Page 279 of Salt Between the Wolves

It had reached her, whether she wanted it to or not.

The riders were dismissed shortly afterward, and the door closed behind them as silence returned, though now it felt different—heavier and more difficult to ignore.

Eira remained standing beside the table, the map still spread before her: White Pass, Ironfang, Frostvein. The names looked unchanged, even if the world around them no longer was.

Leander waited until the footsteps in the corridor had faded completely before pouring two glasses of wine. He offered one to her, and she accepted it automatically, though neither of them drank.

"You already know what everyone expects."

Eira gave a humorless laugh. "Apparently."

Leander leaned lightly against the edge of the table. "What do you expect?"

The question irritated her immediately, mostly because she had spent the last week avoiding it.

"I expect my father to refuse to retreat."

Leander nodded. "And Soren?"

The answer came just as quickly. "He won't retreat either."

"No."

The room fell quiet again as Leander turned the glass slowly between his fingers.

"So eventually one of them will have to choose something else."

Eira stared at the map. "Perhaps."

"You don't believe that."

"No," she admitted, because she knew both men too well. A compromise required each side to surrender something, and neither man believed he was the one who should surrender first. That was the problem.

Leander watched her for several moments before asking the question she had been avoiding since the riders arrived.

"Are you going back?"

Eira did not answer. Outside, wind rattled softly against the windows as the storm finally reached the city, rain tapping steadily and persistently against the glass.

She looked down at the wine in her hand, dark red and almost untouched.

"I left for a reason."

Leander's expression did not change. "I know."

"I spent most of my life allowing other people to decide where I belonged," she continued, and still he said nothing. "I don't want to spend the rest of it running toward every crisis they create."

The words sounded stronger aloud than they felt inside her, and Leander heard that too.

"You think returning means surrendering."

Eira looked away, because that was dangerously close to the truth.

"If I go back now," she said quietly, "what exactly changes?"

The question hung between them as Leander considered it carefully.

"Perhaps nothing."