CHAPTER 110

Bushes shift behind us and I immediately clench Enoch's arm, putting my finger on my lips to shut him up. Enoch freezes too as he smells the air. It's them. The Imperial Guards.

"They're close." Enoch mutters under his breath and I nod in response. Silence thickened between us but it didn't take long when the bushes opened up like peekaboo. "Your Majesty!" A loud voice burts out of the leaves and I immediately jumped.

Holy crap.

"Run!" I yelled at Enoch and we immediately bolted off again. Shit's the sky's grey. We can't keep running like this.

The first drop hits my shoulder like a slap.

Then the sky opens up and dumps all of heaven's disappointment on us. It's freaking raining.

shriek, slipping on the wet cobblestones like a damn cartoon character, and Enoch just laughs actually laughs-before dragging me under the wooden awning of some abandoned vendor stall. The canopy above us rattles, water hitting it so hard it sounds like war drums.

"Why in the world do they have to sneak up on us like that?" I grumble, genuinely annoyed at the shock earlier.

"This is not how I imagined today ending," I mutter, pushing soaked strands of hair off my face. "Fuck. My boots are ruined."

"You wear boots to a market in storm season?" Enoch arches a brow, his tone smug, as if he's the one who dressed me this morning. He's annoyed at the cardigan and

jeans and now the boots? I'm gonna smack his face.

"You wear black-on-black every day like it's a funeral, so maybe shut the fuck up." I elbow him, but he only grins wider.

His dimples are out. That's dangerous. Definitely dangerous.

We'd snuck away to that hidden alley-the one with the old bricks and that busted- down swing hanging from a chain like it belonged to a ghost child-and now here we are. Laughing. Drenched. And too close.

We steal snacks from the vendor cart beside us. Not really steal, okay? There's no one around, and I left coins in the tray, I'm not a total menace. I rip open the paper and hand Enoch a fried dumpling.

"Eat," I say. "It'll shut you up."

He bites into it, eyes fluttering closed. "Gods, that's good. Almost as good as that time

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you cooked for me when I was dying in the infirmary."

"I made you oatmeal and burned the hell out of it."

"Exactly. So much love went into killing me slowly."

I snort. "You're unbelievable." The sky has now turned almost black and the

pouring doesn't look like it's gonna stop any time soon. I clench my teeth as a wiff

of cold breeze sweeps into the canopy. That's fucking cold.

gonna have a flu out of

"Maybe we should-"

to Enoch and then I

not gone, but

He shifts.

over skin. That terrifyingly beautiful shift that I've seen a thousand times but never like this. I stare, too shocked to

I whisper,

wolf lowers its head, nuzzling under my

Me shifting for the first time, not to fight, not to run-but to save him. Curling around his unconscious body in the middle of the night, desperate to keep him alive back then

at him, my throat clogged. "You

But a

middle of

can't believe you

done it all his life. He's fully naked but doesn't even give a shit-he

turn around because I respectfully refuse to drool

my ear, voice low. "That night's burned

My spine stiffens.

Because so is mine,

I say, clearing my throat like I wasn't just about to start crying over his fucking wolf form. "There's a better spot to wait this storm

perfect in the way nothing else has been lately. We sit shoulder to shoulder. I wrap my arms around my knees. He crosses his

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CHAPTER 110

he owns the

between us, comfortable

you remember," I say slowly, "when Kallias

yeah. He looked like he'd just stepped on a

you were gonna murder

in front of him, make his little fantasies true just to watch him

on my own breath.

and danger.

animal," I say, face

"You like that."

I'm afraid he's

his arm but I'm laughing, and he grabs my hand before I

The world drowns outside

are things back in Riverstone Pack?" he asks,

"Good. Weird. I think everyone's still

heard from her since the... kidnapping. Kallias too.

but

visit soon.

annoyed as he

forehead. "Relax. Not like that. It's just-it's where I grew

stand there again. As me.

studies me for a long time, then

blurting,

Silence.

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