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“Never again will I ask you to stand aside. We fight together,” he says. “And if we die—”
“We die together.”
“I never thought Patrick could be the Son of Flame,” I tell him. “Never did it even cross my mind.”
“Mine neither,” he replies.
“I cut his hand off.”
Now it’s Fort’s turn to look shocked. “You did what?”
“Cut it right off. He found me in an alley of a city outside of the Marshy Meadows. I’d traded a Tenebris sword for another and used it when he came for me.”
“My warrior,” he replies with a smile. “Where did you find a Tenebris blade?”
“On the body of the one I killed. I stole his boots, too.”
Fort stares back at me. “You never cease to amaze me, Carleah Rossingol.”
“Good.”
Fort leans in and kisses me again then rests his forehead against mine. “Marry me.”
“What?” I pull back, searching his amber gaze for the truth in his words.
“I want to spend nights together. Days. Every moment we have left, I wish to be by your side. You are my soul mate. My one true match. And I will spend every day of my life doing everything I can to make you happy. So, when this is over, and we can have some form of life together without war looming on the horizon, marry me.”
Tears fill my eyes as I wrap both arms around his neck and pull him in. “Yes, Fort. I will absolutely marry you.”
Chapter 34
Carleah
“Is he a warrior, too?” Anderson whispers to me as he stares at Fort, who is currently engulfed in a discussion with William.
I smile. To the boy, Fort must look like an actual giant, given that his size is larger than that of even an adult man. “The best warrior in the entire realm,” I tell him honestly. “Fort was the head of our guard back in Navalis.”
“And now you’re going to marry him.” Anderson turns his nose up at that. “Marriage is weird.”
I chuckle and continue running a brush through Andy’s hair. The little girl smiles and tilts her face up at me. “Thank you,” she whispers. I’m taken so off guard by the sound of her small voice that I can’t do anything but stare back at her until she gets up from the floor and skips out toward Shadow. The Pegasus keeps his head lowered so she can pet him.
“She trusts you now,” Anderson tells me. “Please don’t break it.”
I meet his gaze, my heart breaking all over again for these kids. “I won’t.”
He nods. “I haven’t seen her smile since she was a baby. I mean, I tried to get her to smile. To laugh, but nothing ever worked.”
Wrapping an arm around the young boy, I pull him against me. “You are an absolutely amazing brother,” I tell him truthfully.
“She deserves more than me.”
Tears fill my eyes, and I press a kiss to the top of his head. “You both deserve more than you got, but you are everything she has ever needed.”
Before I completely lose it, I stand and reach down to pull him up from the porch steps.
“You’ll come back for us, right? You promise?”
I kneel at his feet, taking his hand between both of mine. “I vow to you, sweet Anderson, that I will return so long as there is breath in my lungs.”
