Page 187 of War Queen
“Where?”
“Anywhere. We’ll go where no one knows us. We’ll have nothing, but we’ll have each other. I’ll learn… how to cook, and you’ll… do everything else.”
He smiled. “I would even do the cooking.”
She laughed, but her laugh turned to tears, and she couldn’t keep them back. Because she knew she couldn’t keep him back.
“No, no, no,” he whispered. “Don’t be sad.”
“You can’t leave me.”
He shook his head. “I’ll never leave you. If I should go anywhere, I only go to our eternal bed. And when you’re tired of this world and ready for sleep, I’ll be waiting.”
“You won’t wait long.”
He clutched her tighter. “Don’t say that. Don’t ever say that.”
“I don’t want to be in this world without you,” she whispered.
He smiled, but his eyes glistened. “Kiss me, wife.”
And she did.
Chapter forty-six
Itwasalmostmorning.Norah stretched along Mikael’s warmth. They’d spent the hours of darkness making love and drifting in and out of dreams—dreams she never wanted to leave. She let her hands travel over his skin, etching each line of his body, each curve of his muscle, into her memory. The way he moved. The way he wrapped himself around her. His taste, his smell. His touch. Everything about him.
A horn sounded outside. Footsteps in the hall and a bang at the door jarred them awake. Soren swung it open without giving a hair’s width of time.
“A messenger,” he said brusquely, and left as quickly as he had come. The door slammed closed behind him.
Mikael was up in an instant, pulling on his breeches, and Norah rose quickly.
“Do you think it’s from Aleon?” Her heart raced. She wasn’t ready. She wasn’t ready to get up, or for this day. She wasn’t ready for him to leave.
“Likely,” he said as he pulled on his boots. “Meet us in the courtyard.”
“Wait, I’m coming too.” She pulled on a thick robe over her nightdress and her cloak over the top and stepped into her bed slippers—hardly proper attire, but it was still dark out, and she didn’t care. She followed Mikael, her hand in his, down to the courtyard.
Soren and Caspian were already there, waiting impatiently as the iron gate of the stronghold was raised. A soldier on a horse swept in, and his mount skidded on the cobblestone as he came to a halt and slid down. Despite the mud coating his armor, hints of blue peeked from underneath—a soldier of Aleon. He bowed his head to Soren and held out a letter. “Japheth and Rael are marching on Eilor.”
Eilor—the southernmost kingdom of Aleon and Catherine’s home kingdom—where Phillip was with his army.
“What?” Norah gasped. They had been so sure Rael would move against Kharav first.
Bhastian stepped closer with a torchlight as Soren broke the seal and scanned the parchment.
“JaphethandRael?” Mikael asked.
Soren nodded and handed him the letter. “It’s what he writes.”
Phillip.
“How long do they have?” Mikael asked.
The lord commander looked back to the messenger. “How long did it take you to get here?”
“Three days.”
