Burning Up

howl in rage. Perhaps it was her imagination.
    But it made her grin anyway.
    Even as she smiled, the Blood Orb hit the stones of the battlements and shattered.
    Silence fell.
    It was so quiet, Amaris could hear her own panting along with Raniero’s deeper breaths. She felt dizzy, exhausted with blood loss and effort.
    “Ama’is!” Her sister flung her small warm body against Amaris’s thighs, almost bowling her over. “Ama’is, you saved me!”
    She dropped to her wobbling knees and wrapped shaking arms around the little girl. “I had help.” Amaris met Raniero’s eyes, and let her own gratitude show. “I had a lot of help.”
    He leaned down and kissed her over the child’s head, quick and hard. She smiled at him as he drew away, knowing a promise when she tasted one.
     
    T hey limped into the great hall, where the guards and castle folk slept together on thin pallets. At the ring of Raniero’s boots on the stone, Korban’s warriors jolted awake and rose with a mass growl—only to fall silent in staring astonishment at the sight of their lord’s head, swinging by its bloody hair from Raniero’s right hand.
    The left held Blue Stripe’s decapitated skull by one long ear. Amaris carried Cari’f’s head as her own gory trophy, a chilling grin of triumph pasted on her face.
    Together, the lovers strolled to the dais through the stunned crowd, Marin walking solemnly behind them. Amaris’s heart was knotted in her throat, but she knew that the castle had to be reclaimed for the king.
    Besides, she was frankly too tired to run from these bastards anyway.
    Raniero dumped his burden on the dais, then flung himself into the lord’s chair. Amaris dropped the head she carried next to the other two, then moved to stand behind his chair, secretly bracing herself against it as the room spun around her. Despite the healing spell, she’d lost far too much blood. Marin leaned against his knee and gave the crowd a little smirk that warmed Amaris’s heart. Despite everything she’d been through, the child’s spirit was intact.
    Raniero’s deep voice rang across the stillness of the great hall. “I have a message from your king.”
    He gestured a spell, and a huge image appeared in the air over the hall. Ferran’s face stared out from it, rage in his golden eyes, a muscle flexing in his handsome cheek. He wore full armor, and he spoke from horseback. “I ride to Tzira Castle with my forces. When I arrive, I shall investigate your lord’s crimes. I expect you to give Lord Investigator Raniero your full obedience in the meantime.” He paused and swept his gaze over the crowd, which visibly cowered. “Lord Raniero pointed out that many of you were simply following the orders of your lord. He urges me to mercy. We shall see if he is of the same opinion when I arrive.”
    The image winked out. Raniero contemplated the pale faces staring at him. “I trust,” he said at last, “you will give me your full obedience?”
    Heads nodded rapidly all the length of the room.
    Leaning against the back of his throne, Amaris smiled in tired satisfaction.

TEN
    Three Weeks Later
     
    “A Rose and a fief,” Raniero said, settling against the pile of silken pillows in the lord’s bed. “I never thought to receive such a boon.”
    “Well, you did save the kingdom,” Amaris pointed out, settling in next to him. “Naturally the king was grateful.”
    He gave her a look. “ We saved the kingdom.”
    “So we did.” She leaned into his warm, muscled side, and he wrapped an arm around her.
    King Ferran had decided Tzira Castle was too important to be entrusted to anyone except a man he was utterly sure of. Which meant Raniero, though the king sighed that he was loathe to lose his best investigator.
    It was not a gift Raniero was inclined to turn down.
    Ferran had showered gifts on Amaris, too, in recognition for her efforts to prevent the loss of the kingdom. There’d been gold and jewels and bolts of fine fabric, but more important, he’d given her the pick of his staff. She’d selected a calm, experienced nurse from among them to care for Marin. The woman and Amaris’s sister were now abed in the next chamber down the corridor, in an airy room full of the toys the king had presented to his “little heroine.”
    Now, for the first time in weeks, Amaris and Raniero were finally alone, without either the king to entertain or Marin to reassure.
    Raniero cleared his throat, looking suddenly uncomfortable. “It