Page 47 of Silver & Smoke
‘Elderbrock.Stop.’
Torj blinked. ‘What?’
‘Stop making plans for when you’re gone. I won’t have it. And most importantly,shewon’t have it. Furies save you, have youmether?’
‘I just...’
‘Justwhat?’ Darian demanded.
Torj’s breath rattled in his chest. ‘I want her to have everything.’
Darian turned to him then, incredulous. ‘Everything is nothingwithout you.’
‘She’ll move on. She’ll—’
Darian cut him off. ‘Wouldyou?’
Torj froze. Gods, he hated that Darian – Darian fucking Devereux – had a point.Thepoint. They were soul bonded. Equals. And yet he was still behaving like a gods-damned child.
‘You’re right,’ he said, hanging his head.
Darian blinked, cupping his ear in disbelief. ‘What was that?’
‘Don’t be a smug bastard. I won’t say it twice.’
‘Should have got it in writing,’ Darian retorted.
‘You should have.’
‘Shelovesyou,’ Darian said more seriously. ‘Anyone with eyes can see it. The way she looks at you – it’s how my aunt used to look at my uncle before they died...’ He trailed off. ‘Don’t waste it.’
‘I’m a dying Warsword. She’s to be queen.’
Darian scoffed. ‘And I’m a highborn lord conspiring against his own father.’ He got to his feet again and offered Torj his hand. ‘The old rules are fading, brother. Maybe it’s time we wrote new ones.’
The word ‘brother’ hung between them again – an olive branch, a recognition of what they once were to each other.
Torj considered the outstretched hand, his heart still heavy. ‘Men like me don’t write the rules. We follow them.’
‘What a load of bullshit,’ Darian retorted. ‘Queen. Alchemist. Poisoner. Warsword. Man. One day we’ll live in a world where it doesn’t fucking matter. Now take my damn hand and let me help your pathetic ass up.’
Torj snorted at that. The old Darian was definitely still in there, and so he grasped his friend’s hand.
‘Besides,’ Darian added, lighter now that he’d hauled Torj up, ‘can you imagine anyone telling Wren she can’t have what she wants? I’ve seen her in action. She makes the Bear Slayer look like a stuffed animal. The woman’s terrifying.’
That startled a laugh from Torj. ‘You have no idea.’
As the two men left the hold and stepped out onto the deck, something had shifted. The air was clearer between them, old wounds beginning to knit closed. Ever cautious of his father, Darian looked around carefully before he pulled something from his pocket and held it out for Torj to see beneath the moonlight.
‘Your grandmother gave this to me,’ he said quietly, handing it to Torj. ‘It was once hers, then it belonged to your mother.’
Torj stopped walking.
Darian gripped his shoulder, forcing him to take his eyes off the delicate circle of silver and meet his friend’s determined gaze. ‘Don’t let anyone tell you that you’re not worthy of her. Not even yourself.’
Torj speared his fingers through his hair. ‘And what does that matter, given your impending marriage to her?’
The nobleman’s eyes flickered to the distance, his voice dropping low. ‘A lot can happen between now and when we get to an altar... and there are many reasons why weddings don’t go ahead. Think on it, brother.’
