“Here, I made you this.”
Pivoting to Duran, she stared at the plate in his hand. On it was a sandwich. Had they emptied Nexi’s refrigerator when they’d been at the Shadow’s cabin? Guess they had.
He’d also brought her milk. As if she were a young heading off to school for the night.
The tears that pricked her eyes were not unexpected. And as soon as they came, he put her food down on a wooden table and came across, wrapping her up carefully on account of her shoulder wound. Her head fit perfectly on the hard pad of his pec, and behind it, beating steadily, was the heart she needed to hear.
“I thought I’d lost you,” she said.
His big hand stroked up and down her good side. “I did, too.”
She looked to his face. “What happened?”
Duran tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. “I did go back for my mahmen’s remains. But I realized, she’s gone. She hasn’t been here for . . . since I saw her die. What was I saving at the expense of your and my future together?”
Ahmare closed her eyes. There were no words to express how she felt, how grateful she was that he’d come to that realization, how maybe there was a life together for them after all.
“And what about your father?”
Duran took a deep breath. “I’ve wanted to kill him for so long. It’s been my only reason for existence, this vengeance—and you know, when I decided to let my mahmen’s bones go, I realized it was literally a case of my life or all that hatred. I had to release it.”
“Oh, God, Duran.” She shuddered against his warm body. “I’m so glad you’re here and you’re safe.”
His hand resumed its stroking. “I got out through the old duct system, it was more efficient than running through the corridors. I broke out of an air vent with about thirty seconds to spare. I ran as fast as I could so I didn’t get trapped in the collapse.” His eyes traced her face. “And I knew where you would go. I returned to Chalen’s as fast as I could.”
“And you got there just in time.”
“Almost like it was fate.” He inched back and smiled down at her. “As if someone knew what they were doing all along to bring me back to you.”
They both tilted their heads up and looked to the heavens. It was a beautiful night, the galaxies glowing above in the cloudless sky, the stars twinkling clearly. And yet there was also a warning to the east. A glow that was, at present, just a kindling. The fire was coming, however.
“We better go inside,” she said.
On their way in, she picked up the sandwich. And he got the milk.
Teamwork, she thought, was everything in a relationship.
The house was surprisingly big, a five-bedroom place that was almost all glass on the side with the view. The interior was made up of exposed rough beams and gray slate floors, and the rustic furniture was a perfect match. Ahmare learned that the Shadow had built everything from the ground up. The female had needed to do something to keep her busy over the last twenty years, she’d told them on the trip north, and she’d taught herself construction—as well as gotten better at making tables and chairs, evidently.
As the shutters came down over all the windows and doors for the day, Duran went to have a shower and Ahmare decided to go down and check on her brother.
She found the young guard asleep sitting up in an armchair in the lower sitting area. As it was cool in the basement, she took a throw blanket and laid it over him. He woke up immediately, and she put her hand on his knee when he jerked back in surprise.
“It’s okay. You’re safe.”
His eyes were wide and haunted, and she worried about what he saw in his dreams. She could only imagine what life had been like with Chalen, and wondered when she would learn the poor kid’s story.
“You’re never going back, okay?” she told him. “And we’re going to take care of you.”
As he exhaled in relief, she gave him a hug. And also a pillow for his head. Some night, they were going to get him into a proper bed, but she understood his need to be on guard. Who could blame him? Sometimes the worst part about trauma was not going through it. It was the aftermath, when you were free.
And you obsessed about what would have happened if you hadn’t gotten out.
Heading down the hall, she was surprised to hear voices coming from Ahlan’s room.
And then she stopped in his doorway. Her brother was lying back against the pillows of a queen-size bed, his gaunt face and sunken eyes still shocking to see every time she looked at him. His color was so much better, however, and he was getting bathed.
Thanks to Nexi.
The Shadow was cleaning his bruised legs with a washcloth, her braids hanging down, her hands so sure and steady. And Ahlan was staring at the female with a kind of rapturous wonder, as if he had never seen anything so beautiful in his life.