Would she ever see her little sister again?

“Ophie,” she whispered as moisture collected along her lower eyelids. She blinked before the tears could collect and roll down her cheeks. She would not waste this opportunity that fortune, chance, or perhaps even the Light himself had given her. She would not leave her sisters behind—even Amara. She had an opportunity now to find a way to free them from the Ravenwood legacy.

“I wish we had our horses,” Karl grumbled up ahead, so quietly that Selene barely heard his words.

“Stop your bellyaching. Would you rather have a horse or your life?” Sten replied, just as quietly.

“Do you really believe she did this to rescue us? Or was it to find a way to the Northern Shores and then finish her job?”

“Do you not understand what Lord Damien did back there?”

Karl grunted out what sounded like a no.

“By marrying her, Lord Damien ensured that Lady Selene can never take his life.”

Selene sucked in a breath. He did? How much did she not understand about the marriage rites?

Sten continued. “Cohen bound them together. She can never harm him in that way. She cannot kill him.”

She frowned. Was that why Damien proposed a marriage alliance? To save himself? It also explained why her Ravenwood ancestors took consorts from lesser houses: not only to protect their secrets, but to make sure the men who knew those secrets could not turn around and kill them. It seemed that in return they could never kill their husbands either.

The guards did not seem to realize she could hear their conversation, something for which she was thankful, as they had provided her with information. But what they didn’t seem to understand was that she had no plans to fulfill her mission. In fact, if Damien was truly the threat from the north her mother feared, then all the better if he lived.

But it did make her wonder. What was the true reason Damien chose to bond with her? To save her . . . or to save himself?

Just when it seemed it would be too dark to go on, a faint light appeared in the distance up ahead on the road.

“Riveram. Finally,” Sten said, his voice sounding fatigued.

“Looks like it,” Karl replied.

“Thank the Light,” Cohen said beside Selene.

Selene didn’t say a word. Instead, she focused on twinkling light. Every part of her body was past exhaustion, and the only thing making her move was the thought that if she didn’t, someone would have to carry her. And that wasn’t going to happen.

The light ahead brightened as night fell. A sliver of a moon hung in the sky, partially obscured by the trees. Selene focused on the light and the road before her, unwilling to trip on another branch or rock. More lights appeared as log homes took shape in the distance.

“Do they have an inn?” Cohen glanced at the men behind him.