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He staggered, off-balance, and she chopped at his neck with the blade of her hand.

He stumbled forward with a roar, and in the moment when she had nothing to do but watch her opponent stagger toward the crowd, her gaze met his.

For the first time since he'd seen her, she stopped moving, no longer the fluid, quicksilver adversary she had been.

The Skäddar managed to stop himself before he ploughed into the spectators, and turned.

Luc realized the moment he saw she was distracted, the sudden acceleration as he leaped toward her, stick raised.

He shouted her name and she snapped back to the fight, too late to avoid the onslaught but quick enough to slide her body to the side, so the blow landed on her upper arm.

The wooden sparring knife she had been holding dropped from her grasp, and she staggered to the side. Even then, her gaze returned to his face.

The crowd had realized something was happening, because a few started to murmur, and one to shout out a question, but the Skäddar was caught up in the fight, not able to read the change in circumstances.

He spun to get momentum, stick raised, to hit her while she was off-balance, and Luc leaped, grabbing the stick out of his hands and knocking him to the ground.

He stared down at the Skäddar for a moment, the rage, the desire to kill, riding him so hot he almost gasped for breath. But he pulled back his temper, and instead snapped the stick in two with his hands.

The Skäddar had been about to shout at him in outrage, but the look on Luc's face had dried those words up.

Luc deliberately turned his back on the warrior, to find Ava standing, staring at him.

She was holding her injured left arm. “You are here. You came to find me.”

“I did.” He dropped the two pieces of the Skäddar's stick, scooped Ava up and turned, found every eye was on them, mouths agape. “I will always come to find you.”

Even Dak was staring at him, wide-eyed.

He didn't care. He had everything he needed right in his arms.

He shoved his way through the crowd and into the now dark camp.

“Where to?”

She lifted an arm and pointed, and he blundered through the tents, avoiding the ropes, until he reached a patch of ground that seemed to be empty.

“There,” Ava murmured to him, but he couldn't see anything where she was pointing, and he carried on walking out onto the plain.

He knew this place. It had once been his home, long ago.

He would win it back. And he would win Ava, too.

Chapter 5

“Iwas almost afraid to go looking for you tomorrow.” Ava brushed a finger down Luc's chest, her voice still a little breathy.

Luc shifted on his cloak and cupped a hand to her cheek, rubbed his thumb over her cheekbone. “Why afraid?”

“Because it has been two months since we said goodbye, and I didn't know whether you would be glad to see me, or not.”

“Ava.” His hand stilled. “I don't think I could have made it any clearer that I wanted you to come. That I will always want you, and if you don’t come to me, I will come to you.”

She gave him a wry smile and lifted naked shoulders. “Doubts crept in.”

“Never doubt when it comes to me. I will never not be happy to see you.”

She leaned forward, pressed herself against him, and wondered if that was true. If he knew everything about her, he may not be so hasty to say that.