On the first day of the journey, Ethan was murdered over fifty times already, at least in Katherine's mind. He seemed to find fun in teasing her, pulling out threads of her sanity with only his words. After a while, he even dared to switch back to her nickname, obviously feeling safe in the company of his guards."Kitty~ why do you ride so fast? Are you avoiding me? Please talk to me. I feel so lonely without you. I even went all the way to the wall just to pick you up. Come on, pleeease."Seeing Katherine shudder with helpless fury, Lady Brandon decided to intervene. "She doesn't want to talk to you. You should have gone to your betrothed if you are lonely. Now, leave us alone... What is it?"Katherine had tugged on Ella's sleeve, but the latter only reacted when she was through with her speech. When she looked at Katherine, she was shocked to find how pale and sweaty the woman's face was. "Don't talk with him. It's dangerous.""Okay, okay." Though Ella wanted t

The rest was prolonged all the way to the next day because Katherine felt unwell. In front of Ethan, she claimed that she had to get used to traveling again and couldn't stand the road for the whole day yet. Despite this, she noticed his suspicious gaze following her throughout camp until she finally entered her tent prematurely. "I'm so tired, Ella," Katherine complained, sprawled out on her thin mattress. "Traveling with him is like a nightmare, I just want it to be over... um, you know that you don't need to do this, right? I already feel indebted to you as it is." Ella, who had massaged Katherine's shoulders, now went over to her legs and smiled. "As if I could leave my pregnant friend to her pain when she can't even use her magic. No, no, just lay back and relax. You would do the same for me if I was in your condition." Katherine giggled. "Yeah, right. As if I knew how to massage someone. Did you forget I'm a spoilt princess, an only child? In the past,

When Nathaniel's warmth seeped into Katherine, the trembling of her body stopped."You're back," she rasped, and buried her face in the fabric on his chest, deeply inhaling the aroma."Sorry I'm late." His lips brushed her temple in a butterfly kiss and her heart skiped a beat in response. For a second, the fight behind her was forgotten as she relished in the presence of her beloved."I missed you. What took you so long?", she muttered like the spoilt woman she was. When he didn't answer directly, she lifted her head while maintaining the closeness of their bodies. They were all but flushed against each other. Violett eyes met red ones, and her hand wandered up to smoothen the knit between his brows. "Something happened, did it not?"He caught her fingers and pressed another kiss onto her palm. "A minor disturbance. It was difficult to contain the... children. Their prowess is exceptional, but it will take a while before their mentality is restored. Some do not

Nathaniel just couldn't believe it. Throughout his life, he had learned that wonders did not exist. He was first ignored, then hated, abandoned, and finally send to die in a war when he was barely twelve. Sure, there were some good memories, but wonders... they were things from myths. He didn't believe in them, much less expect them to happen to him, whose fate seemed to end with death on the battlefield.Somewhere inside him, that was what he always expected to happen, despite his efforts to defy this fate. He would fight and fight until one day someone defeated him. Maybe a traitor would shoot his back, maybe his mother would succeed in poisoning him, or he fell in a fair duel with an enemy - though most likely not the latter. It was not even pessimism speaking from the thought, just the realistic calculations of possibility. Wonders were things that happened to his enemies if anyone at all.Then, Katherine appeared. And this one person brought so many wonders to his life that he

Katherine felt the tension through her husband's tightening grip before he slowly exhaled. "It is possible, however, let me remind you again about the risk of testing - " "But we need to test it anyway", Katherine interjected before he could start a sermon about responsibility for their child. "You may hope otherwise but I did not forget that your veins were already dark when you left me. I doubt healing you can wait much longer." "It can wait for nine months at least." "But it will be inconvenient, right?" When Nathaniel remained silent, Katherine continued: "We need you at your full strength, not like the first time we met. These are dangerous times. How will you protect us if your condition deteriorates? Not that I need protection, but our child is a different matter!" To leave her pride intact, Nathaniel barely resisted a smile. Skadi forbid that his wife ever needed protection! Somehow he found her insistence more adorable than anything else. Neverthele