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CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

Ellery

I ate until I was stuffed and then licked my fingers clean. Ryker took the plate from me and set it on the ground.

When I went to nestle closer to him, I winced as the movement pulled at my wound. Sitting up again, I lifted my shirt to examine the bandage. Fresh blood stained it.

“You should rest.” Ryker settled his hand over mine. “Let me.”

I lowered my hand so he could untie the bandage. He pulled it open to reveal the gash.

I twisted to see better, but the movement only pulled at my skin, and a trickle of warmth seeped down my side. I was able to glimpse a small hole.

“It’s healing nicely,” Ryker said as Scarlet knelt beside me with fresh bandages. “I can’t see your ribs anymore.”

“That’s a goal everyone should have,” I replied.

His lips twitched toward a smile as he pulled the bandages away, and Scarlet gave him the new ones. She returned to Billy as Ryker re-covered the wound, settled my shirt back into place, and rested his hand against my side.

His silver eyes burned into mine as he bent to kiss me. “I almost lost you,” he whispered against my lips.

“It wasn’t looking so good for you either for a little bit there, but we’re both here.”

He cupped my cheeks as he kissed me again. “We’re both here.”

From somewhere deeper within the encampment, laughter rang out and cheers sounded. They quickly hushed.

“They’re happy Ivan’s dead,” Ryker said, “but they’re trying to be respectful of the injured.”

“And dead,” I murmured. “Ivan’s not the only one who lost his life today. Many innocents died on that field.”

“ Not because of you.”

I closed my eyes. “Not because of me.”

It would take me a while to completely convince myself of this, but he was right. Those women were there because evil men were hunting me; I didn’t place them there, I wouldn’t have chosen it for them, and I would fight until my very last breath to ensure they never ended up there again.

My eyes shifted away from the amsirah clanking their drinks together around a smaller cooking fire and back to him. “Everyone knows who I am now.”

“They do.”

“We’ve become the hunted.”

“We have.”

I’d lost the home, animals, and land I loved, but as I rested my palm against his cheek, I knew that was my past. My future was sitting before me and spread out all around us.

“You killed the king,” I said.

“I needed a big distraction to get you out of there.”

I blinked at him before laughing; I stifled my wince when the movement jarred my wound. “I don’t think you could have gotten any bigger.”

“Things are going to get ugly.”

“I know. What became of Gaius?”

His eyes instantly turned black, and lightning fired through them. I was used to seeing displays of his power, but I’d never seen the transition happen so fast. Even before he spoke, the fury emanating from him told me that Gaius lived.

“I didn’t get the chance to kill him.”

“It will happen.”

“Oh, yes, it will.”

I lowered my hand and leaned my back against his chest. His arms encircled me as he rested his chin on my shoulder.

“You have to be more careful in the woods,” he said. “Once my father has everything under his control and the realm has settled down again, he’ll be relentless in his hunt for us.”

“The woods will protect us like they have the gargoyles.”

“Is that what you think the forest is doing?”

“I can’t know for sure, but it seems that way.”

“Maybe the forest is helping to keep them imprisoned,” he suggested.

“Then why would the trees reveal them to us?”

“Maybe they’re afraid we’ll accidentally set them free and were trying to warn us.”

It was a possibility, but I wasn’t sure there was any way we’d ever learn the truth of it.

“How about some music?” Callan suggested. “It feels like a night for songs.”

The more ale they consumed and the more the injured started to wake, the less awkward they felt about celebrating Ivan’s death. I wasn’t about to begrudge them their joy.

“It’s a night for a celebration!” someone else shouted.