Rapp strolled to a cabinet behind the bones and opened it. From there, he pulled a flask. Alcohol was forbidden in the war camp, and he knew it. For him to reveal his hidden stash and then proffer it to me was a calculated move. Perhaps I needed it after the fucking nightmare of an evening. “So what are you going to do with her?” Rapp asked me finally.

After a momentary battle with myself, I accepted the metal and unscrewed the top. Spicy scale assaulted my nostrils, and I shot it back, welcoming the way it burned all the way down my throat. “She wanted to know the same damn thing.”

An image of her bow shaped lips spitting venom at me filled my mind, those burgundy eyes slicing like daggers, and my cock stirred again.

Calm the fuck down. We won’t be touching her, ever.

I handed the liquor to Rapp, and he took a similar, long pull. “And?”

“And I don’t fucking know! I never expected this.” Temper flaring, I reached for a half-eaten tray of food and flung it, if only to have something to vent the boiling inside me. “I can’t have a fucking liability like this. I have to exterminate the Angels–”

“And protect the Demons,” Rapp finished for me, crossing his arms over his chest and watching me impassively as I continued to rage.

I kicked a bowl of fruit clean across the tent. Grem and Zeec raced after it like the rubber balls I threw for them. Only after I’d smashed a few more items did my racing heart finally slow, and the fire burning through my muscles finally ease.

“No one can know,” I hissed, finally looking at my friend again.

“You, me, Xannirin, Kiira. That’s it,” he promised.

I nodded, then interlaced my fingers behind my head and sucked down a few breaths, trying to calm myself. I had to think logically about what my next steps should be. “We’ll take her to Gyor before first light. The guards I have stationed outside my tent will be told we’re taking her for execution. No one else can see her with us. She can ride in front of me, and I’ll cloak her in shadow.”

“One problem,” Rapp added, holding up a finger.

“What?” I snapped, pressing the heels of my palms into my eyes to stem the pounding there.

“The whole camp saw her screaming for that Vezető. Whispers and rumors can be deadly. What will we tell them?”

Fucking Fates. What sort of path is this, Weaver?

After releasing an especially colorful string of curses, I replied, “No one saw her again after she entered. I’ll say I killed her. It is, after all, the punishment for murdering a member of a noble house. The Parancsok and Százados Jaku will swear to never reveal what happened, and they’re smart enough to know the consequences if they do.”

“We’ll need to pull Jaku aside and have him thoroughly explain what happened to his squad as well, since the Vezető was an especially valued member of it,” Rapp added, accepting a slobbery orange from Zeec and tossing it away again.

“This is not how I wanted any of this to go,” I grumbled, rubbing circles over my temple now to alleviate the pounding headache.

“To be fair, I don’t think any one of us could have predicted this happening,” he snorted, reaching down to pet Grem, who had decided the fruit was unappetizing and attention from Rapp was much better.

“Can I sleep in your tent tonight?” I asked my only friend. I’d sleep on the floor or call for a makeshift cot since we were both too large to share a bed these days, despite having the most luxurious ones in all the camp. If you could even describe them that way.

“Don’t want to share with your new mate?” he teased, a smug grin splitting his face.

I narrowed my eyes and bared my teeth. “Do not say that word aloud.”

He had the fucking nerve to laugh. “How will I survive not being able to tease you about this?”

“You’ll figure it out,” I grumbled, snapping at Zeec. He trotted in my direction and deposited the fruit at my feet. Juices oozed from sharp incisions his teeth had made in the soft skin. I thought better of picking it up and tossing it for him again.

“One day, we’ll look back at this moment and laugh,” Rapp stated, amusement brimming in his tone. I wanted to smack it right out of him. Nothing was funny about this situation. Nor would it ever be.

“Doubtful.”

Rapp rolled his eyes. “I’ll allow it, but will you actually sleep?” he questioned.

I blew out a breath, attempting to ease the remnants of my frustration. “Probably not.”

“Alright, well, let’s go now and at least remove the possibility of someone walking in on our conversation.” He swept his attention around us, and then he cocked his head to the side, no doubt listening for signs of anyone nearby.

Nodding, I snapped at the dogs to follow us. We slipped through the back entrance toward the ring of tents reserved for Rapp, myself, and the Parancsok. Rapp’s tent was adjacent to mine, and as we closed in on it, the bond sensed my proximity to Assyria, flaring to life and flooding me with lust.

Fuck off.

I clamped down on it like a bleeding wound, stifling anything else that might emerge. From the other end, an overwhelming, all consuming sadness crashed against the barrier, and I couldn’t allow myself to be affected by that female’s hysterics.

Rapp pulled out a thick bedroll from beneath his bed for me. Smoothing it out, I reclined backward, fully clothed, and tucked my hands behind my head. The ceiling was infinitely more interesting when I attempted to think of anything but the pounding desire from the bond, the female with eyes of devious burgundy, and what would happen should I fail to defend the Demons from the Angels.

In that moment, I allowed myself to feel just how heavy that burden was. Yet another one had been placed on my shoulders with Assyria’s arrival.

Reaper, why do you curse me when the Giver and the Weaver have offered me so much?

My friend settled into his bed, even inviting the damn dogs into it, then blew out the candles. Darkness reigned, even more so than in my heart.

“Hey, Rokath?”

“Yeah?”

“At least her magic is cool.”

I grunted, then we lapsed into silence, waiting for what the early hours would bring.

Sleep never claimed me, and when the first of three caws sliced the still air, I was more than ready to go. All night, I’d stewed on the possibilities and probabilities, calculating the likely risks of this new relationship. Rapp and I parted ways, him to fetch our horses, me to fetch Assyria. Grem and Zeec followed me into the tent after I dismissed the sentries, each pocketing a bag of gold. Their silence was worth every coin.

A lone candle flickered on one of the bedside tables, nearly melted into a puddle with the rest. She picked her head up the moment I entered. Red, puffy eyes glared at me, cutting to the dogs before settling back on my face.

“What do you want now?” she snapped, tucking her hair behind her sharply pointed ears with two angry swipes.

“Get up, we’re leaving.” I strode to my armor and began strapping it into place. Normally, the ritual soothed me, centered me even, but in that moment it had no such effect.

A scoff assaulted my backside. “Of course, because I belong to you now, you get to dictate everything I do. Zero consideration for what I want.”

I whipped around and glared at her. “That’s right, little imposter. And I said get up, we’re leaving. So get your ass out of bed.”

Sitting on her heels, just as she had been the previous night, she crossed her arms over her chest, pushing her breasts together. An image of her on her knees beneath me flashed through my mind, and I shoved it away so hard I might have given myself whiplash.

“I have nothing to wear other than this,” she insisted, sweeping her hands down to indicate my shirt swallowing her like a whale.