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“Your conscience?” she asked, and he raised an eyebrow, his smile sardonic.

“Very deadly of you to assume I have one of those.”

She gave him the same sardonic smile in return, and he laughed, shaking his head.

“Answer my question,” she asked of him, already knowing the answer. It was easy enough to ask him that since there was nothing he could truly do to her in his state. Should that change, she’d need to be prepared.

“I would have killed you already. I knew my assignment. I failed, but had I another chance, I would complete it and return home... wherever that may be now.”

“To all the women who would fall for your amazing archery skills?”

“Droves of them, I assure you.”

A true laugh left Bryn’s lips for the first time in days, and it was at the hands of the man sworn to kill her.

Looking up, Kian was smiling at her, a small one, but true in its sincerity.

“I’d be sad to kill you, Bryn,” he said with an honesty that made her shiver. The fact that he would still kill her lingered in the air, yet she didn’t feel fear like she knew she should.

“Bold of you to assume I wouldn’t kill you first... again.” Her eyes were growing heavy as the man sat there, his fingers tapping out a soundless rhythm that lulled her in its dance as she drifted.

Ghost, shadow, or man.

“Rest now, Bryn. Tomorrow’s worries can wait,”he whispered as her eyes closed, her mind drifting, her body growing vulnerable when an enemy sat only inches away. Yet she felt safe, and there was no understanding why except that he couldn’t hurt her physically.

But as she fell deeper into sleep, she could have sworn Kian somehow squeezed her hand.

Chapter 28

Brynstoodinthemiddle of Saints’ Road, her breath visible in the frozen air surrounding her.

Was this a vision? A dream?

There was no way the freezing season had already begun with the stifling temperatures that Bryn had been dealing with. The temperature was known to drop dramatically sometimes, but never this much, this fast.

Yet the frozen air said the freezing season had begun, moving in overnight, quick as can be. Never had that happened in her lifetime, but then again, when had they ever had a sandstorm such as the one that had passed through?

The church bells tolled, and she blinked, the darkness outside not a great indicator of the time of day during the freezing season, so she always had to be extra vigilant roaming the road this time of year.

Pulling the fur coat tighter around her, she stopped, thinking on how when she had fallen asleep, she’d only had a sheet because of the heat. She’d also been in her nightgown made of linen, not fully dressed for the day.

Screams pierced her thoughts, the sound of pounding feet on sand had her turning to see several of the men in her community running past the clinic, pushing women and children into buildings. Yelling for them to barricade themselves inside.

Hounds bayed in the distance, and she heard the horns follow in the wake of the howls.

There would not be a sandstorm during the freezing season, she knew that, so something else had them terrified.

A pull in her chest demanded she be in the center of the chaos.

Protect the city at all costs.

Where the words came from, she didn’t know, but when she moved to run upstairs, to grab the dagger Kessler had made for her, something stopped her.

Reaching into her coat, she pulled the dagger out and realized that this was the battle she’d been fearful of if she was already prepared to fight.

Fear pulsed through her veins as she ran to check on Jace, making it up the apartment stairs faster than she ever had. The hallway outside her room was empty, and that worried her. Running to Jace’s door, she banged on it, pleading with any deity listening that he was safe. Giving up on the courtesy of knocking, she kicked the door open.

His room was empty; in fact, his clothing and gear were gone.