Page 142 of Season Warriors & Wolves

“All of it?”

Elias nodded. “All.”

“He is leading us astray,” I said. “Tempt us to move most of our fleet away from our waters in his direction.”

“Adriata,” Cai said. “He wants to attack Adriata first.”

“No, he wants to trap us all in Adriata. If his troops have us surrounded south and north, then he wants to fight all of Numen separately.”

“And dirty,” Eren added. “He will go for civilians too to occupy us and remove resistance.”

“So we let Solarya be attacked?”

“We will speak with Magnus,” I said. “I think it is time we force contact whether his pride is hurt or not.”

Giggles of all sorts were pouring out of her room, and the closer I reached to it, the louder they got. I could recognise hers amongst the others. They were so light and vibrant at the same time, the way they brushed past my ear made my whole skin erupt in shivers.

Before my fist even rested on the wood to knock, the doors were flung open by a tipsy Nia. The scene behind her was…unseen for lack of a better word. Visha lay sprawled on the floor, passed out, her face covered with red hair while she snored like a horse, Thora rested her head on her stomach, glaring at the ceiling and mumbling to herself. And my Snow—

“You need to take her. Immediately,” Nia said.

My brow arched and I glanced over her shoulder at my wife sitting cross legged on the floor before a line of liquor bottles, the one who oddly seemed less affected by their whole celebration. “Hm.” I was still angry at her for what she’d said the day before.

“Hm?” she asked loudly, her eyes doubling. “She is a lunatic. Take her.”

Right then, my wife’s head flung in my direction, her porcelain skin had tinted red, and her gilded eyes had dropped. The more she looked at me, the more she perked. “Oh, wow. And who might you be?” she asked, leaning back and almost sprawling over the floor, attempting to give me her best shot at a sultry pose.

Gods, I was supposed to be so angry at her. “You know very well who I am, love of mine.”

She blinked. I blinked.

And then her mouth tipped up. “Kilian.” My name was honey and fire at the same time pouring out of her mouth. “My Kilian.”

Wasn’t the death of me extraordinarily beautiful on this particular evening? I walked to her, bent down and hooked my arms under her shoulders and knees, hoisting her up. She let loose a string of giggles that might as well have been composed by the finest orchestra to ever play the land of the living.

“You raging alcoholic,” I said, shaking my head.

She gave me a shy smile. “Am I still heavenly beautiful?”

“This is why you should never drink. How can you even doubt that?”

She threw a look over her shoulders at the ladies attentively glaring at us over their liquor glasses. “See, being evil and heartless is not all that disadvantageous.” She flapped her feet all excited and shouted, “To bed!” She kissed my neck and murmured in my ear, “So you can do bad things to me. And I can do very bad things to you.” Her hand slipped between the button space of my shirt and her fingers were tickling my stomach. “Very, very bad things.”

“Good try,” I murmured back and kissed her cheek repeatedly only so I could hear her giggle again. “Not when you are this drunk.”

She rolled her eyes up at me and just glared as if I would submit entirely before her—perhaps I would someday. I was only a man. And she was everything this man had.

I turned to the others. “Don’t stay drinking too late.”

“Yes, father,” Nia murmured under her breath, and they all laughed.

Sigh.

Mal walked toward us just as I was about to turn toward our corridor. “Is she still there?”

Thora. “Yes.”

He patted my shoulder and made toward their room. Not even a second later, screams travelled down the silent corridor, then some bickering.