“We’re both here, naked, on our last night of what may be freedom or possibly our lives . . . and you’re worried about a bouncy bed?”

Brannie nodded. “Yes.”

Aidan grabbed Brannie’s arm and pulled her close. “Kiss me, Brannie.”

“All right, but if we make it back home alive . . . I want you to get me a bouncy bed.”

* * *

Aidan stared at her for so long, she thought maybe she’d crossed a line. Not about suggesting that they might not get back to the Southlands alive, but by suggesting they’d still be involved somehow. Enough, anyway, to insist on a gift.

Uncomfortable, she asked, “Why are you staring?”

He never answered, but he kissed her. A sweet kiss that confused her even more.

“What is happening?” she asked when he pulled back.

“I like you, Branwen.”

She smiled and replied, “Awwwww, Aidan . . . I like me, too.”

Rolling his eyes, Aidan pushed her back on the bed and settled between her thighs.

“Why do I bother?” he asked her.

And, laughing, Brannie admitted, “I have no idea!”

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Meihui was meditating. She got up early, hours before the two suns rose, to meditate. It healed her mind and body and helped her maintain the strength she’d built over the centuries. Although she was born to human parents—farmers—she’d been sent to Heaven’s Destroyers before she’d reached her thirteenth year. That had been about fifteen hundred years ago, give or take a few stray years she might have forgotten. And in that time, she’d honed her skills until they were absolutely razor-sharp.

So what she heard moving outside her temple wasn’t footsteps. It was breathing. Very controlled breathing by very controlled killers.

Brazen ones if they were trying to sneak into a Heaven’s Destroyers’ temple.

No. These killers wouldn’t be here for one of her sisters or for Meihui. They were here for Keita.

Reaching under her bed, she pulled out her seax, a fighting knife, given to her by her training mistress a long time ago, and quickly slipped out of her room. She knew she didn’t have to warn her sisters. They were already aware of what was happening. But Keita and her friends . . .

Meihui ran up the stairs to the guest rooms and to Keita’s door. She eased inside and went straight to the bed, but before she could shake Keita awake, a blade was pressed to her throat.

“Come to kill me, old friend?”

Meihui smiled. “No, you idiot. I’m here to rescue the damsel.”

The blade pulled away from her throat and Meihui faced her friend. “And you, my dearest Keita . . . better run.”

* * *

Brannie’s mother used to warn her that sometimes good sex could be a distraction. She used to roll her eyes at her mother’s speech and then beg her to stop talking because it was so embarrassing having this conversation with her mum.