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“Two rooms.” Zor gripped the edge of the desk with white knuckles. “One night.”
“I only have one room, General, and it’s not your usual.” The innkeeper smiled apologetically. “Given we are at war, it seems people are leaving the cities for the safety of the forest.”
Zor glanced at me with even more apology than the innkeeper.
“We’ll make do,” I told him, eyeing the heavy brass key the innkeeper slid across the worn desk. Sharing a room with Raz and Zorander…I was too tired to put too much thought into it. The idea of having them both close made me feel safe, and right now, that was all that mattered.
“Top of the steps, third door on your right.” The man pointed to the steps in the back of the public room. Pipe smoke hung low, smelling pleasantly of cherries.
“We should warn these people,” I murmured and Zor’s mouth tightened, wearily scanning the crowded tables.
“I know. But not now.” He shook his head. “More people get hurt in a blind panic than in battle. There might still be some way to stop this.”
The room was no bigger than a broom closet, but cleaner than the three of us, and I crawled into bed, the thin mattress sagging beneath me before sleep devoured me whole.
I woke in darkness, a single shaft of moonlight spilling in through the window overhead, like a stairway to the stars. Raz lay on one side of me, his muscled arm thrown over my waist, and on my other side…
I turned my head slowly so I didn’t wake him.
Zorander was breathtaking when he slept. His face—normally so intense and grim—looked ten…no, twenty years younger, his long, dark lashes brushing his tan cheeks. Like the impenetrable mask he always kept in place had slid off at last, revealing every bit of his fallen angel beauty.
He’d washed off the blood, the dirt, and I turned my head to look at Raz, his golden skin clean, his hair smooth and silky.
I didn’t know how long we’d slept, but some of the bone-deep exhaustion had faded, my magic humming softly at my core, and my head was clear. Clear enough to realize we were in trouble.
The entire world was in trouble.
“From that frown, I must look like death warmed over.”
A band of moonlight fell across Zor’s handsome face, a ghost of a smile playing on his lips. Raziel nuzzled closer, his arm tightening around my waist.
“You don’t.” How could I tell him he was so beautiful he broke my heart? “You look…tired,” I finally settled on.
Not exactly a lie, not when putting all my feelings into words was impossible.
Zorander was more than tired. He was exhausted. Ground down by losses, and the Oracle’s fuckery, and facing impossible odds time and time again only to end up losing.
But some of yesterday’s shadows were gone, his eyes focused again in brutal efficiency, a reflection of my own mental clarity.
“So do you.” His humor dropped away, something intense and real stretching between us. “You should go back to sleep.” His fingers trailed down my cheek. “I don’t know when you’ll get another chance.”
I didn’t want to sleep.
Didn’t think I could now that the full force of yesterday hit me.
“I know you don’t, but you need to,” Zor said softly, and I realized I must have said that out loud. “My magic is nearly replenished, but I didn’t use as much as you did. You reached the very bottom of your magic, Anaria. Rest is the only thing that will fix that.”
Raz’s hand drifted down my belly, then lower still, calloused fingers tracing lazy circles on my skin.
Zor’s eyes darkened.Surely, he knew what Raz was doing. My face heated and I shifted away. Those clever fingers followed, Raz’s touch growing more insistent.
I was…The dress was gone.
Holy gods, I was naked. In bed. With RazielandZor.
Behind me, Raz chuckled, his fingers dipping between my thighs, sliding through the slickness as I closed my eyes, my face blazing. I tried to move away, but that only put me up against Zor, whose indolent smile grew more wicked as he tucked my hair behind my ear.
“Let me watch you come, Anaria.”
