Page 127 of The Ashborn

As his touch sank into her arms, Kienna’s heart rate slowed, her shoulders loosened. Danek lifted his hands, brushing her cheek. He wasn’t Connak. He couldn’t talk to her through a weird link in their minds, but he was there. Not bound by anything but a love for her.

“I’m here,” he said. “I know I’m out of my element right now…” He nodded to the fire. “But I’ll always be here to ground you. If you’ll let me.”

Danek studied her as the panic faded from her eyes, replaced with a heavy kind of stillness. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to make his chest tighten. The thought burrowed deep. He not only loved her. He yearned for her. It was bone-deep and fierce. He wanted to be the one she looked to when everything fell apart.

He thought he was making strides to get there before the war. Coming back to Trinity changed her. Kienna looked so impossibly far away from him, even standing inches apart.

Her gaze drifted to the window, leaving a cold loss from her lack of attention. The firelight cut through the mist, casting a glowing orange onto the floor. “I thought we’d get an adventure when we left River Storm,” she said, voice low. Danek stepped closer to her. “Exploring and finding new treasures, like stories we read as children. Not…war councils and death. I wanted something different. Where people don’t die because I live.”

The flickering fire illuminated her face, warm, honey gold shining back at him. She didn’t know it then, but she was exactly the type of queen he’d bow to every day of his life.

Bring her.

The words floated into his mind like a whisper in the wind. He smiled as he glanced up before returning his focus to her. “Come with me. I need to show you something untouched by the war. A place that remembers what peace used to feel like.”

—Kienna—

Kienna followed Danek off the islands and down the bridges. The city of Trinity settled underneath the moonlight, a faint clanking of metal echoing from above the trees. The night flowers bloomed, air thick with the sweet, heady perfume of jasmine.

When a pair of Elvish soldiers passed, Danek turned his back to cover Kienna. His lips curved up, revealing a set of perfect, white teeth. His breath was close to hers, mint lingering at the edge of his mouth. Kienna smiled back, an action that didn’t quite reach her soul. When Danek offered his hand to her, she took it. His palms were warmth in a cold forest. A spark surged from his skin into hers. She jumped from the sensation, wondering if he did that on purpose. He didn’t seem fazed at all as he pulled her along the bridge.

They moved carefully, weaving through the heart of Trinity. Soft murmurs drifted from the hidden corners of the trees from a few late-night souls tending to communal meals, the clatter of metal from the Vikings cleaning their axes, and the distant cooing of owls.

When the Viking woman, Ingrid, passed by, Danek pressed Kienna behind an ivy-covered beam with a flowering archway. Ingrid laughed, ripping into a hunk of bread and stew. She and her Viking companions sat outside the Heart of Trinity eating together. Ingrid didn’t see them. If she did, she said nothing.

“Why are we back at the council chambers?” Kienna whispered.

Winking, Danek slid behind the tree. He grabbed hold of a large branch and started to scale it. He nudged her up. It wasn’t a high climb, but it was enough to require the use of Kienna’s energy. Doubt crept through her. She borrowed so much of her energy that she could hardly feel the fire rekindling inside.

Danek grabbed her hand, thrusting her into the air until she reached the top. The wind carried her, flowing freely around her body. Her breath hitched in her throat, a sudden wave of emotion flooding through her. Danek’s strength was more than she assumed.

Kienna landed on a thick branch and steadied herself. Danek jumped through the canopies, steeling her with his confident hands on the small of her back. She leaned into it.

“If we climb a few more branches, there’s a bridge up there,” Danek told her. “I can help you. It’s trickier, so I need you to trust me.”

“What’s up there?” Kienna asked.

“Adventure.” Danek released her and jumped into the branches, pulling his body up with ease. He poked his head back down.

Kienna hesitated, gripping her hand against the rough bark next to her. Below, the forest ground swayed in silence, the earth a patchwork of shadows. Danek’s hand extended to her, steady and patient. She waited, staring at it with the richness of tree bark after a rain, sun-tempered and strong. She was stilled, yet uncertainty held her. She was waiting for her heart to heal, to allow her to lean into everything the world expected of her. Or she could retreat from it all.

It seemed Danek didn’t want her to retreat. He patiently waited for her with increased encouragement. She knew he wouldn’t fault her if she didn’t take his hand. He never did. Danek didn’t see it. The mark of Vaerin. The cracks within her. He only saw her.

Kienna met his eyes and truly looked. Not with a passing glance in campfire light or mid-battle banter. She looked at the man she saw in the ship by the Lysiria. The man who kept her going and had her back. Fought next to her in war and rushed to her side every time she needed him. There, in the hush between heartbeats, she saw his eyes.

Braided fire of green and gold. They were the forest at dawn, where new leaves caught sunlight and refused to let it go. His gaze was honest. Grounded. A warmth tempered with restraint by the weight of feelings long before this climb.

Her chin quivered.

Kienna would trust Danek with her life and then more. More than anyone else, it was Danek who stood by her. Unbonded, and yet he gave her everything. He never asked for her trust and still offered his to her every day.

She reached forward and took his hand.

When her fingers brushed his, a shaft of moonlight broke through the leaves, warming the moss beneath them. The forest exhaled.

With the help of the wind, they reached the top of the canopy in a matter of minutes, pulling their bodies from the branches in tactical motions. Kienna stood above the tree line, and her breath caught. From the top of the world, she could see Alistile in front of her. Mountains. Rivers. The Lysiria. It looked small from where she stood, but that didn’t take away from the majesty.

Ahead of them, the bridge that Danek had mentioned guided upward into a large island above. Similar to those connected below the trees, the island drummed with magic. The rush of waterfalls roared into the forest.