Page 115 of Of Iron and Moonlight

Kora shook her head once, attempting to clear the sensation. “What news?” she asked, partly to distract herself. “Rethor is secured?”

Duncan nodded absently. “But Kryovarre found a way around the boar-fangs,” he said quietly. “That’s why there are so many wounded.” His gaze drifted toward a nearby cot, where the side table had been scrubbed clean and a gilded asphodel sprig rested atop a fresh blanket—the markers of a life already gone.

Kora felt his grief as if it belonged to her.

“There is good news,” she said gently after a moment. “Cairon woke this morning.”

Duncan’s head lifted. A breath left him that sounded like relief. “He did?”

Kora nodded, feeling heartened by the change in him, and turned to fetch a fresh bandage. She meant to tell him more, but when she looked back, she stopped short.

Only a faint flush remained where the cut had been.

A passing healer paused beside them. “You’ve a gift for healing, Your Grace.”

“The salve must be stronger than I realized,” Kora said, staring at his forearm.

Wonder softened Duncan’s face. “Thank you. I felt—”

“The Council is ready, Your Grace.”

Garric appeared at the entrance, grim and still disheveled from the fighting.

Duncan hesitated, glancing at the boy he had carried in.

“Go,” Kora encouraged gently. “I will look after him.”

He gave a brief nod and stepped away.

Kora spent the remainder of the day in the healer’s tent, sleeves rolled to the elbows, hair slipping loose as the hours wore on. She learned how to wash wounds clean without reopening them, how to steep willowbark for pain, how to cool fevered foreheads with nothing more than water and patience. The amulet at her neck kept falling forward as she bent over cots, brushing wounds and catching on bandages. After the third time, she stilled, irritation breaking through, slipped the chain over her head, and tucked it into the pocket of her apron, meaning to put it back on once her hands were clean. The intention vanished beneath the press of her tasks.

The work gave shape to the hours and purpose to the ache in her back. Here, the war felt simpler. Here, the struggle was against fever and blood loss, not banners and ambition. For a little while she could almost forget the world beyond the canvas.

When night finally fell, she and Duncan returned to his tent, both too worn for even the smallest courtesies of conversation. The day’s burdens fell from them piece by piece: armor, cloaks, the tension held in their shoulders.

Until only tired breath and heartbeats filled the silence.

Kora lay down, and sleep claimed her instantly.

Chapter 54

Koraleise

Wind rattling a lamp against a tent pole woke her, and Kora stirred to find the weight of Duncan’s body draped over her again.

This time she did not startle. She lay quietly, listening to the steady rhythm of his breathing, the blessed evidence that he was still alive. Her eyes drifted to his forearm, studying the faint trace of yesterday’s wound.

She did not know what came over her then. A sudden curiosity. An abrupt onset of folly. Against sense and every boundary she had tried to maintain, Kora lifted her hand and slid her fingers over his, curling them gently into his grasp.

He woke at once. She felt the hitch in his breath, the sudden stillness that followed. Yet he did not pull away. They stayed that way for several heartbeats, hands entwined, neither daring to speak, as if the smallest sound might shatter the delicate moment.

Kora closed her eyes, feeling his breath brush the curve of her neck. His warmth settled deeper into her skin, and a want she had never known gathered in her core. With an urgency that terrified her, she realized she could no longer bear the absence of his touch.

She had no experience to guide her, only instinct and the reckless courage of the moment. Gingerly, she pressed his hand against her stomach, hesitated, then guided it lower.

Duncan’s breathing quickened. For a moment he allowed it. Without resisting. Without answering. Then something in him seemed to crack entirely. His hand tightened beneath hers. He pulled her closer, his touch finding the curves and softer places of her body as though he had been searching for them all his life.

Struck by awe, Kora’s heart thudded so fiercely she was certain he must feel it through her skin. Curiosity nudged her again. She turned her head and met his grey eyes, finding them intently fixed on her, fierce emotion caught in their depths. Her lips parted with a faint gasp, close enough to feel the warmth of his breath mingling with hers.