Page 103 of A Hunt Bound in Blood

I wrapped my arms around his middle and bowed my head against his spine. He curled his hands around my forearms, leaning into me, and for a while we stood like that. Happy to be in contact, enjoying the easy closeness and everything that came with it, a swirl of charged emotions that neither of us would express aloud because what was the point? We both knew how the other felt.

When the sun dropped below the horizon and a chill worked through the earth, Cammon got dressed and started a fire. He went out to hunt and came back with a pheasant we roasted together, using the skills he’d taught me over the past few weeks—skills I never would have bothered to learn.

We ate and talked about nothing—the weather, the bats, the stars—and after we cleaned up, I reclined in the nook of his arm, unable to tear myself away.

My heart wept, my thoughts were muddled, and all I could do was take things moment by moment. In this moment, all I wanted was Cammon. The smart thing would be to talk to him about it, find out if his vision of the future had changed, but in case it hadn’t—and my ego wasn’t big enough to assume I could replace a crown—I swallowed the question. We’d have three days on the ship to talk. For tonight, my every wish had been granted.

I curled my fingers around the amulet again after my eyes drifted shut. We’d succeeded where more than once I would have sworn we’d failed. I would have failed if I’d come out here alone as I’d wanted. The Fates had brought Cammon into my life, and a tiny—infinitesimal—part of me hoped they had readied a longer game than it seemed right now.

Cammon

XLVI

The next morning, we packed up for the last time.

Everything for the last time.

I pulled our pack over my shoulders. “It should take us about half a day to reach the harbour.”

“That’s not too bad.” Glory struggled to meet my eye, and I did my best to give her turbulent emotions some privacy. She scuffed out the lingering embers in our makeshift firepit and cleared her throat. “I realized we might have an issue with the bond. Aside from…”

Aside from the fact that neither of us would be able to act on the cravings the connection created, being an ocean and a continent apart. If I left. Would she want me to stay?

A swirl of deep fear oozed off her, and it only took me a moment to figure out the source.

“No one will know,” I assured her. “I would never give you away.”

She raised her gaze, and I was startled by the wateriness of her stare. “I believe you. I trust you, Cammon. It’s more… If the cravings get bad enough, you’re going to have to hide it. Just like I will.”

I reached for her hand and gave it a tight squeeze. “And I will. Whatever discomfort I have to suffer, it will never come back to you.”

She nodded and squeezed back, then let me go and started out of the ruin and towards the path.

“It’ll be strange getting back to civilization,” she said, her cheer forced. “How do you cope with the shift from being in the middle of nowhere for so long to returning to the city with all its bustling action?”

I grimaced. “I avoid the bustling action as much as I can. Why do you think I spend so much time on the road or made my estate so large, looming, and away from the city centre? I hide, Buttons. Turns out I’m not so different from you, as shocking as it is for either of us to believe.”

The truth only hit me now. Although our public personas and motivations for keeping to ourselves were different, we had yet another thing in common.

“I suppose we’re both lucky, then. With all these new secrets to hide, we won’t have to change much about how we live to do it.”

There was a faint bitterness to her words that I both understood and regretted. I didn’t want Glory bitter. I wanted her happy. Radiant. The way she’d looked when we’d found that first clue and she’d realized all her years of research hadn’t been wasted. How she should have looked when we’d found the amulet itself if we hadn’t had all these other issues and questions and feelings to deal with.

It should have been a triumph, not this bittersweet victory.

“New secrets?” I asked, hooking on to that particular comment. “What new secrets are you keeping, I wonder?”

I was aiming for coy but missed the mark, veering more into concerned and curious. Maybe a little nosy with a hint of hope.

At the longing that stirred between us, those hopes rose, but she shrugged off whatever her real answer was. “The location of the vampire fury, for one. No one can know about that part of our trip.”

“The fury. Of course.”

She turned her face away to hide her expression, and I made up my mind right there.

I wasn’t returning to Karhasan. Not permanently anyway. I would go, I would clear my name, and then I would come back. After ten years of tolerating this country, I would make Golthwaine my home, and Glory wouldn’t have to worry about either of us suffering the effects of the bond alone. We would deal with it together, however it made sense, even if she had to sneak to me or me to her. Our time together could be yet another secret, however much I would hate keeping her hidden. I would learn what gave her pleasure, what made her smile. I’d share stories of my adventures and show her the treasures I found. I’d protect her, encourage her, and we would spend the rest of our lives indulging in each other.

If she wanted to. If she wanted me.