Jonas worked his fingers, rolling the pebbles round his palm. They scraped and chinked – not that he could hear much over the rushing river. He hoped Llew would like the spot he’d chosen. For one, it hid behind trees. Perfect for getting away from the rest of the household. For another, someone had once told him the best place to catch fish was at the apex of a bend in the river. Something about the slower current offering the fish somewhere to shelter. Llew enjoyed fishing.

And downstream was a sloping beach that dropped away to a pleasant swimming hole before rejoining the rush.

Perfect.

At least he hoped it was perfect. Llew was a better judge of fishing spots and swimming holes. Give Jonas a horse or a field of wheat over a river any day. Not that he’d complain at a river flowing by a field of wheat.

His home in Aldia, his childhood home, had a river. Much like this one, but slower. One day, he hoped Llew would see it. More than see it. He often pictured her there, laughing, settled, with their child.

Gods, he hoped she liked this spot.

Stones scuffed behind him.

He turned to bare legs beneath the hem of a mid-length winter-weight dress. He craned his head round, sliding up the blue-gray fabric, so plain, with a line of heavy lace a few inches from the bottom and again at the waist and sleeves. Up, up . . .

‘Llew!’

Llew never wore dresses.

He jumped up, tossing the pebbles. ‘I’ve missed you.’ He hugged her slight frame firmly to his, their bodies touching: ear-to-ear, heart-to-heart, thigh-to-thigh. No kiss. All going well, that would come later.

‘Yes. Aris has been keeping you busy.’ Her voice was distant. Bitter, maybe. She brought her arms up around his waist, though her touch was lighter. She might even have been trying to lean back a little.

Aris had been keeping Jonas busy since he, Hisham, and Llew had returned from Turhmos. And it would be naïve to think Aris wasn’t trying to keep Jonas and Llew apart. ’Course, now Karlani was on the scene and it was clear Aris was loving that fact. Jonas’s captain had sent the Syakaran woman for several training sessions now, and every time she turned up with her blouse undone several buttons, breasts pushed up by a restrictive bodice, and boots with absurdly impractical heels for fighting. And every time Jonas told her so and refused to go easy on her simply because she had chosen not to come prepared.

He leaned back and looked Llew in the eye. ‘Which is why I’m here now. I mean it. I missed you.’

‘I missed you, too.’ She conceded with a brief smile. ‘And I like your hair like that.’ The corner of Llew’s lip lifted enough so Jonas wasn’t sure if she was being entirely serious or not.

He suppressed a groan and brushed his hand through his hair. He’d worn it somewhere past shoulder-length as long as he could remember. The short look he’d adopted to maintain anonymity in Turhmos wasn’t sticking for him. He felt every breeze across the back of his neck, and it made him look younger. Not something he needed so few years out of adolescence.

It didn’t help that when Llew had brought him back to life, she’d also wiped years of history from his skin. Scars collected from training sessions and true battles alike, obliterated, smoothed to nothing.

‘Really,’ Llew insisted.

‘Yeah, well . . .’ He ran his hand down his stubbly chin. He’d taken to shaving at night, so he woke with a light scratchiness; otherwise, Gaemil’s men heckled him. Didn’t want to be trained by a boy. Especially one who, by appearances, hadn’t seen a day of real battle in his life. His natural prowess didn’t impress them as much as he thought it should.

He gathered up the fishing rod and offered it to her. ‘It’s your job to catch lunch, and I’m starvin’.’

She took the rod with a smile, kicked off her shoes and walked sure-footed across the rocks, straight to the outcrop over the river’s apex, and started feeding out the line. And, like that, she relaxed. She even spared a glancing smile for Jonas. He followed her.

A cool breeze swooped through the valley, billowing Llew’s dress, lifting the hem nearly up to her knees. Distracted by the sight, Jonas put his foot down on a large round rock, nearly rolling his ankle. Only his reflexes kept him upright.

He put himself upwind of her, blocking the bulk of the breeze, and watched her tease the fish with her lure. It was beautiful watching her work. Alluring, even. Ha.

With great patience, she let her hook sit in the water, waiting for the fish to show interest. She wound the reel quarter-turn by quarter-turn, giving them all one last chance before the weight and hook broke the surface. Then she repeated the dance.

Jonas took the chance to slip his arm across her shoulders.

Funny, really, to think she already carried his child, and yet here he was, afraid to make sudden movements in case he scared her off. One impulsive afternoon didn’t exactly make for promises. And she’d lost a certain easiness since escaping Braph.

She rested her head against him, and his heart gave a flip-flop. Settle down, cowboy. You’ve known women before.

‘Thank you,’ she said.

He returned her gratitude with a simple smile and a squeeze of her shoulder, afraid if he tried to speak, she would see, or hear, what she did to him. Oh, great and mighty Jonas the Syakaran brought to his knees by a girl. A clever and resourceful girl. A girl unlike any he’d met before. But, still.

