Page 132
“Svern.” She tested it quietly, then smiled. “I like it.”
“Yeah?”
“I love it.”
Something inside me eased. “Oriah and Svern.” Bryn rested both hands over her stomach. “Our babies.” I wrapped myself around her, careful, always careful now. Not because she was fragile, I'd learned that lesson, but because she was precious. There was a difference and I still made mistakes, she still exploded, still scared the shit out of guards when they let her walk too far alone.
I would occasionally wake and listen to three heartbeats until panic stopped crawling through my chest, but Bryn understood me now and I understood her. Mostly, she needed freedom and I needed to protect, so we compromised. There was one guard instead of four. Garden walks whenever she wanted and no locked doors. No reporting every fucking snack to Kosta. That one had nearly cost me my life and if I started hovering too much, she told me. Usually loudly, the difference is that now I listened.
“What are you thinking?” she asked.
“About our children, you and war.” Her body tensed at my words, I felt it immediately. I turned her gently so she faced me.
“No.”
“What?”
“That face.”
“What face?”
“The one where you decide I'm about to run out and get stabbed again.”
She looked away, but I touched her chin. “Bryn.” Her eyes came back.
“We got new information.” I saw the fear flicker and I hated it. “Malakai is dead.”
She frowned. “What?”
“Actually dead.”
“Then who is leading the demons?”
“His twin.”
Her eyes widened. “Twin?”
“Xion.”
She absorbed that. “Did you know?”
“No.”
“Did Ceasar?”
“Almost certainly.”
Her mouth tightened. “So he's been lying to everyone.”
“Yes.”
“That seems risky.”
“It is.”
I smiled. “That's why we're going to use it.”
“How?”
