Page 162 of Sands of Atonement

My thumb around the back of her neck brushed over her skin. “I think they are proud of who you are,” I whispered. “This was something you had to do for you. I think they know that, too.”

Her shoulders shook, and a tear slipped down her cheek. And then she nodded.

“I thought you were dead,” she whispered to me. Her forehead rolled along mine as she shook her head.

I lifted my forehead from hers and kissed her temple, remembering how differently our last moments together were when we were wrapped in each other’s bodies.

She swallowed audibly.

“I want you to stay away from here for now. Do you remember where my room is, near the watering hole?”

“Vaguely. The second floor on the right side?”

“Exactly.” I didn’t want to leave her, but I needed to get the Atrove in order before it could be safe for either of us. I pressed my dagger into her palm. “Go quick. I’ll be right behind you, okay?”

“Okay,” she said as she grabbed the dagger.

A flash went by of the last moments we were here together. She had attempted to leave me, to kill me. I knew we weren’t the same people back then, but I couldn’t lose her again either.

I swallowed the pressure that rose in my throat, realizing that I had never had someone like her in my life before. The Atrove, Tehara, nothing held a light to how much Eshe meant to me.

She was everything and more.

After Eshe and I parted on the second floor, I took in my surroundings.

So much damage had been done.

A split of air rang in my ear by the time I jumped to my left and barely dodged an incoming blade.

It scratched my cheek before I lifted my sword and pushed against the blade. The hooded man with a familiar, permanent frown backed away for a moment.

“Tolomai. I expected nothing less,” I spat and spun my sword around once. “You will die as a traitor. May your soul never reach God.”

He shouted and brought his heavy sword down on me. In that moment, I heard another scream so familiar it was almost as if I could feel the pain myself…

Casimir.

My stance wavered for a second, but it was too late, and the sword had hit my blade. My wrist bent in an impossible manner. I screamed, matching my brother’s, my soul splitting in half, feeling the pain in his voice. My blade slipped from my hand.

Tolomai slammed his boot on my blade and swung his other foot into my ribs. I tumbled down the slope of a dark tunnel, my body spinning over and over again with a grunt. My core clenched, but all I could think about was getting to my brother. I brought myself up and prepared myself for the wrath of this man without a weapon.

Think, think.

“You think you can change a law that has kept us the most powerful men in this world? That is not possible,” Tolomai hissed and approached me with two blades in his hands, a dagger and a sword.

“Nothing is impossible with Ezra,” a voice too familiar shouted from above, behind Tolomai.

I raised my head, and the soft glow of the arena showed Eshe perched at the entrance to the tunnel. With two small daggers in her hands, she stood prepared for any move Tolomai made with death in her eyes.

Mmm. Territorial woman.

My chest couldn’t help but swell, but I knew this was not the time nor the place for this moment.

“Princess Eshe,” Tolomai said with a smirk on his face.

“I wouldn’t go near him if I were you,” Eshe said too softly. A small warning.

He clearly did not take Eshe seriously from the scoff he let out.