Page 161 of Between Fear and Favor

Now, if only my sister was here, I could breathe easier. The seaborn had capsized multiple Nythyrian boats attempting to cross Seyma’s Gulf, so I had to hold out hope my sister was alive, cultivating an alliance with the Sea Queen. I couldn’t accept any other explanation for her continued absence.

We were so close to finishing this, I could taste the serenity waiting just on the other side.

“Sorry to interrupt you two,” Em’s voice called behind me as the door opened. Dewalt and I broke away from each other, and his cheeks turned pink as both Nor and Em stepped through the door. The former novice walked immediately to his side, no hesitation whatsoever, and took his hand.

She raised onto her tiptoes, whispering something in his ear, and his blush only deepened.

“Gods above,” Em said, her eyes meeting mine and widening over Dewalt’s flustered appearance. “Finally.”

I laughed, nodding. “Finally.”

“What do you mean, ‘finally’?” Dewalt asked, brows furrowing.

Em only tilted her head and raised her eyebrows, and my laughter only grew deeper.

“What?” Nor asked, confusion flickering across her pretty face.

“It took us about, what, a day or two to understand?” Em glanced over at me, and I nodded in agreement. “When we went through that rough patch after Folterra, there was little we could speak about without hurting our feelings. But you two—you were the only topic we were in complete agreement about.”

I gave a rueful smile, remembering those long nights at my estate—Em, so far away but just on the other side of a dining table. Tense conversations while we tried to create some sense of normalcy for our daughter. And when Elora had brought up Nor and Dewalt’s push and pull, that had been the one thing to distract us. In focusing on their silly banter, we’d been able to forget about our own troubles for just a little while.

“I thought it wouldn’t happen until after we defeated Nereza and the Supreme,” I admitted. “So, I suppose I owe you your prize, Em.”

It was Em’s turn to blush. She shot me a glare, tucking smooth golden-brown hair behind her ear, and then she ignored me. I snorted, and Dewalt’s nose wrinkled in understanding. He didn’t need to know she’d be sitting on my face later that evening, but I was sure he had some idea about the nature of the prize she’d won.

Em blew out a flustered breath. “I suppose we should go? The goddess will not summon herself.”

“We’re joining you,” Dewalt said, reaching for the cane he’d been using. When I opened my mouth, eager to have Em put her healing hands upon him, he shook his head, waving his hand to dismiss the issue until later. I supposed it was important to get there far sooner than Nereza could manage.

“I have a question to ask her, if she has a moment,” Nor said, gaze on the floor in front of her. “Just some clarity about worshiping them.”

“I have a few myself, but yours will probably be worded far nicer than mine,” Em said, laughing as she approached me. Standing on her tiptoes, she pressed a kiss to my cheek. “Take us to the cliffside, my love?”

As I opened the rift, as my friend and his love stepped through it, I allowed the hope within me to glow brighter.

At the highestpoint of Nara’s Cove, north of the fortress, we waited for Lasu to escort the Supreme to us. If his information was correct, we had promised him the swift death he asked for. When he’d rambled on about how my father had spread Larke’s ashes here, an homage to the god who’d blessed her, I’d only stared at him. With tears streaming down his face, I’d agreed just to shut him up. Though he hadn’t acted admirably in the slightest, there was something about his motivations being rooted in his own twisted version of love that spoke to me. I’d found it in me to grant him some dignity in his death, though he didn’t deserve a bit of it.

As Em pulled the pouch of the Supreme’s bones from her pocket, picked clean by a carnivorous beetle she’d been recommended to use while we were in Astana, I shivered in revulsion. I hadn’t known she’d been carrying the bones in a pouch around her neck when she left for Lamera, and it had unsettled me to know what she might have meant to do. But I hadn’t asked her. There wasn’t time to discuss such things; we had more pressing matters.

Lasu arrived with the Supreme. With obsidian cuffs on, my soldier allowed him to look out over the water, standing close enough to the cliff it made me uncomfortable. Dewalt and Nor sat in the clover nearby, her head on his shoulder, and pride swelled within me. Gods, I didn’t pray often, but there had been more than one time I’d wished for this for Dewalt.

Reaching into my own pack, I pulled out several bundles of winterfrost roses. First, the few we’d plucked from Iemis’s tomb, they were nearly fresh. Bright red with sparkling silver-edged petals, I handed them to Em.

She knelt on the ground, arranging the flowers and bones very particularly, and I wondered if this was her method of control in such an unmanageable situation.

Next, the bundle Elora had sent from Ravemont by way of Nixy. Less fresh, but very similar to the ones on Iemis’s grave, my anger over Em’s mother’s betrayal roiled in my gut once more. Em glared up at the bundle, reaching for the dagger she would use to slice her palm. Dismissing whatever idea had come to mind, she reached for the flowers instead.

Lastly, I grabbed the small clipping Em had made for Elora, a cut of the winterfrost roses which bloomed over Faxon’s grave. I squeezed it in my fist, unable to staunch the anger over what the man had done to my daughter. And furious he stole moments which had belonged to me.

“Ouch,” I murmured as a thorn nicked my skin, before passing it to Em.

As she set the final bloom down on top of the Supreme’s bones, I stepped away and unsheathed my sword, waiting for her to slice open her palm.

The ground shook and the clouds opened, and I braced myself for what was to come.

Chapter 72

EMMELINE

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