Total pages in book: 161
Estimated words: 162269 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 811(@200wpm)___ 649(@250wpm)___ 541(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 162269 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 811(@200wpm)___ 649(@250wpm)___ 541(@300wpm)
Cassius finally lowered his sword.
Elena did the same at his side.
Another Nadirii yell started about them, growing stronger and stronger.
This one not calling magic.
This one calling victory.
Gods.
They’d made it.
They’d survived.
She’d survived.
Cass sheathed his weapon and searched for Ellie’s hand.
He found it.
And he held tight.
122
The Losses
King Mars
Base of the Night Heights Mountain Range
AIREN
Mars walked with Silence held close to his side, Kyril and Basil at their backs, through the winding encampment that had struck up after the battle.
Silence was as her name and had been much the same since he’d come to her, drenched from the rain and bloodied from the battle.
Since, he had kept her from the slaughter of the battlefield that, for the last hours, his, True’s and Cassius’s men had been directing militia prisoners to clear.
It was time to report.
But Mars needed no report.
He had seen that battlefield. The moment he and his men had ridden up to it, his gut had dropped thinking that there was no possibility Cass and Elena could be surviving that bloodbath.
In other words, he already knew the losses were grave.
And until they had thorough assessments of the lay of the land about them, he had his sword at his back, his Trusted close, and his wife at his bloody side.
“Mars,” he barked at the flaps of True and Farah’s tent.
Then, without invitation, he pushed through them, drawing Silence in beside him.
“Mars,” Farah said softly, rushing to him.
“Silence,” True greeted, striding to her.
He let his queen go long enough for True to embrace her, Farah to embrace him, and then Farah to embrace Silence.
Then he pulled her close again.
He was not surprised when he saw True do the same to Farah.
“Did you call for Cassius and Elena?” Mars asked True.
“Yes,” True answered.
“Would you like wine?” Farah offered.
“Please,” Silence accepted and began to move, but Mars’s hold strengthened.
He felt her eyes, so he looked down at her.
“I’ll be right here, my love,” she said softly.
He drew in breath.
And let her go.
“I’m assuming you were visited by a unicorn,” True noted as the women bustled to a trunk.
Mars jerked his head up in assent. “You?”
“Yes.”
“Thank the gods,” Mars muttered.
“Yes,” True agreed. “Even the damned caravans at the back that weren’t keeping up came through whatever the hell it was we leaped through.”
“Same,” Mars grunted.
“Did you have purple?” True inquired.
“Yes,” Mars told him. “Magic is back in Airen, this is certain.”
“Of course,” True replied. “The Nadirii are here.”
Without a call, the tent flaps opened and both men turned to them, hands going to the hilts of their swords.
But they relaxed when Cassius walked in.
Without Elena.
“Where’s Elena?” True asked.
“She is tending the wounded,” Cassius answered tightly.
As he took in his friend’s expression, Mars felt his wife come to him and press to his side.
For undoubtedly, she’d seen it too.
He slid his arm along her shoulders, and she called gently, “Cassius?”
“Jasmine was slain,” Cassius said tersely, the words rough and edged with pain.
The reason Mac was uncontrolled at battle’s end.
“Gods, Cassius,” True murmured.
“Rosehana as well,” Cass grunted.
Silence pressed closer to him as Farah emitted a pained mew.
“Elena’s mother was just lost. Elena is…she is…” Cass began. They all gave him time, but he shook his head sharply and declared, “Antonius will not recover. He’s in great pain, and it is unknown when that pain will be over if the end is to come naturally. He’s asked for the soldier’s poison.”
“Fuck,” Mars bit.
“I cannot brief you. I have agreed to give it to him, and he is taking time with our gods. I must see to Tone, and then find my woman,” Cass finished.
Silence gave Mars a demanding squeeze.
He looked down to her.
“True will look after me,” she whispered.
True would die for her.
Thus, Mars acquiesced to her demand.
“Do you want company?” he offered.
Cass barely met his eyes but that did not mean Mars missed the pain dwelling close to the surface of his friend’s.
“Suit yourself,” he muttered, bowed shortly to the women, then disappeared between the flaps.
Mars pressed a brief kiss to his wife’s mouth and followed him, not even bothering to gesture to Basil and Kyril as he left the tent.
They stayed with their queen.
Cassius was walking fast, and thus it was a good thing Mars’s legs were as long as his.
He caught him up and asked, “Mac?”
“He’s torn apart,” Cass grunted. “There was love between them.”
“Yes,” Mars murmured.
“She took a blade for him.”
Fuck.
“Cass—”
Mars said no more, for Cassius stopped, turned to him, and Mars nearly reared away from the depths of black that had become his eyes.
Cass’s eyes were normally sky blue.
When he felt emotion, the night sky could be seen in them instead.
Now, there was naught of any of that.
There wasn’t even any white.
Just black.
Mars had never seen that, and he’d known Cassius to feel great emotion.
And he did not know what to make of it, except what he knew would not ever happen, even before he’d seen his friend’s eyes as such.