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One word. No bullshit, no pretending, just truth. He kissed her again, then looked at all of us. “They're coming home.”
Sorcha folded her arms. “You don't know that.”
Roman's expression turned hard. “Yes, I fucking do.” There was the leader. The brother. The man refusing to entertain any other possibility. “They're coming home.”
He looked at me. “Viking will come back to you.”
My hand went to my stomach. Roman's gaze followed it. “And his child.”
I nodded. “Okay.”
Roman left. Nobody spoke for a long time. Dawn started bleeding across the horizon at half past five. I hated it, I'd never hated sunrise before. Now it terrified me because vampires belonged to darkness and my vampire was still out there.
The sky slowly changed from black to deep blue, then grey. Birds started singing outside like this was an ordinary fucking morning. I stood near the reinforced glass, staring toward the gates. Nothing.
“Bryn.” Runa. “I know.”
“You need to sit.”
“I can't.”
“The baby…”
“Please.”
She stopped. I immediately felt guilty. “Sorry.”
“You don't have to apologize.”
“I just...”
My voice failed. Runa came closer. “What if he can't get back before sunrise?”
“He'll find shelter.”
“What if he doesn't?”
“He will.”
“How do you know?”
“Because Viking has survived hundreds of sunrises.” I stared outside.
“This one is different.”
“Why?”
“Because I'm waiting.”
Runa's expression broke slightly. She wrapped an arm around me and I leaned into her. Behind us, Sorcha and Layla were trying to keep the children distracted. Breakfast. Cartoons. Arguments over toast. Normal things. That was what these women did. They created normality in the middle of chaos. They held families together while their men fought wars outside.
And suddenly I understood something I'd only started to grasp before. The Dragic men might be the weapons but these women were the walls. We kept the fear from reaching the children, we kept food on tables, we remembered birthdays, bandaged scraped knees. We held each other when the men disappeared into darkness, we waited. God, we fucking waited and waiting might have been the hardest part.
My phone rang. I nearly screamed, I tore it from my pocket. VIKING, my heart stopped. I answered before the second ring.
“Viking?”
“Angel.” Listening to his voice my knees nearly gave out. His voice, I closed my eyes.
