He brushes back those soft auburn waves and presses a kiss to Karis’s forehead. Shamelessly, selfishly stealing a few final memories. He leans back to look him in the eyes. “You’re sounding a little reckless there.”
Karis’s lips thin out, and he takes a deep breath before he speaks again. “You just have to trust me.”
“I do trust you,” Ronan says quietly. “That’s the problem.”
A familiar pattern knocks on the window. Ronan grabs his bag and turns to Karis once more. “Evain and I need to handle something, and then we can leave Riverwatch. Wait here for me, for an hour?”
That’s the other problem—that Karis believes the lie so easily.
In a last moment of weakness, he steals another kiss. The sweet press of lips, the trembling breath. So sweet and bright, Ronan’s eyes sting like he’s squinting into sunlight. But the room is dark when they pull away. “I truly love you,” Ronan whispers. “Remember that.”
Karis’s eyes widen, but he doesn’t reply. Just touches Ronan’s lips, then lets him go.
?
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
KARIS
Karis stands stunned until the last rays of sunlight wink out beyond the shutters. When only a single dim lantern lights the room, he moves to the bed to sit down stunned for a while instead. Giddiness bubbles up inside him, chased with regret. What was he thinking, just letting Ronan walk out after that dramatic declaration? He should have replied. He should have saidI love youback.
“Wait,doI love him?” he says out loud, because the silence is too heavy.
Unusual hesitance from Vara.Are you asking me?
“I know that’s not your jurisdiction.” Karis laughs, rubbing his eyes. “Would you be offended if I prayed to another god with some questions? Would that be cheating on you or something?”
Another god wouldn’t put up with your attitude,Vara answers ruthlessly.
Karis laughs again. “Harsh but fair.”
He stands up, stretches out his arms, touches his toes. His muscles tighten against the stretch, then slowly ease. He’d kill for a massage and a bath right now. Eyeing the bathroom, he wonders if he has time to clean up before Ronan gets back from—what was he going to do, anyway?
A few bubbles of giddiness pop, leaving a sour feeling. Karis straightens up with a frown. Maybe Ronan loves him. Maybe Karis loves him back. But they’re both still keeping secrets from each other, and Karis doesn’t know how long that can last.
When he comes back, I’ll tell him about Vara, and everything,Karis decides, even though the thought of speaking up makes his hands tremble.He hasn’t talked about the friend in his head since he was ten years old, and it went so disastrously—but Ronan’s different. He knows about Voices.He’ll understand why I need the crown if I tell him.
A heavy knock on the door startles him from his thoughts. He takes one reflexive step, then halts. It’s too soon for Ronan and Evain to be back. Ronan and Evain wouldn’t knock. Ronan would have a key, or pick the lock, or use the window—
Low voices sound through the door, with the familiar warmth of Radiance.
Run, Vara urges, and Karis is already moving. An escape plan flashes through his mind: adjoining room, slam the door to buy time, out the window. Blow up the lanterns if he has to. But his hand hasn’t quite reached the adjoining doorknob when the hallway door crashes open.
Karis knows better than to look behind him, but he does anyway. The hallway is brightly lit, and for a brief instant of stillness, everyone is perfectly clear.
Captain Edith Tanner, with her braided crown of yellow hair, lowers her armored elbow from bashing in the door. Behind her are half a dozen other paladins, with golden suns on their chests and Radiance ready at their blades. Names flick through Karis’s memory, like pages of a book flipping past. Freya. Annett. Harry.
“Thank Vara,” someone says.
“Search the rooms,” Tanner barks, her gauntlet glinting as she gestures.
The paladins pour in and flood the room with movement. Someone rips the bedding from the bed, and Freya flings open the closet. Annett and Harry nearly tear the adjoining door off its hinges as they cross through. Everything is too much, too loud, and Karis is the only point of stillness and silence. Numb with shock, he can barely process the blur of people around him.
Out of the crowd, only two individuals approach him—and Captain Tanner is quickly outpaced by a tall young woman in a sky-blue tunic.
“Karis!”
He stumbles back, unbalanced by the arms wrapped around his neck. Stazie hugs him tightly enough to strangle him. “You’re all right,” she says, closer to tears than he’s ever heard her. “Radiance, you’re all right.”