Kingdom of Ash

who had ridden through hell to find him ...
Tired. She looked spent, yet her chin
remained unbowed.
Lorcan had no words. He’d given her
everything on the back of that horse anyway.
But Elide asked, “How do you feel?”
Aching. Exhausted. Yet finding her sitting
at his bedside ... “Alive,” he said, and meant
it.
Her face remained unreadable, even as her
eyes dipped to his body. The blanket had slid
down enough to reveal most of his torso,
though it still hid the scarred-over wound in
his abdomen. Yet he’d never felt so keenly
naked.
It was an effort to keep his breathing
steady beneath her sharp-eyed gaze. “Yrene
said you would have died, if they hadn’t
gotten to you when they did.”
“I would have died,” he said, voice like