Page 63 of Silver & Smoke
There’s nothing untoward about two old friends chatting at a wedding,she dismissed him.
Torj didn’t take his eyes off the happy couples swaying to the music before him.Old friends... Is that what we are?
You know exactly what we are,came her answer as she stood beside him.
‘Dancing on a clifftop...’ Wren mused aloud with a shake of her head. ‘It’s a very Thea thing to do.’
‘You’ve been known to jump into danger every now and then too,’ Torj told her quietly. ‘Perhaps it’s an Embervale thing.’
Wren chuckled. ‘Along with a proclivity for Warswords, apparently...’
Tensing, Torj glanced around for Devereux Senior and his lackeys. No doubt someone had their eyes on them already. ‘Don’t let anyone else hear you say that.’
They continued to watch the couples dancing, Torj sipping from his drink and trying to hide the shaking in his hand again. His attention drifted to Thea and Wilder once more. Their arms were around each other, Wilder lifting Thea from the ground. ‘They look happy,’ he said softly.
‘They deserve it.’ Wren had followed his gaze to where they moved together, their warrior’s grace and agility just as suited to dancing as to battle.
Wren’s fingers brushed his arm, her words blooming in his mind.
Meet me before dawn. There’s a stream past the alchemists’ grove in the Bloodwoods.
We can’t,he told her, fixing his stare anywhere but on her.We won’t get away with Dessa drugging Lucian twice.
Who said anything about that?she asked.Meet me.
It’s too dangerous,Torj told her.Don’t make this harder than it has to be, Embers.
From across the crowd, Darian was motioning to her, a charming smile gracing his handsome face, and beside him Lord Lucian and Lord Briar were deep in conversation.
The next words Torj spoke aloud were gentle, but firm. ‘You should go. Your fiancé needs you.’
Wren didn’t say goodbye as she was swallowed up by the festive crowd, as though she had merely exchanged a few polite words with a man who was once her guard before returning to her future husband.
She didn’t look back as Darian slid an arm around her waist when she reached him. Torj could see why people were smitten with the match; the Delmirian princess and the Lord of Larkwood Valley made a handsome, impressive couple.
And just as he was about to descend into a spiral of dark thoughts, Wren’s voice came back to him through the soul bond.
You’d best meet me by the stream come morning, Bear Slayer, or I’ll be all alone...
Though he couldn’t risk meeting her gaze while she danced with Darian, he knew Wren was smiling – not for the nobleman, but for him.
You wicked woman,he replied.
My poor Torj... You have no idea.
CHAPTER 34
Wren
‘A true soul bond manifests not as possibility but as inevitability – as certain as the dawn following the night’
– Tethers and Magical Bonds Throughout History
‘WHAT IN THEmidrealms are you doing?’ Torj’s angry voice hissed over the sound of the babbling stream.
The pre-dawn air was crisp as Wren crouched beside the water, dragging a wet washcloth over her neck. Beyond the Bloodwoods, the bannermen were camped in the Plains of Orax, but around her, the grass was shrouded in early morning mist, and a cluster of ancient willows with curtain-like branches swept down to the brook. They provided privacy from the nearby camp, while moss-covered boulders created natural walls, enclosing the area.
Taking a steadying breath, Wren rinsed the scrap of material and brought it to her throat and collarbone this time.
