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‘He used his power on me in Harenth…’

‘He did.’

Thea’s throat bobbed. ‘I didn’t even know it was happening until you intervened. He used it to comfort me, to make me feel… at ease.’

‘Therein lies the danger.’

Thea made to stand, but Wilder yanked her back down to the forest floor.

She shot him a look of disbelief. ‘We need to help them,’ she said, as though it were the simplest thing in the world.

Regret laced Wilder’s words. ‘We can’t help them on our own…’

‘We can, we’ve beaten worse odds —’

Wilder sighed heavily and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. She was trembling, whether with cold or rage, he didn’t know. ‘Sometimes being a Warsword is not only about fighting, but learning when to live to fight another day.’

‘Wilder…’ she implored.

But he shook his head. ‘We need to leave. We need to rejoin the others.’

He thought she was going to argue more, but instead, she gave a stiff nod and reached for the swords in the dirt.Hisswords.

With trembling hands, she offered them to him.

‘You won them,’ he said. ‘You captured me. That was the deal you made with Osiris, wasn’t it? They made a point of telling me that in the ice cell.’ He tried and failed to keep the note of bitterness from his voice.

Thea pressed the weight of the weapons more firmly into his hands.

‘I don’t need yours,’ she told him, sounding steadier than he expected. ‘I’m going to earn my own.’

Wilder stared at her for a moment, taking in the ruined remains of her gown, the scratches and bruises across her exposed skin.She must be freezing.

‘I have never doubted that for a second,’ he told her, and accepted his blades, strapping them to his back, revelling in their weight once more.

She met his gaze. ‘I know that now.’

Wilder’s hand twitched at his side as he considered lacing his fingers through hers, but something stopped him. Alert as ever, Thea noted his hesitation, but said nothing, her expression unreadable.

Wilder steeled himself, squaring his shoulders and starting away from the horrors unfolding in the campsite below. ‘Come on.’

‘Where are we going?’ she asked, stepping in sync beside him. ‘To find Cal and Kipp?’

‘Soon, but not yet,’ he told her. ‘It’s time you met the shadow-touched, Princess.’

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

THEA

Wilder led her into the depths of the Aveum mountains, and after a time, wordlessly handed her his cloak. She could barely feel the bite of the cold, but then, she hadn’t known she’d been slowly freezing to death in those caves, so she took it gratefully, glad for its weight and warmth around her shoulders, glad for the scent of him that wrapped around her with it.

She didn’t like that they’d left the others in the middle of a skirmish. After everything she, Cal and Kipp had been through, it didn’t feel right that they weren’t together. They had stood by her through everything, they had —

‘They’re safe with Torj,’ Wilder told her gruffly.

Thea unclenched her jaw and relaxed her furrowed brow. She supposed her worry had been written all over her face, as usual. ‘But the attack —’

‘They had it in hand.’