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“You think I don’t know that?” he snaps. “You think I want this? That I wanted to be king?”
“No,” I reply. “But instead of trying to make your own mark, you’re determined to follow in your father’s footsteps. And if you haven’t realized, it was he and Alex who pushed to march half our army to their deaths.”
Bowman starts toward me but stops a few feet away. “How dare you.”
“How dare I what? Paint the blood-stained picture with accuracy? I warned Alex of the danger, and he refused me because he’d believed some foolish notion that the men of this realm thrive on honor. Where did trusting others get him? Your father? Your brothers?”
Bowman’s eyes mist, but the fury on his face is plain as day. “You are not a leader, Fort. You are only alive because I do not want my sister to hate me any more than she already does. Therefore, your opinion does not matter to me.”
“Then why the hell bring me in here at all?”
“To ask you where the elf and the horse went. Since you don’t know that, you’re of no use to me.”
I turn to leave then pause by the exit so I can turn to face him again. “For what it’s worth, Bowman? I am sorry for what has happened to your family and for the fact that you must now sit upon a throne you never wanted.” I don’t wait for a response before leaving his tent in search of Carleah.
If Lacrae and Shadow are gone, she knows why. And while she won’t tell Bowman, I have to hope she’ll tell me.
After checking the dining area and her tent, I head for medical. Fear laces my blood the longer it takes to find her. What if she’s gone now, too? What if she ran away to avoid her betrothal? Or if she was kidnapped by Tenebris soldiers sometime last—
“She’s not in there.”
I stop in my tracks and turn to face Alysia. She’s wearing a brown gown with a white cloth tied around her waist. Her hair is braided high on her head, her eyes narrowed on my face. Everything about this woman puts me on edge though I cannot place why.
“Carleah is in the woods. She’s been going there every day to train by herself. No one else knows about it, and no one else will.” The healer marches past me and into the medical tent.
Even as I’m not sure why she would tell me the truth and make it a point to keep it from everyone else, I take her at her word and head for the edge of the camp. After ensuring no one sees me slip into the trees, I do my best to pick up on some sort of track that will lead me to Carleah.
Thankfully, she’s not nearly as good at hiding her tracks as I am at following them. I catch half a footprint in some moist dirt and head that way. The trees grow thicker together here, the brush denser with every passing moment.
Until I break the edge of a clearing where Carleah stands, her back to me, the Blade of Ice in her hands.
She’s breathtaking in a tight pair of riding pants, tall boots, and a white tunic that is belted at her waist. Her white hair has been braided off to the side and tied with a piece of leather, and although I cannot see her expression, I can picture the brightness of her eyes and the pinkness of her cheeks.
An image that is made whole when she turns to face me and jumps because she wasn’t expecting me.
“You should always be watching your back, Princess,” I tell her.
“And you should stop sneaking out of tree lines, Guardsman.”
I grunt as I recall the night of her eighteenth birthday when I’d slipped from the shadows to stop a man from attacking her. “Then perhaps you should stop slipping away from me.”
Carleah sheathes her blade then sets it aside in favor of a waterskin sitting on the ground beside her feet. She tips it up.
My heart hammers as I drink in the sight of her. As I recall the way it feels to hold her in my arms. To press my lips to hers. My hands tighten into fists because all I want to do is reach for her. To close the distance forced between us and take what I know in my heart is mine.
“How did you find me?”
“I will always find you,” I tell her. “And Alysia told me where you were.”
“I shouldn’t be surprised she knew. Woman hears everything.”
She sets her water aside, so I do what I know I shouldn’t and move in closer. “Where are Shadow and Lacrae?”
Carleah meets my gaze. “Took you long enough to ask.”
“Took Bowman coming to me for me to notice.”
She shakes her head. “You’ve definitely taken your vow to stay away from me seriously.”
