Page 248 of Sword & Shadow
Breaking all contact with one another, Deckard drew his hand to his side while Evylin set hers in her lap. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said flatly.
As much as he tried, Deckard couldn’t help the smirk that tugged at the corner of his lips.
Rafferty caught it. “Colonel?”
“Leave it be, Rafferty,” he said, then edged closer to Evylin. There was no reason to hide their renewed relationship. No one knew the danger it had been in only a few days ago. At most, they’d assumed that, due to Hewitt’s death and Evylin’s grief, they were going through a rough patch. Reunited, they could behave as they once had, as any married couple would.
Evylin seemed to be of the same mind, passing him a playful grin. She bumped her knee against his.
Rafferty scoffed. “You’re flirting with one another,” he noted. “That’s cute.”
“Shut up, Raff,” Evylin said, then leaned into Deckard’s side anyway.
Just as Deckard began to rest his arm behind her back, Auden arrived at their side. “I need a word,” he said, voice thick with agitation.
Rafferty muttered something about “told you so,” while Deckard and Evylin tensed.
Without waiting for a response, Auden continued, “You need to give the Relic back to Rafferty.”
Deckard drew in a long breath through his nose. He should have expected this.
“Now,” Auden concluded.
Before Deckard could get a word out, Evylin answered for him. “No.”
Auden’s rich green eyes flared. “No?”
“After everything we just faced,” she replied steadily, “it’s wiser that Jonn continues to carry it.”
“Wiser?” Auden repeated, nearly shouting the word.
Everyone in the camp froze. Sitting together, Ilain, Isla, and Jarrad’s expressions showed varying levels of confusion and surprise. At the fire, Ethenn and Emmaas stopped talking while Thom paused in attending to the roasting meat. Rafferty let out a low whistle.
“Aftereverything,” Auden retorted, “I should thinkyou’dwant him to give it up most of all. But I suppose you’ve changed your mind now that he can give you what you want.”
Deckard bristled at the suggestion in the man’s tone. He set his hand on Evylin’s hip protectively. “That’s uncalled for,” he said, speaking as he might to an unruly soldier in need of reprimand. “I understand you don’t trust my magic, but—”
“Of course, I don’t trust it,” Auden interrupted, towering over them. “We established its danger weeks ago. Yet, time and time again, you insist on using it for your own selfish gain.”
Deckard prepared to refute his claims, but Auden kept talking over him. “You don’t care if it kills us all, do you? Not if it results in—” His hand thrust in the direction of Deckard and Evylin. “Whatever the hell this is!”
Everyone continued to stare back and forth between Auden and the couple. Deckard shifted uncomfortably, feeling as though he were a youth caught romancing his sweetheart. Evylin’s temples went pink, suggesting she felt the same. She began to shift away, but he tightened his grip, keeping her close.
In the momentary lull, Jarrad turned to Isla. “I thought you said they were married,” he commented.
“They are,” Isla said defensively. Then her brow furrowed, and she turned to Ilain. “Aren’t they?”
“We are,” Deckard confirmed, temper rising.
“Right,” Auden said as though Deckard had just condemned himself. “Which is profoundly convenient when just weeks ago we split up because she didn’t want you anymore.”
“That’s not—”
He cut Evylin’s defense off. “We lost three Relics. We practically handed them over to Blount. All because you—” he pointed at Deckard, “were desperate to convince her—” he pointed at Evylin, “not to annul your marriage. So you summoned her uncle to keep her at your side, damning the consequences for the rest of us. Don’t you understand that your connection to Night is going to get us killed?”
Deckard didn’t know whether to rise and punch the man or ignore him altogether. However, a niggling doubt wormed its way through the ivy of hope around his heart. Auden wasn’t wrong. Deckardhadchosen to keep Hewitt around despite the threat to their safety, all to make Evylin happy. And he’d had little doubt that itwouldconvince Evylin to stay married to him.
“Hang on,” Jarrad piped up from the far side. “I’m confused: What’s happening?”
