Horde (Razorland #3)(120)

“I don’t plan to winter here. If we hurry, we can get there before the first snow. And we might be able to build before the ground freezes.”

With those words it was like I lit a fire under her. “You’d be surprised how fast I can pack when I’m driven.”

“Nothing good about you would surprise me at all,” I whispered, but she was already out the door, ready to uproot their lives on my word.

I don’t deserve to be this lucky.

Fade met me outside the bunkhouse. “I hear we’re moving to Rosemere.”

“Is that all right?”

“It’s a little late to be asking my thoughts, isn’t it?” In the morning light, I couldn’t read his expression. Sometimes I worried that things were different between us, but I hoped it was because we slept in a room with my parents, not because he was mad that I’d left him to heal up alone while I did my duty to the families of the fallen.

“We were so happy there,” I whispered.

Then he smiled, assuaging my anxiety. “I can’t conceive of anything I’d like more. I loved everything about it.”

“Tegan’s still there with Morrow. Maybe she’ll stay.” That would please me mightily, as I’d have all my friends and loved ones close by.

“I hope so,” Fade said.

It occurred to me then that he might be wondering, but feeling too shy to ask. So I whispered, “I’m not breeding, by the way.”

Fade hunched his shoulders. “I think Edmund knows. He keeps staring at me.”

“That only works if you have a guilty conscience, son.” My father’s comment made both of us jump. He stood on the path with his arms folded, tapping one foot. “I thought you said your intentions were honorable.”

I might die of this, not in battle.

“They are,” Fade said quietly.

“Then it’s time to make good on those promises, if you mean to build a life together.”

“What are you talking about?” I demanded.

But Edmund was already calling for Momma Oaks. “You need two witnesses.”

I stared at Fade, wondering what was going on. My mother came out with a bolt of fabric in her hands, looking annoyed at the interruption. “What’s all the bother?”

Edmund studied me with sweetness in his eyes. So whatever he was about, he didn’t have bad intentions. “Fade, do you promise to be hers, always?”

“I do,” he answered.

“And, Deuce, do you swear to be his, forever?”

“Yes,” I said, annoyed. “He’s already mine, and I’m already his.”

Edmund muttered, “Thought so. That’s why you needed to make it official.”

“You have no sense,” Momma Oaks chided him.

Fade and I traded bewildered looks and I asked, “What just happened?”

“You didn’t tell them they were plighting their troth?” my mother demanded.

“They knew.” Edmund showed no remorse.

“A wedding should have more ceremony. She should be wearing her best dress, and there should be food and guests, music, a cake—”

“Did you want any of that?” my father asked.

I shook my head. I’d only ever wanted Fade, and from what I could tell, this didn’t change anything. I’d already promised him forever, just not in front of witnesses, which seemed to be the crucial part. So if Edmund wanted me to tell everyone in Soldier’s Pond, I would.

Fade was mine, and I was never letting him go. As I’d told him once, and as I’d proven time and again, I’d fight for him.

And I’d never stop.

Adieu

Two days later, Soldier’s Pond didn’t want us to leave.

In the end, I talked Colonel Park into it by promising to send letters with the traders when they came to Rosemere. She clutched my hands, more personal than she’d ever been with me. “You’ll advise me if I need it? You’ve dealt more with the Uroch than anyone. I’m worried about offending them.”

“Treat them like people,” I said. “You can’t go wrong like that. But, yes, I’ll help if you need me to.”

I hoped there would be no pleas, no emergencies. The world should sort out its own business, so far as I was concerned. I saluted her and left HQ for the last time to join my family at the gate. The guards had loaded a wagon for us, full of fabrics Momma Oaks had begged or borrowed, Edmund’s supplies, and the few personal effects the rest of us had accrued. Rex snapped the lines and the mules trotted forward. Spence was a reluctant companion on this journey, but we agreed he couldn’t be left on his own. Fade sat in the back with Momma Oaks while Edmund perched up front beside his son. Gavin and I walked alongside because I had rested long enough, and I’d traveled by wagon often enough to be sure I didn’t want to do it more than necessary.

As we drove away, the sentries shouted, “Huntress,” like I wasn’t tired of hearing it.

Rex cast a look over his shoulder. “Doesn’t that get wearisome?”

“You have no idea,” I muttered.

We took the journey in easy stages, and it was nice to journey with my family. Now and then we passed other travelers—and not just traders making supply runs as it had been in the days before the victory at the river. Some were human, some Uroch, and occasionally we spotted small groups of Gulgur, though they seemed shy and didn’t speak.