Page 49 of Renegade Kingdom
I pulled her into my arms.
She came willingly, her body softening against mine as I held her close. I took a moment to just enjoy the feel of her there, the warmth of her pressed against my chest, the scent of her hair beneath my nose. Smoke and flowers and something that was uniquely, indefinably her. The bear rumbled with contentment, and I felt the Spring magic pulse between us, a gentle reminder of the bond we shared.
I kissed the top of her head. “I love you,” I murmured against her hair. “More than I have words to express. And nothing about this war is going to change that. No amount of distance or distraction or crisis. You’re stuck with me. With all of us. So stop worrying about whether you’re giving us enough, and trust that we’ll tell you if we need something.”
She laughed softly, the sound muffled against my chest. “You’re annoyingly good at that.”
“At what?”
“Knowing exactly what I need to hear.”
I smiled. “It’s a gift.”
She pulled back just enough to look up at me, and I saw that some of the tension had eased from her face. Not all of it. There was too much weighing on her for one conversation to fix. But some of it. Enough.
“I should probably confess,” I said, keeping my face carefully neutral, “that I’m only here because I was sent to bring you to the meeting.”
She stared at me for a beat, and then burst out laughing. The sound rang through the colonnade, bright and clear and so desperately needed that I found myself grinning in response.
“Of course you were,” she said, shaking her head. “And here I thought you’d come to sweep me off my feet.”
“I can do both.”
“Apparently.” She took my hand, threading her fingers through mine. “All right, lead the way. Let’s go see what fresh disaster is waiting for us.”
We walked through the palace together, hand in hand, and for a few precious minutes, the war felt very far away. The Spring Court was beautiful in the afternoon light, golden sun streaming through crystal windows and casting rainbows across the living stone walls. Flowers bloomed in every corner, their sweet scent filling the air, and I could feel the land’s contentment humming through my connection to it. This place was coming back to life. Slowly, painfully, but undeniably.
“What do you think it’ll be like?” Alyssa asked. “After? When this is all over?”
“Quiet, hopefully.”
She laughed again. “I don’t think either of us would know what to do with quiet.”
“We could learn.” I squeezed her hand. “Find a corner of this realm where no one needs saving. Build something. Plant a garden. Watch things grow instead of die for a change.”
“That sounds...” She trailed off, a wistful expression crossing her face. “That sounds wonderful, actually.”
“It does, doesn’t it?”
“Do you think we’ll ever get there? To that kind of peace?”
I thought about the war waiting for us. The battles still to come. The very real possibility that some or all of us wouldn’t survive to see the end of it. The broken versions of ourselves that might walk away from it all. And I pushed all of that aside, because right now, walking through a palace that was slowly returning to life with the woman I loved, hope felt more important than realism.
“I think if anyone can get us there, it’s you.”
She didn’t respond, but her grip on my hand tightened.
We reached the meeting room too soon. The doors loomed before us, heavy wood carved with flowering vines that seemed to shift and move in the corner of my vision. Alyssa’s steps faltered.
I felt her flinch through the bond before I saw it in her body. A sharp spike of pain that was there and gone so quickly I almost missed it. But I knew what had caused it. The last time we’d been in this room, Rhidian had been with us. Standing at this very table, planning strategies, arguing about approaches, being alive in all the ways that mattered.
Now he was gone. And she hadn’t had time to properly grieve him.
I hated it. Hated that she was hurting, that they were all hurting, and there was nothing any of us could do to fix it. Hated that they were stuck in the middle of a war that demanded everything from them and gave nothing back. Hated that Alyssa had to keep moving, keep fighting, keep leading, when what she really needed was time to fall apart.
I squeezed her hand again, and she took a breath. Squared her shoulders. Became the queen they all needed her to be.
The door swung open.
