A Vow So Bold and Deadly (The Cursebreaker Series Book 3)

The night sky is full of clouds again, snow flurries trickling down through the wind. I can barely see the soldiers leaving, which I suppose is the point. Iisak will follow in the skies. He’s already well overhead, nearly invisible in the twilit darkness.

Nolla Verin is waiting inside the palace with Clanna Sun, because we’re to discuss contingency plans, but I’m standing in the iced-over gardens, watching the small group of soldiers ride toward the city gates. We’ve spent weeks and weeks preparing for war, but I never once thought of how it would feel to stand like this, watching the barest glints of their weapons as they ride off the training fields. I never realized that it would feel like I’ve given away a part of myself, a part that Grey now carries with him.

He found me before they left, stealing a few minutes of privacy during which I should have been whispering warnings and promises and telling him all the ways my heart beats for him alone. Instead, his lips were on mine, and I inhaled his breath until I was dizzy with wanting and soldiers were shouting for him.

Grey kissed me one last time, then whispered against my lips. “I will come back to you.”

I hooked my fingers in his armor before he could pull away. “Your word?”

He smiled, took my hand, and kissed my fingertips. “My vow.”

Then he was gone, all softness erased from his face, any vulnerability gone from his frame.

But now I’m standing, staring, watching, waiting. There’s a part of me that doesn’t want to leave this garden until I see him return.

I heard what Harper said about this enchantress, the things she did to Rhen and his people. I’ve heard Grey’s stories of what she used to do.

He could die.

The thought flies into my head without warning, and once there, it takes root. I have to shake it loose.

I can’t.

I might never see him again.

The thought is dizzying. I have to put a hand against my belly.

And then I throw up my dinner right there in the garden.