Page 52 of Shadow & Storms

Anya cleared her throat, running a hand over her shaved skull as she addressed Thezmarr’s former librarian. ‘Audra, any development on what we discussed in Aveum?’

Wilder wracked his mind for what Anya was talking about. What had she asked of Audra at the Singing Hare?

The older woman scowled, pushing her spectacles to the bridge of her nose. ‘My answer remains unchanged.’

‘That you know nothing?’ Anya said, deadpan.

‘Not a clue,’ Audra replied.

Thea leant in. ‘Anya thinks Audra’s holding out on the whereabouts of the former women warriors of Thezmarr,’ she whispered.

That rang a bell in Wilder’s head. But Audra was being cagey, as always.

‘If that’s all for tonight…’ Audra gave the midrealms model a final fleeting glance before she headed for the door.

Anya caught Thea and Wren’s attention. ‘We leave at dawn tomorrow, yes? I’ll meet you in the quadrangle.’

There was no room for negotiation in her tone, and so Thea and Wren simply nodded.

Slowly, the chamber began to empty out, and Thea let out a long sigh, resting her weight on the edge of the table, closing her eyes as she tipped her head back to the ceiling. ‘Long day,’ she murmured.

‘I’ll say,’ Kipp called out from the door with a farewell wave.

Wilder gave a tired laugh, and Thea made to go after Kipp, no doubt realising that she wouldn’t see her friend for some time if she was off to Aveum in the morning, and he was travelling back to Thezmarr. As Thea pushed off from the table and jogged out of the room, something fell from her pocket.

Wilder stared at the thing that had hit the maps with a soft thud, falling open on the table.

A notebook. The very one she’d been scribbling in since they’d arrived.

Wilder meant to close it and pocket it to return to her later, but his gaze caught on a detail scrawled at the top of the page.

His name.

Dear Wilder, it began.

How could he not read it when it was addressed to him?

He glanced at the door, where he could hear Thea talking with Kipp and Cal just beyond. Wilder’s stomach lurched as his eyes returned to Thea’s messy handwriting. He knew he wasn’t meant to read it, but he also knew there was no way he could stop himself now.

Dear Wilder,

I didn’t want to leave you, ever. If I had it my way I’d be by your side, always. But Fate had other plans for me, for us, it seems…

Wilder’s shoulders caved with the weight of her words, the first few lines alone causing his eyes to burn with tears. He flicked through the notebook, finding countless entries, some only a few sentences long, others spanning several pages.

Wilder,

I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry I’m no longer there with you. I wanted to travel the midrealms with you. I wanted to capture my stallion with you riding alongside me. I wanted so many things for us…

Thea’s innermost thoughts, her regrets and her unrelenting declaration of love, all written down for him.

She had signed every entry with a lightning bolt, as she’d done with the notes she’d left for him in his cabin, a lifetime ago.

‘What the fuck is this, Thea?’ he demanded when she returned to the war room.

The remaining stragglers left in a hurry. Wren shot Thea a grimace before closing the door behind her, leaving Wilder and Thea alone, to deal with… whatever the fuck this was.

He gestured to the open notebook, anger and hurt entwining into something that was bubbling over, something he couldn’t control. ‘Well?’