“Because I knew it would work.” Bri’s lips twisted up. “Because the only person I’ll ever beg is you.”

Lina’s eyes flared for a split second before the anger bled back into her expression. Bri could read every inch of Cole’s betrayal on Lina’s face. Had they really been bringing a traitor with them this whole time? Was everything Cole had done to help them a lie?

“Something about this doesn’t make sense, Lina.” Bri shook her head, placing a steadying hand on Lina’s forearm. “Why would he tell us so much? Why wouldn’t he have broken off from us sooner? He had so many opportunities. Why would he try so hard to save Delta when getting her out of the way would have been the smarter choice?”

“I don’t know,” Lina hissed, clenching and unclenching her fists. “Which is why I need to find him.”

“I think the talk of Baba Monroe spooked him,” Bri confessed. “I think he might know something, something worth fleeing over.” She took a step closer, backing Lina up against the stable wall. “Let Renwick’s guards find him, the ones that know this countryside. They will return with answers. Come back inside.” Lina clenched her jaw, staring hard at Bri, but Bri continued. “It’s safer to stay here in a fortress than scouring the hillsides at night in the pouring rain.”

Bri slid her arm up Lina’s side, delighting in the way Lina’s eyelids drooped as she pressed into Lina’s soft curves. Her lips found Lina’s neck and Lina arched into the sensation. Her tongue slid over Lina’s collarbone and her teeth tested the soft flesh on Lina’s shoulder in mirror to the bruise that now proudly bloomed below Bri’s tunic.

“Come inside,” she whispered against Lina’s skin, trailing kisses up Lina’s neck.

“You are very persuasive,” Lina moaned, her hands lifting of their own accord and snaking around Bri’s back.

Bri grinned, nipping at the lobe of Lina’s ear. “I know.”

“I wish this never had to end,” Lina murmured, raking her fingers down Bri’s back.

Bri pulled away and met Lina’s gaze, afraid to say the words that had been on the tip of her tongue since their fight in Silver Sands. She took a breath, terrified that Lina would laugh at her for even saying it, but she summoned every ounce of courage and said, “If I gave you a reason to call off your engagement, would you?”

Lina blinked at her, that split second feeling like hours as Bri tried to read her expression. She steeled herself for Lina’s rebuff.

“Yes,” Lina said, eyes falling back to Bri’s lips.

Yes.

Her head swam. Her heart burst. Yes.