Page 99 of The Broken Prince

“I won’t.” I moved to her, my hands cupping her face because it always killed me to see her cry.

“If he’s already lost…no revenge. You come back to me. That’s what Ian would have wanted.”

I nodded.

“You get revenge here…on the battlefield with us.”

“I promise.” I pulled her to me, hugging her gently because my armor was hard as stone. It was jagged and rough, could easily cut her if she pressed against me the wrong way. My lips brushed her hairline, and I pressed a kiss to her warm skin.

When she pulled back, she quickly wiped away her tears with the pads of her thumbs.

“Are you comfortable with Aurelias?”

“I am.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t ask you beforehand—”

“I trust him with my life,” she said. “And our daughter’s life…” She sniffed. “He may have started as a curse, but he’s become a blessing. I’ll ask him to stay in the castle with us so he’s near.”

I nodded in agreement.

Now there was nothing left to do but leave.

She stayed put. “I don’t think I can watch you fly off.” Her eyes dropped in shame. “I don’t want that to be my last memory…”

My hand cupped her face, and in an instant, our entire lives flashed before my eyes, the birth of our children, the days we would sit in the sun and watch our kids play in the fields, the nights when we didn’t get any sleep… “This won’t be your last memory either.”

* * *

General Macabre, Mother, Harlow, and Aurelias stood on the field with the dragons, Jeremiah and the other riders ready to join me on our journey to the east. Elora was there too, her confident gaze broken into infinite pieces. The cold was not a factor for me, not in this armor, not when my muscles gave off this much heat to support the weight.

Elora moved to me first. “I want our brother back, but not at this price.”

“I’ll come back, Elora.”

“You don’t know that—”

“I do know that.” My hand went to her shoulder and gave it a squeeze before I moved to my mother.

She was rigid and strong, but once she was alone, the tears would fall. “I don’t want to lose a son. But I couldn’t bear it if I lost two.”

“I know…”

“Then please come back, even if that means you need to leave him behind.”

I nodded then moved to my daughter.

She’d looked dead inside the moment Ian’s disappearance had been announced. She said so few words, and now she looked even more defeated because I was leaving. Her eyes were down, barely able to meet my gaze, like she was a child about to get in trouble.

“It’ll be alright, sweetheart.”

“What if he’s already dead—”

“We don’t know that.”

“And you’re going to die too—”

My hand moved to her shoulder. “I’m not going anywhere, sweetheart.” I forced her chin up to meet my gaze. “But this is something I have to do. I know your heart, and if this were Atticus, you would do the same.”