AllFreeNovel
Share Us
When I was finally clean, I didn’t bother shutting off the water. Instead, I reached for a towel and wrapped it around myself. “It’s all yours.”
Izidora hopped off the counter and left a trail of bloody clothes in her wake as she entered the shower. I took her spot on the counter and used a large-toothed comb to brush out my long locks as she washed.
“I don’t want to end up like Immonen.”
Izidora’s confession drifted toward me on a cloud of steam, but there was no airiness to her words.
A muscle feathered in my jaw as I clenched it around the tears that burned my eyes. “She didn’t deserve that.”
“No she didn’t.” Izidora’s voice was as hard as the marble upon which I sat.
“What about Domi?” I asked, fisting an especially tangled spot in my hair and working the brush over it.
The crashing of the water lessened as Izidora stepped beneath it. “I hope she’s not suffering. She saw what we saw during Béke.”
“But Kaztar practically worships the ground Kazimir walks on.” A disgusted noise slipped from my throat, and Izidora made a similar one.
“If Ruslan ever made such a grave error of judgment, I wouldn’t bow to his desires,” she swore.
Izidora was fire incarnate, and Ruslan knew better than to play with a flame he could not control. If she said she didn’t like something, he wouldn’t hesitate to eradicate it from this earth – that’s how much he loved her.
“That’s because Ruslan is pussy-whipped and will do whatever you say,” I snickered.
“Don’t let him hear you say that. You know he wants people to think he's ruthless and unhinged.” The water ceased flowing, and my best friend emerged from the fog. Water dripped from the ends of her long hair and pattered against the floor as she approached me.
“He is unhinged. Especially when it comes to you,” I grinned at her in the mirror before gesturing for her to sit on the counter and spin around so I could brush out her hair. “So, what are we going to do until night falls?”
“Sleep until tomorrow,” she laughed. “We’ve been up for nearly two days straight.”
Acknowledging how long it had been since we’d slept sent a wave of exhaustion through me, tugging at my eyelids and pulling my jaw open in a wide yawn. “Let the males deal with the battle plans. We deserve our beauty sleep.”
“Exactly,” she said, sighing as I raked the comb across her scalp.
Izidora was the friend I’d always wanted, and I knew I was the friend she’d always needed. We crawled into bed together, wrapped in fluffy robes, not caring that Ruslan would probably shove us to the side when he was ready to sleep. It wasn’t long until the lazy afternoon sun lulled me into a deep slumber, and despite the worries that plagued me about Endre, I allowed myself to rest and recover.
We were on the right side of the war, and by the time it was over Északi would be united and at peace
30
“They’re likely to split their forces between the Crystal and Day Realms, not knowing if and when we will move on,” Viktor assessed, bending over the enormous map splayed out over a table in the war tent.
Bubble lights floated in the canopy overhead, allowing us to meet despite the darkness beyond.
“If that is what they plan to do, then their forces will spill out of the mountains here and here,” Desmond said, bringing two carved markers to the base of the Agrenak Mountains, one in the Crystal Realm, another in the Day Realm. They weren’t far apart, which meant our attack would have to be brutal and swift.
“What if they decide to invade the Night Realm instead of meeting us here?” Endre questioned, earning a sharp look from me.
“They won’t. We hit them where it hurts, and Ruslan is the type of male to meet us head on. He’s cocky and thinks his mixed bloods will give him an advantage,” Viktor quipped, eyes never leaving the map and the pieces placed on it.
“They do give him an advantage,” Vadim pointed out.
“Not if we attack at night while we are strongest,” Viktor argued. With the loss of Viktor’s father, we were not weaker in strategy. Viktor was sharper than ever, willing to take more risks, and thirsty for blood – everything I needed to win this war and put this so-called empire to rest.
“And if they don’t split their forces?” I asked, just to be sure.
A good king examined every angle.
A fire crackled and popped in the corner of the tent as a breeze fluttered beneath the flaps. “Then they’re likely to go to the Day Realm and approach from there,” Viktor confirmed.
