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‘Are you going to tell them?’
‘I had planned to… At some point.’
‘Oh?’ Torj scoffed. ‘And how do you think that’s going to go down? Keeping a secret like that?’
‘I’m used to keeping secrets.’
‘Of that I have no doubt, brother.’ Torj elbowed him. ‘As I keep telling you… You’re gonna have to open up sometime. Let people in again, you know?’
‘I was doing that, with her. Or starting to, at least.’
‘She’s not the only one around, is she?’
‘I don’t feel that way about you, Torj,’ Wilder quipped.
Torj chuckled. ‘You know what I mean. Talemir is gone. Malik is… Malik. But… I’ve been here. This whole time. Since before you were even a Warsword.’
Wilder ran a hand through his hair. The warrior next to him had been as close to a friend as he’d had over the years. No matter how angry, how unpleasant Wilder had been, he’d never strayed. Wilder had often likened the Bear Slayer to a thorn in his side, but now…
‘You have,’ he allowed.
‘So maybe it’s time to step outside those walls.’
Wilder spotted Thea and Wren returning from the markets, several packages in their hands. What were they up to?
‘Maybe,’ he heard himself say.
Torj was watching him watch Thea, that smile still on his face. ‘Perhaps you understand Talemir’s actions a little better now?’ he said quietly.
‘That was different,’ Wilder replied tersely.
But Torj simply raised a brow. ‘If there’s one thing that transcends time and distance and all else, it’s love.’
Then he strode back to the others, leaving his words to sink deep into Wilder, and settle around his scarred heart.
* * *
It was nearing dusk when the company settled aboardThe Furies' Will. Despite the circumstances that had brought them here, despite all that awaited them in Tver, an ember of joy sparked in Wilder as he watched Thea at the bow of the ship. Her eyes were bright and full of exhilaration as the ropes were thrown back to the pier and the vessel began to pull away from the port, the sea air catching in the tail of her braid.
She caught his gaze from across the deck, and smiled.
That she could smile after everything she’d been through and everything she knew was to come left him in awe. And that she smiled for him…
Wilder went to her, and when she reached for him, he didn’t pull away. Instead, he stood behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist, holding her close for all the world to see.
For as long as she’d have him, Althea Zoltaire was his. And he no longer cared who knew it.
Maybe she should know it too.
‘Are you alright?’ he murmured into her hair, breathing in the familiar scent of her, warmth blooming in his chest.
She stroked the bare skin of his forearm where his sleeves were rolled to the elbow, such a casually intimate gesture. ‘I am now.’
‘Do you want to talk about it?’
‘Soon,’ she said quietly, still looking out to the stretch of water before them. ‘How much do you think we should tell the others about me and Wren?’
Wilder tightened his grip around her, so she was pressed flush against his front, protected against the chill of the wind. Gods, he never wanted to let her go, but who she was… He thought back to those moments on the hill, watching the storm carve through the sky, watching it circle Thea and her sister as their minds were transported elsewhere, somewhere Wilder couldn’t reach. He recalled the open-mouthed stares of her friends and Torj’s words to him on the dock about letting people in.
