Page 52 of Stolen Thorn Bride
He couldn’t remember how it all ended. Couldn’t recall how he’d come to return to the Keep. And he couldn’t feel her through the bond.
His head throbbed when he sat up, but it was manageable. A bandage around his side and another on his leg suggested he’d been wounded, but the lack of pain indicated he’d been seen by a healer. The damage must be nearly repaired.
The door opened.
“Good,” Garvan grunted. “You’re finally done lazing about.”
“How long?”
“It’s been two days,” his captain said, looking remarkably relaxed for a man who had nearly been swallowed up by a wraith swarm only two days previously.
“How many?” It was the question he dreaded the most. No matter the answer, it was always too many.
“None,” Garvan said, and Dechlan could hear the note of awe in his captain’s voice.
“Not one?” Dechlan echoed, almost unwilling to believe it could be true. They’d been surrounded without warning. Caught off guard by the size of the swarm and the speed of their assault.
“Most of us were wounded, but no lives were lost,” Garvan assured him, eyes shining with something Dechlan almost couldn’t identify. So many years had passed since any of them had felt it… But in the end, it was undeniable.
The captain hadhope.
“We’ve scouted the area,” Garvan continued. “The entire swarm was either dead or scattered. We’ve received three birds from the front, and it seems there has been no movement since we repelled the attack. Once we confirmed that information, we sent a swift to His Majesty with a report but have yet to hear a reply.”
It was astonishing news. No wonder the captain sounded hopeful—it seemed they had finally won a decisive victory against their ancient enemy.
A victory they had no right to.
Dechlan steeled himself to ask his next question neutrally.
“And Kasia?”
Garvan hesitated. “She is recovering,” he said. “But slowly. She was not injured, but her magic was deeply drained. Even with aid from Fionn and Nuala…”
Dechlan’s eyebrows shot up.
“Callum was wounded in the battle,” Garvan informed him, “but Fionn and Nuala offered their own lives to aid your bondmate in driving away the swarm.”
“And have they said,” Dechlan replied softly, “how it was that my bondmate ended up anywhere near the battle in the first place?” It wasn’t as if they could have misinterpreted his instructions. He’d commanded them to guard her with their lives. Which, in any sane person’s mind, did not involve allowing her anywhere near a wraith swarm.
But Garvan only coughed and looked at the floor. “I received the impression,” he said, “that she did not exactly give them a choice.”
Dechlan stared incredulously.
“Perhaps,” Garvan added, “you should ask them.”
Or he could ask Kasia. But in the end, it didn’t really matter. It didn’t matter that her courage (or her foolishness) had nearly stopped his heart. It didn’t matter that her power was a miracle that had saved many lives, including his.
Nor did it matter that he’d never seen anything as beautiful as her face when she leaned over him and begged him not to give up.
He had to send her home.
And he had no idea how he was going to let her go.
* * *
He decidedto wait a few more days, just until she’d recovered. Or perhaps more accurately, he procrastinated while she regained her strength. He distracted himself with necessary tasks, but always at the back of his mind was the knowledge that he was going to have to face Kasia with what he knew.
And then she took the decision out of his hands by wobbling into the practice yard one morning with murder in her hazel eyes.