Page 129 of Down Comes the Night

He bent over and placed a kiss on her forehead, and from this angle, it was too easy to slip her hands beneath the hem of his untucked shirt. She laid her palms flat against his stomach, relishing the solid warmth of his body.

He winced. “You’re freezing.”

“Ididalmost die.” Wren grinned wickedly. “And you’re hot. So share.”

Hal shook his head fondly and climbed into bed beside her, letting her nuzzle close. She tucked her head against his chest, just above his beating heart. It was something true and grounding, now that the whole world lurched around her.

Lowry was dead, but like the scar Isabel left behind, he would always be with her, no matter how desperately she yearned to forget.

“I almost killed him, but I was too much of a coward to go through with it,” she murmured. “You shouldn’t have had to intervene that way.”

“No. You were brave.” Hal brushed the hair out of her face. “Weall were raised to be cruel. It takes incredible strength to be kind in this world. To endure suffering instead of further it.”

Wren was too stricken to say anything.

“Without you, I would be a different man,” he continued. “Without you, the sun may have risen on a very different world.”

Wren had to laugh, if only to keep herself from crying. “You can’t mean that.”

“I do.”

He spoke with such reverence, she couldn’t help letting out an embarrassing whimper. Somehow, he always managed to say exactly what she needed to hear. Because of them, Lowry would never hurt anyone again. Because of them, Danu and Vesria would finally have peace. And Hal… He’d be the kind of leader his country needed, kind and fair.

Assuming, of course, her people let him go.

Wren swallowed thickly. “What will happen to you now?”

“I expect a tribunal will decide my fate tomorrow.”

“They can’t!” She shot upright, only to wince at the sharp pain in her stomach. She flopped back down. “Ow.”

“Don’t think about it now,” he said softly.

“How can you possibly be so calm about this?”

“I have hope.” Hal frowned. “I don’t expect a pardon, but if your government truly wants peace, they’ll have to send me home.”

“True.” Wren closed her eyes, sighing. “I bet you’ll be happy to see home again. What’ll you do first?”

“My answer is conditional.”

“On what?”

“You.”

“Me?” She picked at the fraying wool of the blanket. For so long, she’d thought of nothing but what came after all this. Now, she could think of nothing but this moment, nothing but her cheek against Hal’s chest and the uneven stutter of his heartbeat. She dared to look up, and his eyes brimmed with hope. “What are you getting at?”

“If you would consider it… If you’d like… If I’m allowed to leave… I wondered if you would come to Vesria with me.”

Hal Cavendish hadstammered. At first, it was so absurd, so endearing, she didn’t register exactly what he’d said. When it sank in, she blinked. “Wait. What?”

“I want you with me,” he said with more conviction. “If that’s what you want, too.”

Of course she did.

There was so much good to be done in Vesria. She could picture it so clearly: teaching medicine to their healers, maybe even beginning to make amends by helping to rehabilitate the veterans wounded in the war.

But she was home. After all this time, she was home.