The war room emptied, and then it was only the two of us, and the letter on the table between us like a thing that might still bite.
Vael had gone first, fast and certain, already talking of riders and roads. Oryn after her. Senna had stepped out to begin whatever a witch does when she has just told a room that a trap has been laid. And then it was Kael and me, alone in the stone room, with the fire low and the night pressing at the windows.
He came around the table.
He did not sit. He stood behind my chair, close, one hand resting on the back of it, near enough that I could feel the warmth coming off him. He was not touching me. He was simply there, the way he had been there in the Blackwood, the way I was beginning to understand he would always be there if I let him.
"You are going t
