Page 161 (1/2)

Aedion turned toward her then, blinking Hollowed out Gutted Exhausted and grieving and bearing a weight she couldn’t stand to see

Even Aedion’s usual stalking gait was barelyback only once to where Ren still knelt, head bowed

Such terrible silence around him

Lysandra kept pace beside Aedion as he turned toward the dining hall At this hour, food would be scarce, but she’d find it For both of the if she needed to

She opened her mouth to tell Aedion just that

But tears slid down his face, cutting through blood and gri him into a halt

He didn’t meet her eyes as she wiped his tears away from one cheek Then the other

"I should have been at the western wall," he said, voice breaking

She kneords would coain, tears he would only show in this shadowed hall, after all others had found their beds

And when he still didn’this head

For a heartbeat, for eternity, they stared at each other

She couldn’t stand it, the bleakness, the grief, in his face Couldn’t endure it

Lysandra rose onto her toes and brushed her mouth over his

A whisper of a kiss, a pro Aedion’s face as distraught as it had been before

So she kissed hiered by his ood man A brave and noble man So are you" She kissed him a third time "And when this war is over, however it may end, I will still be here, with you Whether in this life or the next, Aedion"

He closed his eyes, as if breathing in her words His chest indeed heaved, his broad shoulders shaking

Then he opened his eyes, and they were pure turquoise flaer and defiance at the death around the into her hair, and tipped her head back as his ing bones, and she wrapped her arhtly

Alone in the dark, quiet hall, death squatting on the battlefield nearby, Lysandra gave herself to that searing kiss, to Aedion, unable to stop her ainst hers

The sound was his unleashing, and Aedion twisted theainst the wall She arched, desperate to feel hirowled into herit around his waist as he ground into her, exactly where she needed hian to explore her neck, her jaw, her ear She breathed his na her hands down his powerful back as it flexed under her touch

More More More

More of this life, this fire to burn away all shadows

More of hi into the breast of his jacket, seeking the wared his teeth along her jaw, and seized her ain

Footsteps scuffed down the hall, along with a pointed cough, and Aedion stilled

Loud--they h Lysandra unwrapped her leg from around his waist Just as the sentry walked past, eyes down

Walked past quickly

Aedion tracked thehuman in Aedion’s eyes An apex predator who had found his prey at last

No, not prey Never with him

But his partner His mate

When the sentry had vanished around the corner, no doubt running to tell everyone what he’d interrupted, when Aedion leaned to kiss her again, Lysandra halted hientle hand to his mouth "Toh one without any bite