Chapter 134

Her hand felt as cold as his. For having been in this warm room, smothered in blankets and pillows, that was a bad sign, as was the red still in her cheeks. She looked as though she were sleeping peacefully, but she was in a bad state. Maintaining the Everlasting Fire had taken all her strength.

You worry I’ll risk myself. That you’ll lose me, that Delrose will lose me. Yet Delrose and I both worry much more about losing you.

“Did you see me in your dream?” he whispered. He wanted to be angry, but he couldn’t.

“Are the knights all safe?” she murmured, stirring. That was why he couldn’t blame her. She did what she did because she had seen the second army of Yesters. She’d seen the danger to the knights, to Delrose.

“The foresight changed in the middle…,” she said, coming out of sleep a little more. She tried to move to sitting, but Aden gently pressed her back down, nestled her back among the blankets.

“I guessed,” he answered softly. “Your body is still cold.”

“So is yours,” she said, smiling again. Her hand slid up his arm, massaged it as though trying to warm him. So delicate, he thought. The fragility of her cut his heart.

“The knights are all safe,” he said.

They hadn’t lost a man. Every knight rides into battle knowing the risks, but they’d been lucky. They’d hit the first group of Yesters from the back, and of course there had been no second wave of them, thanks to her.

“Was it your idea to send the reinforcement with the Everlasting Fire?” he asked. With Etra escorting the reinforcement, he’d guessed as much. Asking it openly felt like an interrogation, but he knew no other way to say it.

“Of course,” she said, and let out a sigh of relief. She had undoubtedly worried about her ability to maintain the fire long enough, worried Etra wouldn’t reach him, worried that her plan wouldn’t be followed.

Until she saw me, he thought. Until she knew the plan had worked.

It wasn’t in her to relax behind the protection of others, to let the knight fight for her on some battlefield. She was the one who worried until each person that marched off to battle came home. That was part of what made her so beautiful.

“I was surprised that Emil came to the battlefield,” Aden said. He kissed her forehead gently.

“Emil of the knight training ground,” she answered. She had met so many, in such a short time since she came here. Yet she never forgot a name, never forgot a single person.

Ilyin remembered more than just his name. She remembered his face, that stern look. It wasn’t disobedience toward her, not disapproval. Such things only existed in the territory of Viscount Arlen. It was the look of someone that cared for Delrose, that worried for its safety as much as she did.

Aden sighed.

“Do you not believe in me?” he asked.

“I do. More than anything,” she said, her eyes widening. Aden caressed her cheek.

“Did you think that I and my power couldn’t defeat the Yesters without you?”

The second wave of Yesters took a great deal of power to put down, it’s true, but this was the winter region, and the Duke of Winter didn’t falter in the winter region from using the divine power. That was only a worry for Ilyin of the warm region.

“I knew you could. But I didn’t want a single one of you to get hurt,” she said simply.

Not a single one. So beautiful a soul.

But one person did get hurt. Aden took hold of her hand, and it was no warmer than before. He tucked it back inside the blanket, then summoned the blue light in his hand to warm up the room a little more. He set his hand on her chest, feeling her delicate breath.

“And I want to make sure even you don’t get hurt,” he said.

Don’t hide your wound, Ilyin, he thought. He leaned in, buried his face in her chest.

“You said you’d only use the divine power in an emergency,” he breathed.

“How could I ignore the foresight, knowing the Yesters’ plan?” she said. “If that wasn’t an emergency, what is?”

Aden sighed. She was right, of course. It was the only way to stop the second Yester army. If the knights had come without the Everlasting Fire, the result would have been disastrous.

“You didn’t believe in me,” he whispered again. He wanted to be angry but couldn’t. He only sounded petulant.

“You know that’s not it,” she said, stroking his hair.

“You overextended yourself with the divine power,” he said. Knowing what he did now, that there had been no other way, the argument had little weight. But he cared for her too much not to cast it all the same.

“I was the one that always lied and didn’t keep promises,” he said. He shifted his head to her as he spoke, his breath now reaching her neck. He noticed her cheeks flushed a little more in response. His hand gripped hers tighter.

“I became the liar today,” she said.

Whatever you are, it’s lovely, he thought.