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“You bastard,” I whispered, shaking my head.
When he strode through the snow, the crows fled from the tree. They scattered across the sky like ragged scraps of black. He mouthed my name before wiping blood from his lips. He was still cursed, still unable to speak.
My heartbeat pounded. “I’m always finding you alone and bleeding in the snow.”
He shrugged, his smile brittle with pain, and stepped closer to me. I could have reached out and touched him, but I didn’t.
I took his letter from my pocket. “You wrote this?”
He nodded.
I ripped the letter down the middle, sighing in destructive satisfaction, and watched his words drift into the snow.
I glared at him. “This isn’t goodbye.”
In the low angle of light, his green eyes looked luminous and betrayed the depths of his emotions. He still loved me, even though he thought he would lose me. My heart hurt so savagely that tears stung my eyes.
“Why would you leave me like this?” I asked.
He closed his eyes for a long moment, then fell to his knees. He bent over his ruined letter, reading it again, before he rippedout a smaller piece of paper:I vowed to protect you. I’m saving you from myself.
“We agreed to protect each other,” I said.
Wendel straightened. He kissed my forehead, then my mouth. I tasted his blood on his lips, bitter with iron. He turned away; his face twisted. He might have been ashamed to be bleeding from the curse on his tongue.
I caught his face in my hands and kissed him again. The tension melted from his body. My own anger and fear faded away like mist in the sun. He touched me with all the love he couldn’t speak out loud.
I opened my eyes. “Wendel, promise me you will stay with me until the end. No matter how dark things get. Promise me.”
His lips parted as he stared deeply into my eyes. The armor of his arrogance fell away, and he looked soft and vulnerable. Slowly, he nodded.
My sigh fogged the air. “Thank you.”
His eyes hardened, his armor snapping back into place, his hand locked on my arm.
“What is it?” I asked.
He yanked on my arm to swing me around.
Natalya, the mercenary who had abducted Diesel, stood in the snow. Her blonde hair gleamed in the late sun. She had a rapier in one hand, a dagger in the other, and a smile that said we had just walked into her trap.
I glared at her. “Natalya.”
“Thank you, sweetheart.” She twirled her dagger. “I can take it from here.”
Wendel raised an eyebrow, clearly disdainful. Maybe he had put two and two together, and knew this was the blonde mercenary who had defeated me.
I reached for my sword. “Why the fuck are you here?”
Her smile widened. “You just kissed a wanted man.”
“Wanted? Are you stupid? I already brought Wendel to the Archmages of Vienna.”
She scoffed. “Sweetheart, the Grandmaster pays triple. You could have delivered Wendel to him on a silver platter and earned a hefty purse of gold.”
The facts clicked together in my head.
She was working for the Grandmaster.
