Chapter 21: What Rhona Did

Catriona's POV

I woke with Rhona's hands pressed over my ribs and Ronan's heartbeat going in my chest.

It was fast, and it was not mine.

The sky was white above me.

I was lying in the bed of Hester's cart at the mouth of the pass, wrapped in two cloaks, with snow melting on my face.

"Don't sit up," Rhona said.

I sat up.

"Catriona."

"I want to see."

Ronan was kneeling at my side, bare to the waist again, with blood on him that was mostly mine.

He had a hand under my back.

He looked as if he had not breathed in an hour.

"Hello," I said.

"You are the worst woman I have ever met."

"I had a plan."

"Your plan was to get stabbed."

"My plan was to get him to hold the page." I tried a smile. "The stabbing was Corvin's idea."

He laughed, once, horribly, and put his forehead against mine.

"You said you would make me a thousand promises," I whispered.

"I did."

"I said no promises."

"I'm throwing it back at you," he said. "Try and stop me."

I could not stop him.

I could not have stopped him if I had wanted to, and I did not want to.

Rhona took her hands away, and the wound under my ribs was a long angry pink line, closing as I watched.

"It's the bond," she said wonderingly. "It's feeding you both. I've never seen it go that fast."

"Where's Corvin?"

Ronan's face changed.

"Inside the gatehouse," he said. "With the captain and fifteen hunters. They have the envoys on the steps with knives at their throats."

I looked past him.

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