Their relationship continued to evolve, Bane smiling and laughing more, despite the ticking countdown clock, and it always sent her heart soaring higher. Every day, he became a little more protective, a lot fiercer and a megaton more passionate. She loved sleeping in the security of his arms, and he delighted in whispering sweeter everythings in her ear.

Your strength amazes me.

Your courage humbles me.

Your beauty maddens me.

Now, fear aggravated her nerves. Today, the clock zeroed out, a new one beginning. In less than three hours, the Assembly of Combatants would begin. Tick, tick, tick. Bane had already begun to prepare.

“No one took the Mark of Disgrace,” she said, pacing in front of him. Not even Vale.

Just her name elicited a pang of homesickness. Nola missed her sister so danged much. What she wouldn’t give to hug her. To cry with her. To talk and laugh with her. To discuss everything that had happened and the hardships of dating an All War combatant. To cook her favorite meal, the way Nola had been cooking for Bane and Zion.

“You can’t end the war after the meeting,” she finished.

“I know,” he replied, and to her amazement, he didn’t sound the tiniest bit upset. He sat at the desk, sharpening a sword—a weapon she was forbidden to touch. It was responsible for his shoulder wound. He glided some kind of rock over the edge of the blade. Up and down.

“You won’t perform the Blood Rite until the war ends, which means your vengeance must wait.”

“I know,” he repeated, still not upset.

Dang him. Why the heck wasn’t he stressing? Something she couldn’t stop doing! As their romance had blossomed, so had her sense of foreboding. Never, in all her life, had she gotten to keep something she lo—cared about. She’d lost her parents, Carrie and even Vale, at least for a little while. Why would Bane be any different? One day, she would lose him, too.

“Tell me again what you’ll be doing while I’m away,” he said. Up and down. Up and down.

“Besides worry?” For their last few hours together—he’ll come back, he’ll come back—they’d locked themselves in the master bedroom of their newest penthouse suite. A gorgeous room with windowed walls and a massive bed.

“You shouldn’t worry for your man.” Up and down. Sloooowly. Rhythmically. “I’ll be strong for us.”

Us. One word, two letters, infinite shivers. Pacing, pacing, she said, “I’ll stay where you put me, talk to no one, trust no one and do nothing.”

“Very good.”

He would be portaling her into a different hotel room, in a different state. The combatants would be too busy to attack her and anyone Erik had hired wouldn’t know where to look or how to reach her. “Your turn,” she said. “Remind me about what you’ll be doing.”