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Ber sat up with a gasp,his hand going instantly to his chest. No arrow. Frowning, he glanced down, but all he saw was a clean house tunic where his blood-soaked one had been. But how? He remembered little beyond the pain and muddled brightness.

He lifted his gaze to find the familiar sight of his old bedroom. Had he died? Was he unconscious, reliving somefragment of his childhood? Yet a moment’s study revealed Tes sleeping on the mattress beside him. He would not deserve such a thing in death, and his subconscious probably wouldn’t have provided such a boon in life.

So how had they gotten here?

“She expended a lot of energy using the ring,” Toren said softly, his voice emerging from the shadows to the right.

Ber squinted into the darkness. His brother sat as still as one of the chairs, but his gaze was intent. Cutting. “You sound angry. Believe me, I didn’t intend to come here, and I certainly wouldn’t have wanted to cause my wife harm.”

“My anger isn’t at you,” Toren said tightly.

Difficult to fathom, that. Ber frowned. “No matter my intent, I seem to forever bring you trouble.”

Toren leaned forward. “Do you? Or has it always been Ryenil?”

“Perhaps both,” Ber said, oddly defensive despite the truth in his brother’s words. “I stabbed the king of Centoi. You’ll be protecting a criminal.”

A pulse of energy pounded in the room. “I saw the bruises on Tes’s throat. If I ever see him again, I’ll stab Ryenil through his rotten heart.”

Ber froze, the unbidden wave of jealousy nearly choking him. “If you’ve fallen—”

“Don’t finish that, brother.” Toren stood, looming over the bed with a fierce scowl. “Tes is a friend. A sister. There is nothing more to it than that. And I realize that you’ve spent most of our lives protecting me, whether I asked you to or not. Now, I will return the favor whether you ask me to or not. Resign yourself to it.”

Ber glared after his brother even as the door closed behind him. It was too risky. How could he allow…?Allow?What was he thinking? He flopped back against the pillow and closed hiseyes. Toren had grown into his power. He no longer needed protecting.

Maybe this once, it really was Ber’s turn.

Chapter 33

Waking

Warmth—the sensation surrounded Tes as she drifted back to awareness. The solid heat of Ber at her back, his arm curled around her waist. The glow from the window, warming her face and flashing gold behind her eyelids. Sighing with pleasure, she squirmed more deeply into her husband’s hold and let herself drift in contentment. She could rest here for a while, at least until the nursemaid called her for Speran.

What about Ber’s wound?

Her eyes popped open at the thought, and she stiffened in his arms. Had Mery said that it was healed? Totally healed? What if he’d needed to rest without disturbance, and she’d caused him injury with her movements? Tes had been too exhausted from using the ring to inquire.

“Stop worrying,” Ber murmured against her neck.

She was too afraid to move to glare over her shoulder at him. “You’re supposed to rest to complete your recovery.”

“I’m fine,” he replied. “We’ve both slept for almost a day now, and Mery was here not long ago. I’m surprised you didn’t wake then.”

Almost a day? Gasping, she rolled over to face him. “We shouldn’t have remained here so long. Toren said we were welcome, but the risk is too great.”

Ber let out a dry chuckle. “Don’t bother trying to argue with him. He has made it clear that he will no longer be protected by me or anyone else. And maybe he’s right. Maybe we were always meant to work together. My father believed…”

“Your father?” Tes asked, hoping to encourage him to continue. Even after so many centuries, Ber rarely spoke of him. “What does he have to do with anything?”

“He was a kind man. Soft-spoken and well-regarded.” Ber’s hand curled absently around her hip. “He also killed multiple assassins and other threats to the crown without anyone being the wiser. When I stepped into the role of Toren’s protector with my mother’s blessing, my father wasn’t pleased. He said that unlike him I should be a more visible support. But my mother and I both disagreed, so despite his feelings on the matter, he taught me his methods.”

Tes’s eyebrows shot up. King Nemin had guarded the kingdom from the shadows? It didn’t match her memories of the quiet, scholarly man she’d met during state visits. “Do you really expect me to believe your father was so deadly?”

“Yes.” Ber smiled. “But don’t ask Toren. I doubt he knows the half of it, and it doesn’t matter, besides. I was merely pondering that Father might have been right. The last time we spoke, he urged me to return home and work openly with Toren. Perhaps it is time to live as he suggested.”

She brushed a wayward strand of Ber’s hair behind his ear. “Perhaps. Your brother isn’t a child, and he certainly isn’t lesscapable. It must have hurt him to learn that you’ve always believed otherwise.”

“What?” Ber sat up on his elbow, the sheets rustling from the sharp movement. “I’ve never thought that. But with his power… In truth, I’ve always considered him more important than me.”