Page 126 of Season Warriors & Wolves

I shivered. She reminded me so much of Kilian that it was creeping me out. “You will ask for a blessing from the gods?”

“I do not see why we would be denied.”

Neither could I, so I nodded.

As if she had been waiting, Nia slipped inside the room just as Moriko was about to leave.

“My ahana.” The cold queen rested her forehead on my friend’s and kissed her cheek before leaving me alone with her.

Nia nervously hopped from one foot to the other on the spot she stood. “You said yes?”

“Should I have said no?”

She smiled at me and ran the distance to suffocate me in a hug. “Thank you.”

“Is it like in your books?” I asked, holding her tightly to me.

“So much better.”

Good.

“Oh! She must have said yes,” Thora said, skipping inside the room and jumping to sit on the table.

Heavens. “Why do you look like wolves have had a bite of you?”

Nia sighed, shaking her head at her. “She’s worse than you. Bruised half of the Skye warriors after she learned how to fly.”

My sister grinned shyly, trying to fix her messy fringe. “Proud?”

“Very,” I said, kissing her cheek. “I saw you’ve returned to Adriata entirely; your room was empty here. Is there something wrong?”

She shook her head. “No. Mal and I meditate in the evenings to help me learn how to string my magic like he does. Afterwards he either falls asleep on my sofa or is too drunk to bring me back, so I stay there. And since you’ve returned, I don’t want to bother you and Kilian.”

“As long as there is nothing wrong, you can stay wherever you wish.”

“Shouldn’t we celebrate Nia’s engagement? Oh, we must! Please, let’s celebrate,” my sister said, linking her arms with Nia and I

Kilian was hunched over his desk when I returned to Amaris. And from the way he narrowed his eyes on me when I slipped on his lap, he was not impressed with what I had hidden from him.

“We were going to discuss my brilliance,” I said, pushing his hair from his brow and leaving a kiss on his frown and then about a hundred others on the rest of his face.

He sighed, resting his forehead to mine. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Too much on my mind.”

“What were you planning to do with it before you thought of giving it to corrupt the unblessed?”

“Nothing, really.” Truly.

He pulled me closer on his lap. “Nothing, huh?”

I took his hand and put it over my heart—perhaps a bit more to the left. “Swear it.”

His eyes dropped between us for a moment and then returned to mine. “You are one dangerous woman, Snowlin Castemont,” he said, wrapping the same hand around my throat, his thumb skimming my pulse. “Play with fire. But don’t play with darkness.”

“So, am I brilliant?”

His grip tightened and I held a breath. “Wicked. That’s what you are,” he said, leaving soft pecks over my jaw. “You’re lucky Visha and Oryn have morals and would blindly follow you into a ditch all while pushing you into one, too, if necessary. If it had been anyone else, Snow, this would have gone terribly wrong. Beyond terribly, my heart.”