Page 37 of The Last War We Ever Fought

Except that the God of War was still looking at her, staring right down the abyss of her mind from how intently he had focused his gaze on her—she always wondered what he was searching in her stare that always had him look in there so intently, so desperately.

Elijah’s head slowly turned to the two generals. His hand dropped from Rowan’s face and she awkwardly straightened, clearing her throat. “Will you?” he asked, stretching back on his seat and throwing an elbow back on the rest.

Rowan’s hardened heart cracked just a little.

“Most certainly,” Henry added. “You’ve come down here to bless us with your witness, your presence, your holy regard. It is the least we can do.”

Another crack sounded around her hollow insides when Elijah nodded.

She froze when he threw an arm around her shoulders. “I want her though.”

Henry and Adam exchanged an uncomfortable smile at one another before sending a scathing look at her—one that screamed for her to obey. “Sure, of course.”

“Didn’t ask you for permission.” His hand moved to the back of her neck, fingers circling the small hair at her nape. “She needs to give it to me.”

All eyes were on her now. Some almost pleading with her to give in as if the God of War would turn his rage onto them because of it.

“After she finishes her food,” Elijah said, pushing the bowl before her again. “Eat, Rowan.” His violet eyes rolled up to the generals, turning violent again. “Go.”

Once the two generals walked their stupefied selves back to their table, he pulled his hand away from her. “Forgive me.”

“For what?” she asked, blinking up at him confused.

“Touching you without permission. I don’t know what came over me,” he said, placing the spoon back on her hand. “Eat. It’s going to grow cold.”

“I’m not hungry.”

“You’ve grown thinner since I first saw you.”

“Please don’t do that.”

“Do what?”

“The caring part. It’s making me feel guilty. I can’t ever afford to feel guilt. Not with what I do. I can’t feel guilty for taking a dead woman’s place. I can’t feel guilty for taking something meant to be hers.”

“You’re not taking anything. I’m giving it to you.” He guided her hand holding the spoon to the soup, ladling some. “Now please eat a little.” His eyes rounded with beseech. “I will tell Death I forced you. I will tell him you had no choice but to obey my order.”

It was not what she worried about. Despite that, she found herself saying, “It is a deal.”

Nine poppies

Submerged in water up to her chin, she lifted a hand above the pond’s surface and stirred the still water, watching the small waves ripple and then disappear.

In another lifetime, she wanted to be born as a rock sitting at the bottom of a pond. Water hugging your body and never letting go.

Rowan wanted to be held.

Just once.

She knew just who from.

He had been watching her again, sat just outside the shore, leaning against a tree. There was no moonlight, not much light of any sort. The creature watching her could have been a beast, a monster, it could have been anything and she wouldn’t have been able to notice.

But she knew it was him.

“Elijah,” she called to him.

“Yes, my little thief?”