The room in the "Broken Mug" was filthy, smelled of stale ale, and the "lock" was a heavy, iron
bar he had to drop into place himself. But it was theirs. Kael jammed the bar across the door,
the thud of the metal sealing them in. For the first time in two months, they were not being
hunted. They were not in the rain. They were... safe. The adrenaline from the journey, the
near-death with the arrow, the final, brutal statement at the gate... it all drained away at once.
They were left standing in the middle of a tiny, dim room, lit by a single, flickering oil lamp.
They were just... Kael and Lin Yue. She was looking at her hand. The one that had killed seven
men in as many seconds. It was trembling, just slightly. He, his body aching, was just watching
her. "You alright?" he asked, his voice quiet. "I... I've never done that," she whispered. "So...
fast. So... cold." "You saved us," he said simply. He moved to the small, cracked basin of water
and began to wash the grime and blood from his face and hands. "You nearly died," she
whispered, her back still to him. "But I didn't," he replied, his voice muffled by the cloth. "You
took that arrow. You knew it was for me. You knew." "That's the Vow," he said. She spun around,
and her eyes were blazing. "Stop saying that!" She crossed the room in two strides, grabbing
the front of his torn, dirty tunic, forcing him to look at her. "Stop hiding behind your 'Vow'!" she
seethed, her voice shaking. "You think I don't see it? The Vow isn't what makes you move, Kael!
It's just... it's just an excuse! You are the one who moves. You are the one who takes the hit. It's
you! You're a fool, Kael. The biggest, most stubborn, most impossible fool in all the realms." He
saw the tears glittering in her eyes, the tears she'd been holding back since the canyon.
"And...?" he asked, his voice rough. "And I think," she said, her voice breaking, "I am a fool, too.
For... for..." She couldn't finish the sentence. So she did the only other thing she could. She
pulled him down and kissed him.
It was not a gentle, exploring kiss. It was a collision. It was raw, desperate, and furious. It was a
kiss of "we-survived-the-end-of-the-world." It was "I-can't-lose-you" and "you-terrify-me" and
"don't-you-ever-do-that-again" all at once. It was all the fear, and the gratitude, and the respect,
and the new, burning need they had both been suppressing for months. When they finally broke
apart, they were both breathless, foreheads resting against each other. "So," Kael said, his
voice uneven. "That's... new." Lin Yue, the ice-goddess, the prodigy, gave a small, shaky, wet
laugh. "Get used to it," she whispered. "My Knight."