Page 65

Thea eyed his palm. ‘You have nothing you wish to tell me? No truths you need to disclose?’

Wilder didn’t look away, didn’t falter, even as everything he hadn’t told her surged to the forefront of his mind. The hunt for the lost heirs, the truth about the half-wraiths, the way he really felt… No, he kept those close, but compromised on another.

‘In the spirit of honesty, I have a thought,’ he said, having come to the conclusion during Audra’s disastrous lesson. He had wanted to keep her safe, but the truth was, nowhere was safe for her now.

‘Just the one?’

Wilder elbowed her gently. ‘I don’t think you will find the key to reaching your potential at Thezmarr.’

Thea’s brow shot up. ‘You don’t?’

Wilder shook his head. ‘Not to mention that Audra has her own agenda.’

‘Which is?’

‘I can’t be sure…’

‘So guess,’ Thea prompted.

He mulled over his next words carefully. ‘If I had to… I’d say she plans to make you a figurehead for women warriors. To bring them all together, out from hiding, united under the first woman Warsword in centuries.’

Thea waited a beat, but her expression betrayed nothing. ‘What’s wrong with that?’

Wilder looked down, tracing the tattoos on his fingers. ‘Nothing. So long as you don’t become collateral in the process.’

‘Audra would never wish me harm.’

‘Perhaps not,’ he allowed. ‘But she has waited over twenty years already…’ He cleared his throat. ‘In any case, whether it’s mastering your warrior abilities or your magic, you won’t find what you’re looking for here.’

‘Where, then?’

‘Where all Warswords find their power,’ he told her. ‘On the road.’

‘The road to where?’ Thea blinked at him, realisation dawning slowly on her face. ‘You want to go to Delmira…’

‘I do.’ Wilder offered his hand again. ‘Do we have a deal, Apprentice?’

For a moment, he watched the thoughts flit across Thea’s beautiful face, watched her war with herself before she made up her mind.

She grasped his hand firmly and a bolt of power surged between them.

‘We have a deal, Warsword,’ she said.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

THEA

Once Warsword and apprentice had made the decision together, the preparations for the journey took very little time. The next day, Thea found Cal and Kipp in the Great Hall in the midst of first meal.

‘Where are you off to?’ Kipp asked, noting her pack and riding boots.

‘Can’t say,’ Thea replied, taking a sip from Cal’s mug of tea.Peppermint,thank the gods. ‘I just wanted to tell you I won’t be around the fortress for a while,’ she told them, weighing up whether or not to explain why she had sought them out.

‘How long will you be gone?’ Kipp asked.

Thea hesitated. She and Wilder hadn’t discussed the details; they’d simply agreed and then gone about making their own arrangements. ‘As long as it takes,’ she said eventually.

Kipp scoffed. ‘That’s frustratingly cryptic.’