The memory of the Boatman’s dire warning flashed through my brain, and it stole my breath. Because without the warning, I might never have been able to react that quickly. I wouldn’t have believed that death could come from Dagan’s own hand.

The Boatman had saved me.

Suddenly overcome, I tugged Dagan away, and we trudged toward the corridor and inside the shadowy depths. Out of the sun. Out of the garish light. Away from the death and injury and blood. I had a life to live, and so did he.

“You threw that dagger to protect me.”

“But it could have killed you like you said in the tent. After your—vision. You told me and I didn’t believe you.”

“Well, luckily, I trusted myself.” I smiled into his face. His bloody, battered face that was swollen and needed tending to as soon as possible. “And you killed the others to save your life.” Tears filled my eyes. “We tried, Arammu. Tried to end it without bloodshed. It was the best we could do. But Uruku was a man of death, and we were in his domain. I was foolish to think it would end any other way.”

“No. You were right to wish it could be that way. War is destruction. For both sides.”

We stood lost in thought, working through our pain, our triumph, our failure.

After a moment, I placed my hands on his big chest. “You didn’t come to me right after we’d won. You carried Ummi on your shoulders instead. I thought you’d run to find me.”

He smiled, his eyes guarded, scuffling his sandaled feet in the dust. He blinked thick, black lashes, and he lifted his amber eyes to mine. Took my hands in his. Both of ours were bloody, filthy, coated in the dried remnants of lives lost, but neither of us cared in that moment.

“Aren’t you tired of me chasing you?”

“You never need to chase me again.” I squeezed his hands with all my might. “I am here with you now, and with you forever, Dagan, if you will have me.” I pulled him close and stood up on my toes. “You told me that we are in this life together, and I know that it’s true. I can be the healer I want to be, and I can also have you. I can have it all, and want it all. I want to be with you for the rest of my life, more than you can ever underst—”

But before I could finish, he was crushing me to him, his warm lips pressed to mine, his hands tangled in my hair. And I pulled him to me, too. Together, we let go of the grief, of the pain, and reminded ourselves exactly how it felt to be wonderfully and completely alive.

“Kammani!”

Iltani’s voice, echoing in the corridor, tugged me out of our intoxicating embrace.

“What?” I demanded.

She stood there, a hand on her hip. “Maybe you could get your tongue out of his mouth long enough to give me a hand?”