Page 175 of The Reckoning of Starlight

Jassyn suspected Lykor could’ve accounted for every one.

“Aesar all but forced me back to the Aetherveil once you stabilized.” Lykor’s lip curled. “Said I didn’t get to carry you out and walk away without knowing if the others survived. Fenn briefed me. I brought Koln and his squad back to keep an eye on the palace.”

“Why here?”

Lykor crossed to the open-air balcony, turning his back on the question. Silence lengthened until Jassyn thought he would leave it unanswered.

“You needed rest. Asharyn has the only real comforts we’ve ever found.” He stared at the desert glowing under the dying moons. “And I didn’t know if we’d see another dawn in the Aetherveil.”

Jassyn shook his head. “I shouldn’t be comfortable in a palace while Kaedryn is keeping the wounded alive and Vesryn is holding a perimeter with whoever we have left.”

“You collapsed midair.” Lykor turned, his gaze flaring. “Your eyes were bleeding. Whatever that coercion cost you, your body paid the debt before you hit the ground.”

His attention dropped to Jassyn’s bare feet, then caught on the faint quiver of the mug between his hands. When his gaze returned to Jassyn’s face, he tipped his chin toward the room.

“You want to lead them? Show me you can cross the chamber without falling.”

Jassyn set the cup on the nightstand.

Then he stood.

His knees wavered before his weight fully settled, the stone floor releasing the day’s trapped heat into the soles of his feet. He crossed the room on legs claimed by exhaustion, each step forced forward by pride.

Lykor stayed where he was, but Jassyn knew one stumble would have him warping across the room before Jassyn hit the floor. He stopped close enough to see what the long vigil had left behind, fatigue bruising the skin under Lykor’s eyes.

“Satisfied?”

Lykor faced the gardens below without answering.

“We could go.” The words came so low that Jassyn barely heard them. “We could forget the war. The dragons. Whatever Galaeryn is planning.” Lykor stayed turned, his shoulders a rigid line against the stars. “I can keep you alive. Not forever. But longer than going back will.”

Jassyn’s breath stalled somewhere in his chest.

In all the time he’d known Lykor—through battlefields, impossible stands, and every ruin they’d mistaken for a road—retreat had always meant drawing another blade, finding another angle from which to strike.

Lykor had never spoken of a life without the fight. Now he was offering Jassyn one beyond its reach.

“You don’t mean that.”

“I wouldn’t have said it if I didn’t.” Lykor still didn’t look at him. “I’ve watched you bleed for the realms since the day we met. I’m telling you there’s a door.” His voice roughened. “And I’m willing to walk through it with you.”

“And the wraith?” The challenge sharpened before Jassyn could stop it, honed by the part of him that couldn’t consider escape without counting who it would leave behind. “Our friends? Kaedryn’s druids? Cinderax and the Tidecrasher hatchlings you claimed as your own? Everyone who followed us this far because we promised them a world worth surviving?” Jassyn stared at the side of his face. “What about Aesar? Have you even asked him what he wants?”

Lykor pivoted and snatched the front of Jassyn’s nightshirt, yanking him close. Linen bunched in his fingers, the grip shaking with all the force he hadn’t put into his voice.

“None of it matters if you’re dead.”

Jassyn didn’t pull away. Lykor’s knuckles pressed hard against his sternum, frost spreading over his fist.

For one unguarded moment, Jassyn let himself see where Lykor’s door led.

A desert with no war darkening the horizon. Lykor’s wings cutting thermals over an ocean neither of them had mapped. Mornings measured by sunlight instead of casualty reports. Sleeping past dawn while every life continued without needing his hands. Lykor’s weight beside him in a bed that belonged to them, not borrowed from a city they’d already lost once.

Wanting it hurt.

“You know we can’t.” Jassyn’s voice came out hoarse. His hand closed over Lykor’s fist, holding him there even as he refused what Lykor offered. “We can’t buy our freedom with everyone else’s.”

Lykor went utterly still, the glow of his eyes burning into Jassyn’s face.