She rested her head again, leaving the hook to float.

He wanted to kiss her.

Usually, it was him with the girls clambering to get their turn. How did this sorta thing go again? Maybe if he asked?

He turned his head to speak against her hair.

‘Llew—’ He cleared his throat. Crazy to be so nervous, but there he was. ‘Llewella.’ Her full name, the one few knew her by anymore, might make her feel special. She didn’t react, and he wasn’t sure she’d heard him, so he said it again. ‘Llewella.’ A little louder this time. He craned his head a bit more, moving his mouth closer to her ear. ‘Llewella.’

She stiffened. ‘Don’t.’

Jonas pulled back. Of course, only her parents had called her that. And her ma was still held captive somewhere in Turhmos, and she’d killed her own pa in a botched rescue attempt. Dumb move.

‘Braph called me that,’ she murmured.

Even worse. He boiled with that sickening combination of pity for Llew and rage at his half-brother. No point being angry at a dead man, though.

‘Sorry,’ he said.

‘Not your fault.’

That all too familiar awkwardness returned. He kept his arm across her shoulders, but lightly, unsure if she still wanted it there and equally unsure that if he removed it, she might think it was because he didn’t want to leave it there.

It was a bit thrilling, this uncertainty, and he had a feeling that was half the draw. There weren’t many women would make him work so hard. Well, Jonas wasn’t afraid of a little work.

He let his arm fall from her shoulders and caught her around the waist, pulling her against him. ‘Not your fault, either.’

She grinned back; and he stole that kiss.

They stood, smiling at each other, until Llew started giggling.

Jonas let his head fall back in exasperation. ‘You did it again.’ He pulled his arm from her waist, though he did let his hand brush her ass on the way past. ‘Why do you do that?’

‘What?’ Llew returned her attention to the fishing, drawing her line back in, her lips still hooked up in suppressed laughter.

‘Spoil it,’ he said. ‘When you should just let it be.’

Llew shrugged and flung the line out again, sending out concentric waves.

Jonas watched her for a long time, but she didn’t look back, seemingly singularly focused on her task.

Llew: the least romantic female he knew.

He couldn’t blame her, he supposed. Her ma hadn’t been around to teach her what to expect and, far as Jonas knew, her pa had drunk away most of their years together. Not much learning for a girl there.

Then again, there hadn’t been much learning for a boy in Jonas’s situation, either. Parents dead early on. Brothers split between extended family. Family unsure what to do with a super-fast, super strong boy full of rage, other than bring him down a peg or two while they could. No, not much learning about the ways of love in there.

The idea of learning together was mighty exciting.

He returned his arm to her shoulders.

Llew absently drew her line in again, until it came up out of the water, once again empty.

Jonas’s stomach was starting to ache. He’d spent most of the morning preparing this outing, and he hadn’t stopped to snack. And if there was one downside to being Syakaran, it was the cost of keeping fed. Actually, that wasn’t much of a downside, especially at Gaemil’s where the kitchens churned out delicious experimental treats by the cartload. He reckoned they enjoyed having Karan guests as much as the Quaven soldiers enjoyed staying.

The fish were there, they just weren’t biting.

Llew’d had little trouble catching meals on the road in Aghacia. Especially when Jonas put his Syakaran speed to good use snatching bugs for her to use as bait.

‘Need me to catch one o’ those critters again?’

‘That would help,’ she said. ‘Don’t know where you’ll find any around here, though.’ She peered around at the rocky beach.

Ah, a challenge.

Jonas stepped back from her, holding up one finger. One moment. Then he dashed across the rocks, through the trees to where the grassy meadow met the needle-fall. He pulled up short. Several tiny creatures scurried from his feet. He watched. A grass blade shuddered, and . . . snatched!

He was back before she’d had a chance to react to his departure, and presented the bait with a smile. Contagious, because she couldn’t suppress her own.

‘Cheat.’ She snapped her elbow out at him, but he snaked around the strike.

With the bait mounted and the hook back in the water, they stood in silence, waiting for something to bite. Llew relaxed, leaning back into Jonas, and he looped his hands around her waist, letting them rest over her belly, above his baby.

This was nice. Like a real young family. A chill passed through him. He’d been at this stage before, with Kierra, and lost them. Not this time. He gave Llew a gentle squeeze.

Llew proved too relaxed when the rod slipped from her fingers and skittered along the outcrop’s edge. She flung out an arm to grab it, missed. Jonas lunged, caught it before it toppled into the water, and rolled onto his back, brandishing the rod like a prize for Llew to take over drawing in their lunch. She couldn’t stop laughing.

They cooked the fish over a low fire Jonas had prepared earlier and drank wine from Gaemil’s cellar.

‘This is wonderful.’ Llew’s gaze drifted to the water, turning wistful. ‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘I miss my home.’

