CROWN OF GLASS AND ASH
The fire cracked and settled between us, and somewhere beyond the shuttered window, faint but unmistakable, I heard the sound of a single horse stepping slowly and deliberately across the ruined courtyard stones, closer, this time, than any distance we could safely pretend was accidental.
Ashwood moved first, snuffing the nearest candle with two fingers, plunging half the room into shadow with the same practiced ease of a man who had rehearsed exactly this moment more times than I wanted to imagine. "Stay back from the window, both of you. Whatever this is, I'd rather meet it on my own terms, in my own doorway, than let it choose the manner of this meeting for all three of us."