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Another roar bellowed outside. A booming voice soon followed, one I would recognize anywhere.
“Tessa!”
My lips parted, and the candlestick holder crashed to the floor. I crossed the room in two quick strides and ripped open the door to stare out into the mists, half-fearing I’d imagined his voice.
The orange-stained darkness consumed everything. Heart throbbing, I stepped out onto the front step and grasped the railing. I’d heard him. He was out here. I didn’t know how, but he was.
“Kalen?” I breathed into the mists.
Steel sang from somewhere nearby, and an ear-splitting shriek rent the air. The wet sound of a blade cutting through flesh followed soon after, and then hurried footsteps, whispers, and another gruesome scream.
I scanned the foggy courtyard and tried to find the source of the sounds, but the air was too thick for me to see further than the steps. It had to be Kalen. It just had to be.
From behind me, my mother grabbed my arm. “Tessa, what in the name of light are you doing? Get back in here before you get killed.”
“I’ll be fine,” I said as the wind carried silence toward us. “If those shadowfiends aren’t dead yet, they will be soon. He’ll kill them all to get to me.”
“Tessa!” His voice ripped through the village, so loud and echoing that I could not tell where it came from, but he was near. There was so much anguish in it, so much rage.
I clutched the railing, desperate to run to him, but I wouldn’t leave my family unprotected. If even one shadowfiend got into this pub, it would be devastating. Claws through flesh, fangs drenched in blood. I would not step away from this door until I knew it was safe for them.
“Kalen,” I called out, hoping my voice would carry on the mist. “I’m here. On the steps of the pub.”
He was at the bottom of the steps a heartbeat later, his body heaving, his breaths ragged. Sweat and dirt and blood clung to the skin not covered by black leather armor. His dark hair was pulled back, highlighting the sharp tips of his ears. Shuddering, he dropped his sword onto the sandy ground. Its blade was drenched in blood.
I’d never seen him look more beaten, more tired. Even when he’d been facing the storm in Itchen, there’d been a determined set to his shoulders, a deadly spark in his eye. But now he looked like he’d been wrung out completely. He teetered on his feet, but his eyes never left my face.
My mother gasped and ran back inside.
I stayed frozen where I was, unable to move. “Are you all right?”
“I thought you were dead,” he ground out, shuddering. “We went to the castle. The dungeons were empty. There was blood on the floor and fire everywhere. I thought you were dead.” His voice cracked on the last word. Something in my heart cracked right along with it.
I made a mistake. I never should have distrusted him, but what was worse, I never should have taken that dagger and shoved it in his heart. If it had been the real Mortal Blade, if he hadn’t taken precautions, the man before me now, desperate to ensure my safety, would be dead.
How could he ever forgive me for that?
Tears welling in my eyes, I took one step down. I would finally get to say these words out loud. “Kalen, I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have done it. I wish I could take it back.”
I didn’t know if he’d understand what I meant, if he’d realize I was talking about that night. But then the exhaustion in his eyes softened into something that curled around me like his mists. And when his lips lifted in the corners, I knew.I knew.I didn’t deserve his forgiveness, but he would give it to me, anyway.
“Oh, love,” he said in his raspy, toe-curling voice.
I launched down the steps, and he opened his arms before I reached him. Our bodies collided, his wall of muscles against my breasts. He pulled me against him with a grunt and lifted me from the ground. I clung on to his neck, my heart pounding, my face buried in his mist-drenched armor.
He was here. And I was here. It seemed to defy the fidelity of this world. Somehow, despite everything, we had both made it back to each other.Alive.
I breathed him in. Beneath the mist, he smelled like smoke and blood. He held me strong, but I could hear his rough breathing, could feel the pounding of his heart against me. And when I glanced down, I spotted a scrap of his armor that had been torn off. It looked like something had taken a bite out of him.
I pulled back to see his eyes. “You’re hurt.”
“I’ll heal in no time.” He lowered me to the ground, and my boots scuffed the dirt. “There are a lot of pookas out there. They got too close, and we had a big fight on our hands, that’s all.”
“Us?”
Movement behind Kalen caught my attention, and several forms moved toward us from the mists. I hadn’t noticed them before, but they must have been standing there a while. Niamh, Alastair, even Toryn. They all looked weathered and worn, and Toryn’s scars had yet to heal. Maybe, like Niamh’s, they never would.
“Did you really think we wouldn’t come along to rescue you, little dove?” Alastair asked, cracking an easy, familiar grin.