Stretched out on the picnic blanket, propped on one elbow, Jonas fidgeted with a twig and chewed his lip. Against the backdrop of her fears, he would do anything to make Llew’s life happy, but they had to be honest with themselves. ‘You know you can’t go back, right?’

Llew nodded, though it looked like she was holding back tears.

‘I ain’t gonna lie . . .’ He tried a comforting hand on her knee. ‘Braph would’ve found you eventually, whether you left Cheer or not. I’m real glad you found us. And I wanted you to know I think . . .’ Gods, this was hard. ‘I think you’re special. And I hope . . . I hope you can make a new home with me.’ He didn’t say ‘In Aldia’. One step at a time. Aldia was a long way from Cheer. Deep inside Quaver.

‘Well, what choice do I have?’

He took his hand back, busied it with the twig he still held.

What choice did she have? With the kinds of enemies she had, she needed someone like Jonas backing her up. Only there wasn’t anyone else like Jonas. Not much of a choice at all.

‘Sorry, I did it again. Spoiled it. I meant . . . I’m glad I met you, too.’ She managed a tiny smile. Appreciated no matter how reluctant.

‘Doesn’t hurt to be realistic,’ said Jonas.

They nodded agreement to each other, their gazes each sliding to the stones beneath them. Llew picked at one of the last remaining flakes of fish.

‘My ma’s still there,’ she said after a while, her voice trailing off.

He put his hand back on her knee. ‘We’ll get her back. She’s alive,’ he said. ‘But there ain’t much point doin’ somethin’ that could get you both killed. We’ll come up with a plan. Might not get the chance till we’re back in Quaver, but we’ll think o’ somethin’ keeps you both free.’

Llew nodded. After her own efforts to save her pa, she’d be spooked about any plans to go after her ma.

She picked up a stone and threw it into the water.

‘This is really lovely.’

‘It ain’t over yet.’

Eager to keep her focused on the present, Jonas pushed himself up and dug through the picnic basket for the muslin wrapped bundle. He peeled back the layers to reveal the treat.

‘What is it?’

‘Chocolate. Gaemil imports it from Tairak. I found it when we stayed here on our way to Cheer. Try it.’

Llew took a piece, dubious. She placed it between her teeth, watching Jonas like she expected him to tell her he was playing a prank. She worked it around her mouth. Slowly, a smile appeared, and Jonas found himself mirroring her.

‘Wow.’

Yes. He knew.

She put the rest in her mouth. ‘Wow . . .’

They sat a while longer, watching the rushing water and savoring the sweet. He let Llew have most of it.

‘You want to swim?’ he asked as she chewed through the last piece.

‘Doesn’t Aris expect you back?’

Jonas shrugged. ‘Hisham won’t tell him where I am.’ One person in all the world Jonas could count on, Hisham was it.

‘You rebel,’ Llew said with a sly twist to her lips.

‘Thought you might like it.’ He gave her the grin that worked on all the ladies. Boyish, some called it. Not something he’d pull out for the troops, anyway.

Llew’s eyes flared, and she looked like she was going to be sick. She looked away.

Ah, shit. He’d done it again; reminded her of Braph. But before he could say anything, she leaped up and pulled her dress over her head. Jonas followed her lead, unbuttoning his shirt as swiftly as the fiddly things allowed. But Llew had her breeches off and was in the water before he had his belt unbuckled. She skipped, squealing, into the swimming hole. The water must’ve been cold. Naked, he splashed in after her. Yep, cold.

Reaching her, he pulled her down, soaking her completely. Not to be an ass, he went down with her and they re-emerged, Llew clinging to him, holding a thin layer of heat between them, and laughing. So good to hear.

He sought and found her lips. She tasted good. Even better, she kissed him back. He splayed his hands across her back and pulled her into him, trying to connect with every inch of her. She responded – her hands roving his back, a leg coming up around his. So much for slow . . .

A rumbled neigh and the chink of horseshoes on stones sounded over the river’s white noise. They both froze and turned to the intruder. Jonas pulled Llew into him, giving her – and himself – some cover.

An apologetic Hisham sat astride his horse, the animal blowing thick clouds of steam in the cold air.

‘Sorry, brother. He threatened my Karan rations.’ Hisham looked ashamed to admit it, but the man did like his food.

Past his friend, through the trees, the legs of a pair of horses trotted through the long grass.

‘Shit.’ Jonas had little else to say.

Hisham grimaced and turned his horse, presenting his back to them.

‘Sorry,’ Jonas muttered to Llew and released her. She shrugged.

They both made their way back to shore, scrambling to pull their clothes over wet bodies before Aris showed up.

Jonas managed to get his trousers done up as Aris emerged through the thin line of trees. Bringing her unmistakable curves and dark, wavy hair, Karlani rode behind.