We’re going home. That’s what she’d promised.

  In the lingering darkness – her back burning under the layer of frost attempting to solidify her shirt, her tummy and one arm warm snuggled against Jonas’s back, her other arm holding the stolen coat firm across his chest to retain what heat she could for him – Llew wondered, once again, where exactly was home.

  Cheer, the town Llew had called home since she’d arrived there with her father some twelve years earlier? No. With no family and no real friends there, she had no ties to the town. And Jonas certainly didn’t.

  Rakun, with Anya? The idea held some appeal. Rakun lay in neutral Brurun, well away from the cells of Turhmos, or the hatred of Quaver. And Llew had never had a friend as loyal as Anya. Rakun also had the added benefit of Anya having planted an Ajnai tree.

  But only one Ajnai tree really mattered anymore: the one in Taither, its roots wrapped around the bodies of Llew and Jonas’s unborn twins, its soul entwined with the soul of the baby not slain by Aris’s blade.

  Taither. In the heart of Quaver. Jonas’s home for many years. The only sway Taither held was Llew’s draw to the tree, and the soul of her baby. Otherwise, thinking on the town only caused pain. Quaver had held her captive there. Her children had been murdered there.

  Home. Where was home for them, now?

  Jonas shifted slightly and Llew sat up, scrubbed her face with her hands. Her throat ached and her eyes felt raw. She didn’t belong anywhere.

  Home. The only place that seemed to fit the word was Merrid and Ard’s farm. Nowhere else had Llew felt safe since— Well, since her father had disappeared. Maybe even since her mother had left. Although, in her father’s sober moments, she had missed her mother less.

  Arms relaxed over her knees, Llew looked over her shoulder at Jonas. He’d rolled onto his back, stared up at the slowly lightening sky. He blinked, assuring her he still lived, but he didn’t meet her gaze, allowing her to look on him a few moments more.

  Bruised and covered in a collection of new cuts after Llew had erased years of scarring, she supposed he might not appeal to all. His nose had acquired a new bump since his fight with Braph. His eyes were often narrowed against the sun, or something distasteful. And yet, any time Llew had a moment to gaze upon him, something welled up inside her. She couldn’t put a name to it. It made her want to keep looking, or maybe reach out and touch, but looking was reward enough. The almost physical reaction in her chest was hard to name. It was much easier to label the emotional impact. Looking at him made her happy. It was that simple.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  She’d been running her gaze along his jawline when she sensed Jonas looking at her, his gaze lazy, his lips curled ever so slightly, drawing a broad grin from her. That was one thing she would never get enough of. Without saying much, with barely a change in expression, she felt she read him well. He was laughing at her. Not audibly, and not so as anyone else might recognize it, but it was there. And then it was gone. He was in pain, and so was Llew at seeing it.

  She turned away, allowing Jonas his private agony and protecting herself from feeling it along with him. They still had a long way to go. She had to remain strong.

  Damn the Aenuk-Karan barrier. If he was almost anyone else, Llew could have healed him by now with a simple touch. It was stupid. The world needed Jonas to wade in and put the wrong things right. It needed Llew to be able to heal him.

  Braph – damn that man! – had shown them they could circumvent the Aenuk-Karan barrier by injecting Aenuk blood directly into the injured Karan’s body, but that required tools they didn’t have.

  But they did have the tools required to impregnate an Aenuk with her Karan lover’s child. Llew hoped. Unless the doctor had taken everything …

  Llew pursed and chewed on her lips and reached forward, plucking some grass spears to roll between her fingers at the thought. Jonas was injured; he could hardly be expected to, well, perform. But … Jonas was injured. Wasn’t this exactly what he needed?

  She peered over her shoulder at him, caught his eye.

  Something about the angle, or the crease of his brow and his several days’ beard growth broke the spell. A flash of Jonas’s half-brother, Braph, flashed through Llew’s mind and nausea filled her gut. She turned away, trying to blink the image away, shake the sensations from her body. Her skin still remembered the man’s touch, his heaving, and her involuntary responses. She’d been intimate with Jonas since, and it had been wonderful. Why couldn’t she hold onto that memory? Jonas was here, not Braph: the monster. Why did the mere flicker of a reminder of Braph have to affect her so, and wipe away all the realities of Jonas?

  She flicked the grass free of her fingers, stood and brushed dirt off her trousers, held out her hand for Jonas.

  He needed healing in the conventional way.

  They needed help.

  Jonas gripped her hand and moved to push himself up, but as soon as he put weight on his right leg, he cried out, silenced himself, and fell back on the ground, teeth gritted.

  “There’s got to be a town somewhere up river.” Town’s needed water, she knew that much. They were in Turhmos, and there would be no hiding who Jonas was from anyone who could help them, and not a lot of chance of keeping his weakness hidden, either. But what choice did they have? Llew might’ve grown up without anyone close who she could put complete faith in, but she knew a thing or two about warily relying on strangers. There were ‘nice enough’ people out there. And then there were Merrid and Ard. But the farm was too far to reach with Jonas barely able to walk.

  Jonas reached up for her to grasp his hands and she pulled him up on his left leg alone. He tentatively placed the toe of his right boot on the ground, and his silent grimace told Llew he’d be largely hopping the rest of the way. She slipped under his arm and they carried on much as they had the day before.