I reached up and laid the backs of my fingers against Dain's cheek, watching his eyes close as he leaned into the caress. "I did it for you," I said, just as quietly. "I couldn't bear the despair in your eyes, or to see you broken." I offered him a small smile. "I wasn't too keen on dying, either, but all I was really thinking about was that there is always a third option, and that I was going to take it."

Dain's hand covered mine, pressing my fingers against his cheek. "Are you going to start squashing bugs, now?"

"God, no," I said, kissing his shoulder again. "Cups and pieces of paper for life."

"Good." He turned his head and kissed my knuckles.

Zhiolas made an exasperated sound and I flashed him my best, most brightest smile.

"Alluin! War room! Dire consequences!" he said, flattening his mouth at us.

"But Zhiolas," Dain purred as I walked over to the Queen's sad corpse. "Think of all the sweet nothings Leah and I could coo at each other."

"'But Zhiolas' nothing," he said, though I could hear his amusement. "The two of you are filthy, exhausted, and covered in blood, and Alluin is on the verge of falling apart. Save your sweet nothings for after you deal with tens of thousands of corpses and all that damn iron Leah strewed everywhere."

"You're welcome," I called back to him as I pulled my bloody crown out of the Queen's lax fingers. I looked at her for one long moment, sorrow and pity coiling in my chest, then turned away, and back towards Dain. The dead could wait. There were the living to attend to.

56. Comfort

Chapter 56

Comfort

When we arrived at the war room, Alluin had one of the lords by the lapels, hauled up about a foot off the ground and pinned up against the wall. I barely repressed my smirk as all heads turned towards us, Alluin's last of all, his beautiful face stern and hard-eyed.

"Really, General?" Dain said in a drawl. "Not even half an hour since the battle ended, and you're already trying to start another one?"

Alluin dropped the man, who staggered. "You're on two feet." He sounded completely bewildered, his eyes wide, then turned his gaze on me. "You're balanced, aren't you? I don't have to say it, after all."

"Gold star," I said with a grin. "Soulmated trueloves, with a solid eight hours to spare. Well within tolerances. Why did you have Lord Keljyre by the collar, General Xilsatra?"

He growled, his lip lifting up in a Dain-worthy snarl. "Your lord desires that the armies be sent down to the garrison rather than bedded down in the Antlered Palace."