Raven's Strike by Patricia Briggs

after a moment, Seraph resumed her task of relieving his pain. It didn’t take much magic, just finesse.
    She touched a reddish splotch on his ribs that would be a bruise tomorrow and eased it with a caress of magic. Even battered as he was, she loved his body, sinewy and tough, bearing scars of war both old and new. When she’d finished with the spellworking she let her fingertips linger on his skin, trailing them over him slowly.
    She had him home. Home and safe at last.
    Her fingers trailed lower, and he caught her hand, murmuring, “If you want us to sleep tonight, I’d suggest you lie down beside me instead of petting.”
    She straddled his hips, the fabric of her underclothes a thin veil between her skin and his.
    â€œMmm,” she said. “It doesn’t feel like you are interested in sleep just yet.”
    He laughed, a belly laugh that didn’t quite make it out of his mouth.
    â€œDon’t move,” she said, bending down until her lips just brushed his. “You might hurt yourself if you move.”
    A long, satisfying while later, Tier said, “I’ve missed that.”
    â€œMe, too,” she said. Reluctantly, she rolled out of the bed and dimmed the light. “It won’t go out all the way. None of the mermori rooms can be completely darkened—I think it has something to do with the nature of the illusion.”
    â€œThat’s fine,” he said. “I wanted to talk to you a bit, and if it were dark, I don’t think I could stay awake.”
    â€œOh?” She took her own bedroll out and spread the blankets over Tier before climbing back in beside him. With a sigh, she curled against the warmth of his body and yawned. “Talk fast.”
    â€œTell me about Hennea,” he said.
    She lifted her head, but the light was behind him, and she couldn’t see the expression on his face. “Hennea?”
    He laughed. “If you could hear your voice. I’ve just noticed an odd thing or two, and since our son is so interested in her—I’d like to know more about her.”
    She settled back against him. “Odd things like what?”
    He laughed. “You tell me about her first,” he said. “Then I’ll tell you what made me ask.”
    â€œShe’s a Raven of the Clan of Rivilain Moon-Haired,” Seraph began tentatively. “That’s a common heritage among Travelers. Last I heard, there are three or four of Rivilain’s clans in the Empire and several outside. She came to us—” She stopped. “Do you want me to go through the whole history? I’ve told it to you already.”
    â€œTell me again, please,” he said.
    She shrugged. “She came to us because she’d figured out that the Path had you and had taken you to Taela. She’d watched them kill her lover. She wanted revenge, and she wanted to stop the Path.”
    â€œBut she didn’t come directly to the farm on her own,” he said.
    â€œRight. She’d gone up to the place where you had supposedly died first. She was on her way here when the forest king put her to sleep, then sent Jes to bring her here.”
    â€œThe forest king didn’t want her in his realm?” asked Tier neutrally.
    â€œI don’t know what he wanted,” said Seraph. “ You ask him, and see if you can get a straight answer. If the forest king had thought she meant harm, I don’t think he’d have bothered getting Jes to bring her here.”
    Tier didn’t argue, so Seraph relaxed back against him again. “She helped me teach the boys what they could do while we were on our way to Taela. She saved Jes.”
    â€œYou didn’t tell me about that. How?”
    â€œDo you know what a foundrael is?” she asked.
    â€œNo . . . wait. Isn’t that the Guardian thing you told me about? The one that was supposed to keep the Guardian under control, but it drove them insane