Page 53 of Thorns & Fire (The Ashes of Thezmarr #2)

Wren

‘Observatory Hill is the single best location on the eastern isle of Naarva for studies of astronomy, and for alchemy that aligns with any phases of the moon’

– Drevenor Academy Handbook

‘E NJOY THAT, DID you, Embers?’ Torj’s voice was low as he extricated himself from well-wishers and fawning women and rejoined Wren, who was sitting in their corner booth feeling smug.

‘Immensely,’ she replied, still grinning. ‘Now who’s a terrible drunk?’

‘Drunk?’ he scoffed. ‘Not even close. You, on the other hand? That’s a different story.’

Wren waved her glass at him. ‘I’ve been drinking water for the past hour, Bear Slayer. While you are leaning a little far to the left.’

She watched as Torj looked down, taking stock of his body. ‘Am I swaying? Or is that the bar?’ he asked, blinking slowly.

‘Come on, Warsword. Let’s get you back to your room before Kipp calls for another toast.’

‘That was your fault,’ Torj slurred.

‘So it was,’ she said with a laugh.

‘Gods, I love that sound...’ he murmured, leaning closer.

Wren smiled, secretly loving this uninhibited version of the warrior. ‘Is that so?’

Torj blinked at her again, as though he hadn’t meant to say those words aloud. ‘I’m going to kill Kipp,’ he grumbled. ‘I should throttle him for endangering my ability to perform my duties.’

‘Perhaps tomorrow, Bear Slayer.’ Wren was waiting beside him. ‘Shall we?’

Torj stumbled, and Wren looped his muscled arm around her shoulders. She knew the sight must be ridiculous. If he fell, she had no hope of catching him. In fact, he’d take her with him. But she couldn’t seem to pull away. She liked his closeness.

‘Are you smelling my hair, Bear Slayer?’ she asked as someone held the door open for them and she hauled him through.

He inhaled deeply. ‘No.’

Wren laughed again as they staggered across the grounds. ‘Oh, how the tables have turned... Last time it was you carrying me back to the room.’

‘You’re hardly carrying me, Embers,’ Torj muttered, and he lifted her up off her feet.

‘Put me down!’ she shrieked, laughter still on her lips.

For a moment, she glimpsed the life she might have had: carefree, stumbling home with Torj, chasing each other through the dew-soaked grass. The easy conversation, the quiet moments in between. Gods, it made her chest ache.

She made a show of kicking her legs and he carefully set her down. When she peered up at him, she could sense the shift in his mood. But she wasn’t ready for the fun to be over, not when there was so little of it these days. They deserved one night of laughter, didn’t they? One night of stupidity?

Wren bumped her hip against his side. ‘Do you remember how angry you were with Cal when he was drunk on duty?’ she teased.

Torj snorted. ‘I’m not drunk. I’m tipsy.’

Wren patted his arm, pulling him towards the doors to the main building. ‘If you say so, Bear Slayer.’

‘You know,’ he declared, ‘I hate it when you call me that.’

‘Because?’

‘Because it’s not my name. Not to you.’ He halted before the grand doors, as though he didn’t want to cross the threshold. ‘Are you cold?’ he said suddenly, apparently seized by an idea.

‘No. Why?’ she asked. He was close enough that his body heat was radiating outwards, keeping the night’s chilly air at bay.

‘I want to stay out a little longer.’ Torj tipped his chin to the sky. ‘I want to see the stars.’

‘Is that safe, bodyguard?’ Wren quipped, mentally picking the best spot on the grounds for stargazing and debating the risks versus the reward.

‘You’re always safe with me,’ he told her.

‘It feels that way,’ she admitted, keeping her arm linked through his and guiding him away from the building. ‘But I’m not sure that’s always the case.’

The Warsword nodded sadly. ‘I’ve let you down in the past.’

‘I know you’d never let anything happen to me.

’ She hadn’t been talking about her physical safety, anyway; she’d been talking about her heart – bruised and broken by his words.

But she didn’t want to have this conversation.

