“How long did I wait there like a fool? An hour?”
“Try three minutes. Five at most.”
“The longest five minutes of my life.”
“You deserved it after that stunt you pulled in the yards. How long were you watching me there?”
“Two times in as many hours you defeat me with treachery.” Alex released her wrists to bury one hand in her hair and slip the other around her waist. “I’m marrying a criminal mastermind.”
“I’m hardly—” But he cut her off with his mouth on hers. Sage wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back. His hair was still wet, too, and smelled of evergreen soap, like the mountain forest in winter.
He lifted his face to whisper, “I’ve missed you so much,” before kissing her again and again, each time seemingly different, with a separate memory of longing attached. She never wanted it to end, but at last he leaned back to look at her, tracing his thumb over her lips. “Sweet Spirit,” Alex said softly. “I’d forgotten how much I’d do for that smile.”
Sage pulled one hand back from his shoulder. “You look well, though this will take some getting used to.” She ran her fingers over the scruff on his chin.
For a second he looked puzzled, then he laughed. “Would you believe I’d forgotten it was there? It was just easier to manage these last months. Warmer in the winter, too.” He studied her face. “Do you like it?”
She pursed her lips. “I’m not sure yet. It looks quite dashing, but I’ve only seen and imagined you clean-shaven, so it’s a little startling. And a bit rough on my face.”
“I’ll get rid of it tomorrow.”
“I can get used to it. Give me a couple days.”
Alex shook his head. “Nothing will come between me and my lady—nothing that would cause her to deny my kisses, especially. Besides, I can always grow it back later.”
“If you want.” Sage shrugged, honestly not caring. “Who else came with you?”
“Cass and Gram for officers,” Alex said, rubbing his face where she’d touched him. Lieutenants Casseck and Gramwell were two of his closest friends and had been with the escort group last year at Tegann. “Plus a hundred handpicked fighters.”
That was interesting, especially considering how many similar soldiers had been arriving in the past weeks. She took a deep breath. Now came the question she wasn’t sure she wanted to hear answered. “How long are you here?”
“Not sure yet. Several days at least.”
Not great, but not terrible. “Will you have many daily duties?”
Alex rolled lazily onto his side next to her and stroked her bare arm with one finger, raising goose bumps among the freckles and faint scars. “Cass can handle most of them for me.”
“Shame on you, Captain. That’s an abuse of power.”
“Rank has its privileges. Besides, he’ll make captain soon, so he needs the practice.”
“Where will you go from here?”
Alex gently tugged her sleeve down and kissed her exposed shoulder. “Not sure about that, either. I have a theory, but I won’t know for a couple more days. We got here a little earlier than expected. Can’t imagine what drove me to travel so fast.”
“Did you come through Tegann?”
Even in the dim light she could see his face pale. “Yes, why?”
“I was just curious how much it had been rebuilt, after all the fires and such.”
“I honestly don’t know. We didn’t stop.” The venom in his voice made her recoil a little. “If it were up to me, I’d have burned the whole place down.”
How could she have been so thoughtless? Sage turned his face up to hers to find his eyes bright with tears. “Alex, I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking.”
He squeezed his eyes shut. “It’s all right. I’m sorry I snapped at you.”
She searched for something better to talk about. “So what’s your theory about your assignment?”
Alex sighed. “Sage, I’ve spent nine months waiting for this night. Can we please talk about something besides the army?”
His eyes were still closed as she brought her mouth to his. “I don’t think we need to talk at all,” she said.
5
MORROW D’AMIRAN HELD Charlie tight against him with one hand, a dagger in the other. Alex’s brother, barely nine years old, struggled vainly as his dark brown eyes begged forgiveness for being caught.
No, Alex wanted to tell him. You did everything right. This is happening because of my mistakes.
“Choose, Captain.” D’Amiran smiled as he brought the blade to Charlie’s throat.
Choose?
From the back room—the bedchamber—stepped the duke’s guard captain, Geddes, dragging a battered and bloody Sage. She was too weak to struggle as Geddes pinned her against his chest, but she stared at Alex accusingly.
“You said you’d come for me,” she spat. “But you didn’t.”
I thought you were dead. He begged her to understand. I would’ve torn this tower down with my bare hands if I’d known you were here.
The hate in her gray eyes did not diminish as Geddes pulled out a knife and yanked her head back to lay the blade across her slender throat. The ratty-eared guard looked back to the duke.
D’Amiran was still smiling. “Choose,” he said again.
*
Alex reached for his sword but found nothing at his waist, instead striking his elbow on the stone wall next to his cot. A bolt of pain shot up his arm to his shoulder, waking him fully before rendering his arm too numb to use. He tore at the blanket with the other hand and half fell, half rolled out of bed, then stumbled through the pitch darkness to the door and out into the cooler passage of the barracks. The light of the low torch burned his vision, and he squeezed his eyes shut as he gasped for air. When he was sure he wouldn’t be sick, he pushed to his feet and felt along the wall to the outer door.
The faint light from the approaching dawn was gentler on his eyes, and he wiped sweat and tears away as he sagged against a barrel of drinking water. It was a dream he’d had before, though not for several months.
Breathe, he told himself. It wasn’t real.
But so much of it was.
When he’d kicked his way into the window of D’Amiran’s private chamber that day at Tegann, it was the only place left she could’ve been. Alex had fully expected to be forced to choose between Sage and Charlie, and he’d had no idea how he would handle it. But only Charlie and the duke were in those rooms. And Charlie had died.
D’Amiran had made a critical mistake that morning in sending Captain Geddes to imply Sage had been caught in her attempt to escape Tegann. Alex was meant to think she was being tortured, but instead he’d assumed she’d been killed. For the first hour he was too sick to do anything. By the time he and his soldiers realized she might not be dead, Alex had regained control of himself, and he was able to make a rational, though rushed, plan. Had Alex thought from the beginning she was alive, he might have charged in without thinking.
Not might have. Would have.
Alex ran a hand through his damp hair, relieved that feeling had returned to his fingertips, and stood straight. His body pulsed with adrenaline as he strode back into the barracks. In his room, he quietly felt around for his boots and socks. Lieutenant Casseck stirred as Alex opened the door again to step out into the passage.
“Where you goin’?” his friend mumbled. “I thought we had the morning off.”
Normally a day began with group exercises, but Alex had pushed the men with him hard to get to the capital early and felt they deserved rest. “For a run,” he answered. “It’s almost dawn. Best time for it.”
“Crazy bastard.” Cass rolled into a sitting position and squinted at the torchlight slicing across the floor. “Need company?”
Alex hesitated. He didn’t want to wait the ten minutes Cass would need to be ready. “Catch me on my second lap?”
One circuit was a mile and a half. Cass rubbed his face. “Yeah. Second lap. Just make sure you actually wait for me.”
“Then don’t be late.” Alex broke into a run as soon as he was outside again. By the time Cass joined him, all traces of the nightmare and fear were gone from Alex’s face.
At least he hoped so.