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“Be careful,” Kira warns as she grabs a knife from her counter and stands in the hall, blocking the route to the children and William.
I slip onto the porch, sword lowered but my muscles tensed in anticipation.
And then the rider steps into the light, and the breath is stolen from my lungs. “Fort?” I choke out. Wearing a white tunic and dark riding pants, he’s unmistakable.
“Carleah,” he whispers.
I drop my sword and run to him, launching myself into his arms. They cage me in, and he holds me against his hard chest, pinning me to a body I never thought I’d feel again. I cup his face, pulling away just enough to stare into his eyes. “But how? How did you escape? Patrick told me you were dead. That you all were dead.”
“We would have been if not for my father’s incessant need to torture me,” he replies as he sets me down. “But I don’t want to talk about that yet.” He grips the back of my neck and rips me closer, stealing my lips. In a frenzied meeting of lips and tongue, my heart slips back into place, my world tilting right side up once more. “Fuck, I missed you.”
“I missed you, too. Bowman? Is he—”
“Alive. Shadow showed up at our camp. Salma claimed to understand that he knew where to find you, and it was a chance I had to take.” He presses his lips to my forehead.
Fort kisses me again, and I hold him to me, clinging to the man I love with everything I have left. “I thought I’d never see you again,” I whisper.
“I told you that I would find you, Carleah. There’s not a place in this realm or another where you could go that I would not follow. You are my compass. My true North. I feared you’d been captured. That we wouldn’t reach you in time.”
“They tried,” I tell him truthfully. “Come inside. I want to know everything.” But before I drag him toward the door, I cross over to Shadow and place a hand on either side of his large face. He bows his head down, and I press my lips to his forehead. “Thank you,” I tell him. “For everything.”
He whinnies in acknowledgment, so I step away and drag Fort toward the house. Kira’s eyes widen when she sees him. “We thought you dead.”
“I’m harder to kill than most,” he replies.
She smiles. “It’s a good thing, too. Come. Sit. I’m making breakfast for the children, and you can have some, too.”
“Children?” Fort questions.
“It’s a long story,” I tell him. “But I want to know how you escaped first.”
He reaches behind his back and withdraws a leather sheath with an ice-crusted hilt. My happiness eclipses everything as I take the blade from him and withdraw it from the leather. The thing turns solid in my hand, and a buzzing dances over my skin as though it’s happy to see me, too.
“We found it in Patrick’s chambers,” Fort explains. “Seems he was holding onto it for you.”
“He’s a fool for not destroying it.”
“He’s a fool for a lot of things.” Fort settles into a chair, and I sheathe the blade, keeping it with me as I take a seat right beside him.
“Shadow left us at the camp and warned the elves of danger. They and the dwarves traveled as swiftly as they could and stormed Soreno with everything they had. They managed to reach us right after I’d killed my father and brother—”
“You killed them?”
He nods.
“Are you okay?”
Fort cups my cheek. “More than.” He kisses me. “Soreno is in Alastair’s charge now.”
“Soreno has fallen?” I ask in complete shock.
“The dwarves hold it, my love.”
“I—That is quite the victory.” I grin. If Patrick doesn’t have a base. A place to recruit more soldiers, than his numbers are limited. Which is likely why he travels only with the Tenebris now.
He leans in and breathes deeply. “I am so sorry, Carleah. For all of it. I was such a fool.”
“You were,” I agree.
