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Thea blinked at him in shock. ‘You used your vial on me.’

‘I told you I was saving it for something worse.’

‘Thank you,’ she croaked, her throat thick with emotion. Her hand trembled as she reached out to him, needing to know that he was alright. ‘What about you?’

He leaned in, resting his forehead against hers and closing his eyes for a moment. ‘I’ll live.’

‘Good,’ Thea managed.

At that, Wilder smiled. ‘I’m glad you think so.’

Thea rose up on her knees, an arm snaking around the Warsword’s neck and kissed him deeply, needing thereassurance, needing his heat to banish the cold from her bones. ‘We survived,’ she whispered against his lips.

‘Thanks to you.’ He drew back to gaze upon her again, awed. ‘That was some lightning…’

Thea blinked, the memory of the current coursing through her causing a shudder. ‘That was me…’ she said slowly, her skin tingling. ‘I…’

‘Have magic.’ Wilder finished for her.

Thea felt dizzy and small. Her voice cracked when she spoke. ‘I don’t understand how it’s possible.’

‘Nor do I.’ Wilder drew her close. ‘But we can figure it out, together.’

Thea’s shoulders sagged as she allowed herself a moment to rest against him, to take from his strength and revel in the way that, even now, her body responded to him. But above, the light was fading.

‘Magic will have to wait,’ she said, gathering herself and breaking the tender moment. ‘I need to be at the fortress by sundown.’

Thea suddenly remembered what she’d dropped in the blood-stained dirt. It took a minute for her to find it, but when she did, she held the dagger of Naarvian steel out to Wilder. ‘Here.’

But the Warsword shook his head. ‘It belongs to you.’

They were quiet as they moved through the Bloodwoods, though Thea kept catching Wilder stealing awed glances at her, and she, at him. Amidst her varying degrees of disbelief about all that had occurred, one thought echoed intensely as she gazed upon the man who walked beside her.

It was Wren’s words from long ago.A true man will help sharpen your sword, guard your back and fight at your side, in the face of whatever darkness comes…

There was no sign of Cal or Kipp as they trekked back, no sign of a struggle, or evidence that there had been other reapers or wraiths. Questions peppered Thea’s fragile mind, but she fought them back.Later, she promised herself as the gates came into view and the sun threatened to dip below the horizon.

When they reached the Great Hall, Wilder pushed the doors open, and they flew inward with a loud bang, startling those within.

Together, Thea and her Warsword entered, faced with the stunned crowd within. As they walked the long stretch to the head table, the silence was so resounding that all Thea could hear was thedrip, drip, dripof blood leaking from the black heart still clenched in her fist.

The Guild Master leapt to his feet, looking madly from Thea to Wilder, gobsmacked at the state of them. Beside him, King Artos, the other Warswords and commanders, bore similar expressions.

‘Somehow, arheguldappeared in the Bloodwoods this afternoon.’ Wilder’s deep voice carried to the far reaches of the Great Hall.

Despite the sight before him, Osiris braced himself on his knuckles. ‘Impossible.’

Another stunned silence thrummed before Thea threw the black heart at Osiris’ feet, blood spattering over the stone floor.

‘Is this proof enough?’ she said.

Stillness settled across the hall as torchlight flickered, illuminating the gore of the carved heart.

‘I was separated from my friends on the way back to the fortress,’ Thea explained. ‘That thing attacked me in the Bloodwoods.’

It was King Artos who spoke next. ‘What in all the realms was areaperdoing in Thezmarr?’ he demanded. ‘Let alone in the midrealms at all?’ He wielded his questions with as much forceas he would a blade at the Guild Master, who blanched in the face of it.

‘We informed the rulers that one of the monsters escaped our clutches at the ruins of Delmira.’