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Thea whipped around. ‘So now you’re speaking?’

Wilder shrugged. ‘We all have a part to play.’

Thea turned back to her sister and saw victory in her eyes, though it did nothing to ease the tightness in her chest. For Wren to leave in the heart of a battle and go to the one place that might prove even more dangerous…

‘I don’t know if I can bear it,’ she croaked, gripping her sister’s hands.

Wren smiled and squeezed her fingers reassuringly. ‘You can. And you will.’ She winked, and patted the satchel hanging at her side. ‘Besides… I’m not without my own defences.’

Thea forced herself to take a breath, knowing the decision had already been made. ‘Then I pity whoever stands against you, man or monster.’

Wren wrapped her arms around her, and Thea held on to her sister, burying her face in Wren’s neck and steeling herself against the tears that threatened to spill.

‘Be safe,’ Wren murmured into her hair before pulling back.

‘And you,’ Thea told her, and watched her go.

All was quiet for a moment, before Wilder leant in. ‘I want to show you something,’ he said, his voice low.

Thea didn’t question him. She simply followed her Warsword back to their quarters. She realised that her hands were shaking, that her legs buckled with each step.

She didn’t mention it to him, working hard instead to hide the effect of the looming battle. She was a warrior, a Guardian of Thezmarr. She did not quake in the face of a fight.

Wilder took her out onto the balcony where they’d watched the sunrise that morning. It already felt like a lifetime ago. Now, the sun was dangerously close to the horizon, the promise of war at their doorstep. She could see ribbons of darkness dancing where the lowering yellow orb of the sun kissed the sea, where the Veil shivered in the distance.

The view before them was like the quiet intake of breath before chaos descended.

Thea’s fingernails dug into her palms, but Wilder drew her to him, his warmth enveloping her with a quiet, sturdy comfort. He held her close, pressing her to his broad chest, dropping a gentle kiss to the top of her head. But that was not the sort of comfort Thea needed right now.

She reached between them, for the buttons of his pants, finding him already straining against the fabric.

‘What are you doing?’ he murmured, his body tensing.

Thea went up on her tiptoes, brushing a kiss against his lips. ‘On the brink of so much carnage, I need to do something that makes me feel alive. I need…you.’

‘Who am I to deny you?’ His warm, strong fingers gripped her chin and kept her gaze on his. ‘I’m yours,’ he told her, his voice deep with reverence.

She kissed him, her lips sweeping over his, his mouth opening for her, warm and lush, tasting of home. The buttons of his pants came apart at her fingers and she wrapped her hand around his thick, hard length, freeing him from his pants and lavishing him with firm strokes.

He moaned against her lips, the sound sending a shiver running through her.

She revelled in the way he responded to her, so instant, so all-consuming.

Thea shoved his pants down past his muscular thighs, her heart skipping at the sight of him; so much strength, so much power.

But he tilted her face back to his, not to kiss her this time, but to scrape his teeth down the column of her throat, biting her hard enough to cause a brief spark of pain, followed by a lick of pleasure.

Heat swelled between her legs, and she felt herself growing damp with need.

‘Wilder…’ she murmured, gripping his shaft and pumping him hard and fast.

The frenzy took hold. He snapped, tearing at her pants, wrenching them down her legs and turning her around so that her back was flush with his chest and the hot crown of his cock pressed against her bare backside.

‘Hold on to the rail,’ he told her, pressing a palm to the small of her back and bending her over.

They were out in the open. Anyone below could look up and see them.

But Thea didn’t care.