Quinn’s chambers were at the tip of the tallest towers of Keep Blacksteel. Given to him by King Godwin, clearly to spit him, as Captain Quinn had so much hatred for the room, he refused to give it any love or decoration except for what it came with. He hated the long spiral steps; he hated the high window that always let in a smell of smog; he hated everything about it.

  The only addition he’d added and would never complain about was Fiasco, his wife, married in secret without the approval of King Godwin. Quinn? Asking Permission? He found it ridiculous that a man could be so power hungry that to wed the woman he loves he needed a piece of paper that gave the king’s blessing. The king never gave permission to his guards or even his littlest brother to marry a woman; the only exception was his other brother, Harren Valen, the man that Quinn hated more than Godwin incomprehensibly.

  Their marriage was hard due to their secrecy, in truth she would be difficult to love even without the obstacles—many flaws with her temper and even more with her cursed gift that had a mind of its own and always hurt the people she cared about on accident.

  Did Quinn care about her issues? No. Her temper was a part of her, and he loved her for who she was.

  As he finally reached the final step of the staircase, he felt relief to see the door to his chambers and prayed that his wife was on the other side of it.

  He quietly opened the door to see Fiasco asleep on his bed, the door to the balcony fully open and letting in the howling wind.

  Thank the gods, he thought. If I had to spend the night alone after that piece of shit Godwin spat on me in front of my own cousin I think I would throw myself off this tower.

  After sitting on the bed he kissed her forehead and rubbed her cheek. He felt lucky to have a woman like her. He crept around the room like a mouse hunting for cheese and put on a soft cotton shirt, staring at his reflection in the cracked mirror.

  His chin was bruised from Death’s strong kick, a tiny bruise on multiple of his gums, a giant scab from where Vera had stabbed him in the lung.

  “Damnit,” he mumbled. “I was sloppy, they should all be dead.”

  He saw Fiasco’s Valan cape and uniform strewn across the floor. He collected them and folded them nicely, putting them on a chair for her to change back into when the morning came.

  “Quinn?” she moaned. “That you!”

  “I’m sorry, my love, I didn’t mean to wake you.”

  She rolled over to the end of the bed and dangled an arm off the edge. “C’mere,” she purred tiredly. “I’ve missed you so much.”

  He sat on the floor and took her hand, kissing her knuckle. “I’ve missed you too, thought about you the whole journey home.”

  She smiled and shown her dimples. “I’m naked under these covers you know,” she whispered. “We can try again for a child if tonight favours you, I know the gods will bless us soon.”

  “When it happens, you know we’ll have to leave Vatanil,” he said. “Bianca would be overwhelmed with joy, but King Godwin will only see a man who is no longer devoted to his cause.”

  “That smelly man will never take my husband from me.” She wrapped her arm around Quinn’s head and cuddled it at the edge. “I would never let him do anything to you.”

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  After giving her a quick kiss he walked to the balcony, leaning against the railing. I hate the fucking Sentinels of this city, the towers of fire ruin the view of the mountains.

  “And where do you think you’re going?” She joined his side, wrapped in a white blanket. “What’s got my husband so locked up that he’s ignoring his naked wife?”

  “These people claim I killed a dragon,” he said. “But it was not me, they hail me a hero when I have done nothing worthy of it.”

  She dropped the blanket and turned him around, making him sit and resting herself across his lap. She kissed his neck, massaged his shoulders, rubbed her cheek against his cheek, nothing she did with her affection seemed to cheer him up.

  “Am I hurting you?” she asked worriedly. “My arm runes have been a little unhinged and random lately… I don’t want them to hurt or burn you.”

  “You’re not hurting me.”

  “Then why aren’t you smiling?”

  “These people see me as a hero but don’t know the feelings I get when I crush their weak bodies underneath me.”

  “You had the urges to kill again?”

  “I did. I killed families in Caron.”

  “Then I’m proud of you for releasing that anger on them. You are better than them, my love, casualties happen, right?”

  Quinn laughed.

  “I know that laugh,” she continued. “What else happened?”

  “I met a man at Caron who also infests my thoughts. I had him in my grip ready to kill, but it all felt part of his plan… it felt like even though I’d won, I had lost all along.”

  “He’s still out there?”

  “He is.”

  “Then that’s not good.” She looked up at him with innocent eyes and a playful smile. “We’ll have to find that man and kill him, won’t we, my love? I know how you get when you’re incomplete, and you know how I get when you don’t give me attention. Put your hands on me, Quinn, my body has missed you… I know you’ve missed me too, put them in your favourite places, ease your stress.”

  “And my hands have missed you,” he said softly. “But just this for the night, intimacy would not clear my mind. This feeling that lingers has me foggier than Vatanil during a spring night.”

  “Fine by me,” she whispered. “Just don’t you dare think for a second that you can take your hands off me, got it?”

  “My wife gets what she wants.”

  “I want you to smile… so since you woke me up, I’ll tell you a silly little story from my childhood, the ones that you always like.”

  “You always give me one I’ve never heard of before.”

  “Welllll, when I was a little lass of Vatanil and before my late father decided to do from a vicious flu, he would yammer all the time about goblins and ghouls and gremlins lurking in the shadows of naughty girl’s bedrooms. I was a terrible child, you’re heard all the stories, so naturally little me was scared they’d gobble me up while I slept… so, instead of improving my behaviour, I decided to sleep with a brick next to my pillow for the next three years, being even more annoying, challenging those little shits to try and take me in my sleepy fortress. One night I swear I heard one, the creaking of a floorboard creeping closer… it was my dad, I broke his nose with the brick and that was when he always checked my sheets for weapons after that. It never fully healed, always had a funny little bend to it afterward, ain’t that funny?”

  Quinn’s laughter came slow then erupted into booming coughs. He forced a smile for her, then looked at the moon. “I will make a better world for you and our boy.”

  “Boy, hm? Well, I want a girl,” she said. “I already worry when you go out, don’t think my heart could handle it if two men in my life are off fighting battles of unworthy kings.”

  “I have a plan to earn our freedom from this city.”

  “Maybe we don’t have to leave,” she suggested. “There was a tiny increase in personal crime while you were gone since the whole dragon attack stuff was frequent, they’ve calmed with you in the city, even if you didn’t kill it.”

  “I think I am ready for bed.”

  “Then carry me inside,” she whispered. “I am still so tired, now that you are here, I will sleep amazingly.”

  “I promise I’ll find us a way out,” he declared, lifting her up and taking her to the bed. “Nobody will separate us again.”