are we bad for one another?”

“You really want to count the ways?”

His gaze, none too subtly, slid down her body. “None, I believe.”

“None?” Wren angled his chin up toward her face again. “Really? Who would have guessed you’re a romantic? You don’t suppose the reality of our situation is at leastonestrike against our relationship?”

“Maybe.” The corners of Hal’s eyes creased into a smile, and he slid off the bed to kneel in front of her. The man who would rule Vesria was on his knees, and he regarded her with pure devotion. “Should we survive this, if you will have me, I will follow you wherever you go. Whatever use you have for me, I am at your disposal.”

Wren stared down at him, unable to draw a breath. “Why?”

“Because you are the only person who has seen me for something beyond my magic. As anything but a monster. Because you’ve shown me I know how to do other things than hurt people.” Hal’s voice, usually so steady, wavered. “Because I… care for you.”

She heard his true meaning in his hesitation.

“Oh.” Wren blinked away tears. No response could be sufficient. She wanted desperately to tell him something, anything, to communicate how much he’d taught her, how much shefelt. But her panicked mind supplied only one humiliating platitude. “That’s the kindest thing anyone’s ever said to me.”

“I’m glad.” Hal rested his chin on her knee. “Although I don’t feel much like talking anymore.”

She could taste those words like honey spooned into her mouth. There was something so vulnerable, so plain in his yearning, it narrowed her world to the sensation of his skin on hers. To thismoment, where she could convince herself they had forever instead of this stolen night.

She carded her hand through his hair. “Maybe we could do something else instead?”

“Something else?” he asked huskily.