Conquering The Unbroken

Chapter 47

Food and sleep take the rest of the night. Renit and I sit at the kitchen table and stuff everything in our mouths—from bread to cheese, to fish and vegetables grown by the witches of gardens in the village. We lay out a full meal for ourselves and when we're done, our stomachs full and our eyes heavy, we climb into bed, pull blankets over our bodies, and sleep off our exhaustion.

It takes hours, until the sun rises the next morning, but I lift my head off the pillow and squint against the light cracking through the curtains. It could only contain itself for so long, but I groan and drop my head back down onto the cold, white surface. Laying on my stomach, the blankets and duvet wrap around my legs and tighten against my waist. I feel locked within an embrace.

That warm hold threatens to drag me back to sleep but I turn my head towards Renit, finding him staring at the ceiling. His hands are intertwined together over his stomach and the duvet is pulled up against his chest, hardly revealing the tattoos coursing up to his neck and halting at the base of his throat. I reach out, running my fingers along one of the black lines, but Renit doesn't move. He doesn't shift his stare to me. Sighing deeply through his nose, he closes those metallic silver eyes.

His long, dark lashes are all that's left behind.

After everything we endured to get Silas back, I expected him to sleep longer. After what we did last night, I expected even more. Yet here he is, awake before me. The chattering of voices outside the window reveals that Arego is already awake while we're barely finding the strength to open our eyes without wincing.

"Why are you awake?" I mumble, my voice rasped.

"We still have so much we need to do," Renit foretells. "We don't have nearly as many men as we need to go against him, yet we haven't discussed that. What are we to do?"

The fabric of the pillow shifts underneath his head when he turns to look at me. His dark hair is a mess after I ran my fingers through it last night. If he's awake now, it's possible he hasn't completely slept through the night in a while. Not even in the comfort of his own bed, considering this is now the mattress he spends sleeping hours on.

"We barely returned." A breath of a laugh tickles my lips. "We still have this entire morning to think about what needs to happen next."

"And after that?"

"We'll...we'll figure it out." He flattens his stare at me, lips thinning, and I roll my eyes. "You don't have to figure out everything for yourself, foolish prince. We'll discuss with Alaric what needs to happen."

At the same of Alaric's name, Renit growls underneath his breath. There's something about the commander he can't forget, whether it be that Alaric left him to die on a battlefield or he isn't being one towards his rebels. He's taking all the credit but going through none of the trials we have to face in order to make this rebellion work.

Then again, the king still doesn't know he's alive. That could be beneficial to us in the end. Somehow.

"And what if Alaric decides we don't need more forces? More immortal witches? What then?" Renit questions.

I run my thumb over the scars on the back of his hand. "We don't have to answer to everything Alaric says, you know. The rebellion lives without him; we don't require his input on everything."

"He is the commander. It wouldn't be wise to split the rebellion in half and weaken ourselves further."

I shrug to the best of my ability laying on my stomach. "The majority are wishing for action, and if we provide that to them, we'll receive what we're looking for," I say simply.