Page 64 of Stolen

I didn’t react. I couldn’t afford to be swayed by his charm.

“I am not an easy man to love, Given.” He slowed his horse, his eyes serious. “But I understand love. I know its value, and its rarity. No one, not even a king, can command it. It’s something you earn, and I haven’t done anything to earn yours. I thought I could start with earning your forgiveness and then, if I’m not too stupid about things, maybe I could earn your trust.”

My heart beat faster. These were not the words of a tyrant. In his own way, he was saying what Varick had said earlier. Laurent was asking to start over.

“I brought you to Nor Doru for the wrong reasons, and I told myself I was doing something good. I was going to save my people, and everything would be worth it. I didn’t know you, so I thought, how could it possibly matter?”

I held my breath.

“But then I met you, and you weren’t at all what I expected.” Silver eyes stared intently into mine. “You were so much more than I expected.”

“Deepnight ahead!” someone yelled. Immediately, a chorus of whoops and hollers rose among the knights. I shook myself and gazed around. Sure enough, in the distance, the canopy was a purple-tinged curtain drawn across the horizon. I’d been so caught up listening to Laurent, I hadn’t noticed we were nearing Nor Doru.

I lifted in the saddle and peered around him. Because if we were near the border, we were also near the Rift.

“It’s just there,” he said, guessing my intentions. He reached over and pulled my horse to a halt, then pointed.

I squinted, confusion gathering. “I don’t see it.”

“You can’t from here,” he said, and the tension in his voice drew my gaze back to him.

His expression was grim. “The Deepnight has moved since you last saw it. The canopy extends several feet into Sithistra now. In years past, it was thinner along our side of the Rift, so you could see the edge. It’s thicker now, but it’s thinning in other places.” He shoved a hand through his hair. “And you saw the map.”

“Yes,” I said, remembering the silver marker placed in a spot where a farmer’s wife and child had burned. “Are there more?”

He gave a stiff nod. “Just yesterday, a patch opened up a few feet from the edge. We’ll have to be careful going around it. We’ve discovered the sun is particularly brutal in places where the canopy has failed.”

“What will you do?”

The thunder of hooves interrupted us. Varick streaked toward us, a contingent of knights close behind. He was speaking before he’d brought his horse to a complete stop. “Laurent, we have to move now. Sentries at the Nor Doruvian fort spotted Green Guards on the other side of the Rift.”

My stomach clenched. The presence of Green Guards meant just one thing.

“Rolund’s army is camped on the Sithistran side,” Varick said. “It looks like he’s planning an invasion.”

Chapter Twenty-Three

LAURENT

“Rolund doesn’t have an army big enough to launch a full-scale invasion,” Petru said for the tenth time.

Or maybe it was the twentieth. I’d lost count.

“He doesn’t need one,” Varick said. “Small squads of men-at-arms can do plenty of damage on our side of the Rift.”

“Nonsense,” one of the lords—Artur of Lar Guna from the sound of it—countered. “Nor Doru has nothing to fear from a handful of humans.”

“And when was the last time you sat a horse in full armor, Lar Guna?” Varick demanded.

“I don’t see how that’s relevant, General.”

“It is when you’re pretending you know how to run an army.”

The conversation devolved into insults and arguments.

I ignored all of it as I sat at the head of the map table in my Council chamber with my elbow propped on the armrest and my head in my hand. My good hand, because my bad one was throbbing and I wanted everyone to get the fuck out of my chambers. Whichever one of my ancestors was responsible for making the Council room adjacent to the king’s private quarters was a dick of the first order.

In the twenty-four hours since I’d returned to the Midnight Palace, I’d done little besides listen to my Council fight over how to respond to Rolund’s presence on the Sithistran side of the Rift. So far, Given’s brother showed no signs of invading—although, squatting on the edge of my kingdom with his army was hardly a peace offering. It was a fucking threat, and he had a lot of nerve.

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