I volunteer for first watch. Looking at Rowan alone by the trees, I know I wouldn’t be able to sleep, anyway. We keep the fire going, but only just, as the night insects chirp louder and the stars take hold in the sky.

“Don’t get cocky, Callen,” says Io as she turns away. “The moment your wits start to leave you, tag in someone else. We can’t take any chances.”

“Yes, Commander.”

No way in the skies are my wits going to leave me right now. I’m tired, but Rowan is hurting. I want to be there for her, if she wants me there. Io, Jai, and Sethran go to sleep right away, but Ox stays up. He and Jai had split the remaining Leonodai arrows. He runs his fingers idly against the fletching.

“Did you know she left without orders?” he asks quietly.

He doesn’t say deserted. I nod.

“When did she tell you?”

“Does it matter?” I reply. “She did what she felt was right. What was right.”

Ox sets the quiver aside. “Callen, how many times do you think we’ve sparred?”

“What?” I ask.

“Over the years of training. How many times?”

“What does that matter?” We trained together for four years. The number would be in the hundreds.

“I remember us being pretty evenly matched.” Ox inclines his head in the direction of the trees. “Just funny that I’d lose when it mattered most. I had a feeling she’d choose you.”

What? Heat rises to my face. “I don’t think she has.”

“Then your observation skills need some work” is his reply. “She went to you in the arena like no one else was there. When she did that, I knew. Once you know who you want to die next to, you know who you want to live for.” He shakes his head. “And it isn’t me.”

Io rolls over with a groan, a scowl on her face. “I thought I gave an order to rest.”

Ox exhales a small laugh. When Io turns back, he inclines his head to the trees again and mouths the word go.

When I’m confident everyone save Ox is asleep, I walk over to Rowan, keeping my movements as controlled and as quiet as possible. Is Ox right? He and I had been competing for her heart long before I realized it. I want to hope. I want him to be right.

She turns when a twig snaps under my foot. I put a finger to my lips and point farther into the forest.

We walk just far enough away from the group that they won’t hear us if we whisper.

“Are you okay?” I ask.

Rowan tilts her head up. We’re so close that I feel her breath on my cheek. “It doesn’t matter. We have to save the prince. That’s it.”

“They would have found out eventually.”