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‘Perhaps it’s time you told them everything.’

‘Everything?’ Thea tensed in his arms. ‘Even about my fate stone?’

The mention of the cursed object left a bitter taste in Wilder’s mouth and pain throbbing at the back of his throat, but he kept holding her.

‘It’s your choice, and I’ll support whatever you want to do,’ he said. ‘But answer this… Doesn’t it get heavy? Carrying it around with you, on your shoulders, with no one to ease the burden?’

‘You have helped ease the burden.’

‘I’m one man…’ He realised he was echoing Torj’s sentiments, and as he did, he saw the stark truth of them.

Thea heaved a sigh in his arms. ‘Is there a place we can all talk?’

‘I booked us a cabin. It’ll be crammed, but no one will overhear.’

Thea twisted, turning to him, her hand reaching up to cup the side of his face and stroke his cheek with her thumb. ‘Thank you.’

Tell her how you feel, the voice in his head demanded as he stared into those stormy eyes.Say the words.

But the words lodged in his throat, refusing to form on his tongue. If he told her, he’d lose her, just like everyone else.

So instead, Wilder leant down, tucked a strand of bronze hair behind her ear and kissed her. He kissed her soundly, thoroughly, as though with each brush of his lips, he could pour those words into her and she’d know.

* * *

The group gathered in the cabin Wilder had acquired, but with two Warswords among them, it was even more cramped than he had anticipated. It was a narrow space, with two bunk beds shoved against either wall. The whole frame creaked as Wilder sat down on the edge of one of the lower ones, Thea taking the place beside him.

Torj sat on the opposite mattress, while Cal rested his back against the door and Kipp sat cross-legged on the floor. Wren joined him there, placing the packages from the markets before her, along with a mortar and pestle. Furies knew where she’d got those.

Wilder had given Thea and her sister a moment before summoning the others, and he was quietly glad the pair had reconciled. Though Thea had tried to hide it, he’d known how much hurt she’d carried with her about what Wren had done, and how much she’d missed the alchemist in the weeks that had followed.

‘So,’ Kipp said loudly, looking around expectantly. ‘I’m assuming someone is going to fill us in… any day now.’

Thea huffed a laugh. ‘I don’t know where to start…’

Wilder placed a hand on her knee, squeezing gently.

Every one of them noticed. The small gesture clearly banished any notion of something casual between them.

But Wilder didn’t remove his hand, and he sagged a little in relief as Thea covered it with her own.

Kipp cleared his throat. ‘You might want to start with that storm…?’ he suggested carefully.

‘Right,’ Thea said, drawing a deep breath.

Pride swelled in Wilder as she told them everything. The tale was a harrowing one, punctuated by sorrow and despair, eliciting quiet gasps of shock from the others.

When Thea was done, she looked at him, tired but somehow brighter, and he knew she’d done the right thing, whatever happened next.

Torj had stretched out on the opposite lower bunk, his expression remaining cool the entire time, whereas Cal and Kipp… They looked like stunned fish, their eyes bulging, their mouths agape.

It was Kipp who at last broke the shocked silence with a splutter directed at Wren. ‘Gods, Ineverwould have spoken to you like that if I’d known you were a fucking – I mean, if I’d know you were aprincess.’

Wren fixed him with a stern look. ‘Maybe you shouldn’t speak to any woman like that, you prat.’

‘Good gods, a princess just called me a prat,’ he breathed.

‘I’ll call you a lot worse if you don’t cut it out.’