Bend Her novel · Chapter 22 of 24

Chapter 22: The Night Before

Ansel's POV

The northern army lit its fires in the pass at dusk.

I stood on the wall of the Hollow and counted them.

Eight thousand men make a great many fires.

They covered the far side of the gorge from rim to rim.

Linnet came up the wall stair behind me with two cups of wine and a blanket over her arm.

"Bess says you haven't eaten," she said.

"Bess is correct."

"She says you'll eat if I stand here."

I took the cup.

She stood at my side and looked out at the fires.

I felt her more clearly than I felt my own hands.

It was the oddest thing about the binding.

I had carried her power twelve years, heavy in my chest.

Now it sat between us, warm and light.

I could feel it move when she did.

She was afraid.

She was hiding it very well.

"You can feel it," she said.

"Yes."

"I can feel you too. You're thinking about the horns."

"I am thinking that tomorrow you will stand here alone."

"I won't be alone."

"Linnet."

"I'll have you on one side and the whole current on the other."

She put her cup on the parapet.

"And I would like to spend tonight not talking about tomorrow."

I turned.

Her hair was loose, the way I had first seen it in the cellar.

Her face was tired, and she was looking at me with no fear at all.

"There is a room in the gatehouse," I said, "with a brazier."

"Show me."

It was a small stone room with a narrow bed.

I lit the brazier with a gesture.

I had not done that in ten years without scorching the wall.

The light moved on her face.

She shut the door behind us and put her back against it.

"I've been wanting to say something," she said.

"Say it."

"I'm going to lead. And you're going to let me."

"I have never stopped you."

"You hold back. You've held back every time."

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