A Vow So Bold and Deadly (Cursebreakers, #3)(57)

“Did Lilith harm you?” I say.

“Nothing that left a mark.” She takes a deep breath. “She’s awful, Rhen.”

“I know.” I pause. “Did you not think I would be able to bear such news?”

“If I don’t want to be your pawn, I don’t want to be hers, either.” She hesitates. “I’m not going to let her use me against you.”

“Yet she sowed discord anyway.” I sigh bitterly. “It is her gift.”

Harper says nothing to that. We ride in silence for the longest time, until Ironwill grows antsy and I draw up the reins.

“Thank you,” Harper says then, and any ire in her voice is gone. “For pulling me out of the crowd.” She shivers. “You looked like you were going to level the courtyard.”

I cluck to the horse, and he leaps forward into a gallop, eager. Harper clings tightly to my back. “For you, my lady, I would have leveled the entire city.”





CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

HARPER

Something has shifted between me and Rhen, and I’m not sure what it is. Like something has cracked in him. It doesn’t create a new tension between us. Instead, it feels … good. Like it was something that needed to break.

You ruined nothing. You stopped me from taking an action I could not undo.

He seems relieved. I think that’s the most startling thing of all: his relief. I’d somehow forgotten that he doesn’t want to resort to drastic measures, that at his core, he wants the best for his people.

Once we arrive at Ironrose, Rhen leaves Zo and the guardsmen to tend to the horses and find lodgings for Chesleigh, then helps me into the castle, mostly carrying me until we reach the stairs of the Great Hall, where I demand that he set me down.

He doesn’t. “You could hardly dismount from the horse,” he says. “I will see you all the way to your chambers.”

“I can hold the railing.”

“Hmm.” He strides up the steps like I’m weightless. “I have seen the results of your other attempts to refuse assistance, so you’ll forgive me for insisting.”

“I never refuse assistance!”

He snorts. “Harper.”

Harrrrperrr. The way he says my name makes me blush and shiver. He must notice, because a light sparks in his eyes when he stops in front of my chambers and eases my legs to the ground. I put a hand on the wall to keep my balance, which is a challenge even when I don’t have a twisted ankle.

My other hand doesn’t let go of his arm. There’s a gouge in the leather of his armor, so I look down. There across the buckles is a deep rivet that’s gone down into the steel. One of the buckles has been sliced clean through.

I frown. “What happened?”

“I told you: one of the guards was going to kill the Grand Marshal’s son. I stopped him.”

I open my mouth. Close it. I thought he meant with … with an order. Not his arm. He’s lucky he didn’t lose his hand.

“I’ll call for your lady-in-waiting,” Rhen says softly.

“No!” I think of Freya’s tears earlier. “Don’t bother her. I’m okay.”

His eyes skip across my form, the torn dress that’s only holding on to my left shoulder by a few threads and a prayer. “You will need assistance in dressing.”

“I just need to unlace the corset. Could you—” I realize how this is coming out, and I flush. “I mean—I don’t mean—never mind.”

He feigns a gasp. “ ‘I never refuse assistance,’ ” he teases, his voice light and mocking.

“Fine.” I lift my chin. “Unlace it.”

The corner of his mouth turns up, his expression becoming slightly wolfish, which is rare for him. “Right here in the hallway, my lady?”

I smack him in the middle of the chest, which is ridiculous, because I’m smacking leather-coated armor, but he catches my wrist anyway, his fingers gentle yet secure against my skin. His eyes are intense and piercing in the dim light of the hallway.

I stare up at him until my heartbeat is a roar in my ears. My lips part slightly, and a breath escapes. He feels closer, intimidating yet not, reminding me of the moment in the crowd at Silvermoon when he looked ready to take them all on. For me.

I’d forgotten he could look like that. I’d forgotten he could be like that.

I swallow, and his thumb strokes over the base of my palm before he lets me go. His voice is lower, softer. “I will call for Freya.”

“No.” I catch his hand, and he waits. My cheeks feel like they’re on fire. In a minute, his guards will be done with the horses and they’ll appear in the hallway, or Freya will hear us out here and come to check if I need her. Either way, I’m going to lose all my courage in a second, and my instincts are telling me that Rhen and I have been fighting our way to this moment for ages now, and I can’t let him go.

“Come in,” I whisper. “Please.”

For half a second, my heart stutters, because I expect him to refuse.

Instead, he nods. “Yes, my lady.”

My chambers are warm, candles already lit in preparation of my arrival, the fire burning high in the hearth. Rhen helps me to the low sofa near the window, then drops to a knee to unlace the boot on my injured ankle.