Not now. Not as she led him towards the best place to view the stars.

‘Do you miss being on the road?’ she asked instead.

‘No,’ he said. ‘I miss you .’

Wren stopped walking and looked up at the man towering beside her.

His eyes were on her, clear and bright. ‘It’s you I miss,’ he told her again, cupping her face in his hands. ‘I miss talking with you. I miss your smile. I miss the weight of you in my arms. I miss... everything.’ The words seemed to tumble from his lips, a broken dam of feeling.

Wren struggled to swallow the thick lump in her throat.

Torj dropped his hands and took a deep breath, as though measuring his next words. ‘I thought you were taking me to see the stars, Embers...’

Wren hesitated, just for a moment. He sounded so lost, so broken, that she wanted to be a balm for those wounds, however briefly. As devastated as she was, she never wanted to see him hurting. She tugged on his sleeve. ‘I am. Keep up.’

Dessa had told her about the place – Observatory Hill. An elevated grassy knoll on the very outskirts of the grounds, in a clearing in Evermere Forest, away from the lights and chimney smoke of the academy.

Together, they hiked to the summit. Wren’s legs burned from the climb, but the ache was nothing compared to the flutter in her chest every time Torj’s hand brushed against hers.

When they finally reached the top, they lay on their backs, Wren flushed and suddenly nervous, the cool grass a stark contrast to her warm skin.

The night sky unfurled above them, a canvas of countless stars. Wren’s heart caught in her throat. She’d seen the stars before, of course, but never like this – never with him this close.

She made a flourish with her hands. ‘Here you go. Stars,’ she said, as though she had made them herself.

‘Thank you,’ Torj replied roughly.

Wren dropped her hands by her sides, her fingers curling into the soft grass. She blinked up at the twinkling silver against the darkness. ‘Why did you want to see them?’ Her voice was barely a whisper, afraid to shatter the moment.

Warm fingers found hers, callused yet gentle. Wren’s heart raced at the contact.

‘Maybe because when I look up there, it doesn’t all feel so impossible,’ Torj murmured.

His words seemed to vibrate through her, settling deep in her bones.

‘During the years after the war, I’d look up at the night sky and find comfort in the thought that you might be looking up at the same time.

I liked to think that life is made up of smaller moments, threads in a tapestry of something much bigger. ..’

Wren’s heart seized, her fingers tightening around his. ‘And what is it about these smaller moments?’

‘They’re what make the infinity bearable. Wren, I—’

She heard him swallow, hard. The vulnerability in his voice made her want to turn and look at him, but she was afraid of what she might see in his eyes – or what he might see in hers.

‘The moments with you, anyway,’ he went on. ‘With you, every second feels important.’

Wren’s throat tightened, tears burning at the corners of her eyes. ‘When was the last time you lived in the moment?’ she asked softly. The name Bear Slayer danced on the tip of her tongue, but she held it back. After what he’d admitted, the title seemed more like a burden than an honour.

‘That night in the room...’ he said, his voice low and husky. Memories of that night flooded Wren’s senses – his touch, his scent, the look in his eyes, the heat of his body on hers. ‘I forgot about consequences and duty. There was only you.’

Wren turned her head then, finally allowing herself to look at him. Torj’s profile was etched against the starry backdrop, his features softened by starlight. She watched as he swallowed again, his throat bobbing, and felt an overwhelming urge to trace the line of his jaw with her fingertips.

‘And now?’ she whispered, her heart pounding so wildly she was sure he must be able to hear it. ‘Are you living in the moment now, Torj?’

He turned to face her, their noses almost touching. His eyes, reflecting the starlight, were clear now. ‘I’m trying,’ he murmured, his breath warm against her cheek. ‘Gods, Wren, I’m trying.’

Ever since the truth had come out about Delmira, Wren had felt as if she were standing on the edge of a precipice, the vast unknown before her utterly terrifying.

But here, under the infinite sky with Torj’s hand in hers, she wondered if she’d be brave enough to fall again – or if she’d ever stopped falling at all.