Gilded Serpent by Danielle Jensen (top 10 novels txt) 📕

both been killed,” Marcus finally answered. “Which means Titus will be in command of my men and have authority over your crew.”

So soon. A different sort of chill passed over her, and Teriana’s chest tightened. The consequences of her and Marcus dying here had haunted her dreams. But to know that the consequences would be visited upon her crew within days made her want to vomit into the snow.

“I’m sure you find that thought as unacceptable as I do,” Marcus continued, circling the wolf. “Which means we must get back west to Arinoquia. And this wolf is the key.”

“You just wanted us surviving to be your idea.”

The corner of his mouth turned up with a hint of a smile. “Speaking of ideas, how do you suggest we do this?”

The wolf watched them, green eyes little more than slits against the sunlight. Its flank rose and fell, little gusts of mist filling the air with each panted breath. It was weak from bleeding all night, but it was still bigger than she was. All it would take was one well-placed bite.… “You jump on it and hold it down. I’ll kill it.”

“Justify.”

Teriana rolled her eyes, having heard him use that exact word and tone with Felix and Servius countless times. “You’re heavier and the stronger wrestler. And we both know I’m better at slitting throats.”

“I’ve never wrestled a wolf.”

Teriana shrugged. “First time for everything.”

Handing over the knife, Marcus circled the creature, the wolf lifting its head to look back at him as though it sensed what was coming. “Distract it.”

Teriana kicked a clump of snow in the wolf’s face, and Marcus dived on top of it, arm snaking around its neck.

He pulled it backward, the wolf’s head tight against his chest, teeth terrifyingly close to the still-healing knife wound on his throat. The animal snarled and squirmed, but he hooked his ankle under the animal’s foreleg, rolling it, free hand grabbing its chin in an attempt to hold its mouth shut. “Now!”

It was a moving target of man and wolf, Marcus’s arm barely an inch from where she needed to cut.

Teriana didn’t hesitate.

Fresh blood gushed across the snow, splattering Marcus, who held the wolf against him until the creature stilled. Regaining his feet, he scanned their surroundings while wiping the blood from his face with one sleeve.

“You know how to do this?” she asked, kneeling to touch the animal’s coat. It was soft and thick, and she buried her fingers into its depths to warm them.

Marcus tilted his head from one side to the other. “Training. Had to skin and gut a rabbit in my third year, though I haven’t done it since. And I’ve read about the process of curing hides. I’ll figure it out.”

“A rabbit. Over ten years ago,” Teriana repeated, eyeing the huge wolf. “And you think that what you’ve read in a book is going to make up for your lack of experience?”

He jerked his gladius out of the animal’s chest and set it aside, not answering. Which was just as well, because her own statement had unleashed a tidal wave of memories. Of Lydia, who’d been of the misguided belief that anything could be learned from a book. A theory that was rarely, if ever, tested given that the other girl practically lived in a library.

Or had.

Teriana wondered if Cassius allowed his new wife the same liberties of occupation that her father had. Not that Teriana cared. “Will we go to Celendrial, first?”

“Yes.” Marcus said the word with a grunt of effort as he set to work gutting the animal. “I’ll arrange for another legion or two to cross through the genesis in Bardeen to Arinoquia and join our camp, though the Senate might not wish to send them until the path has been confirmed viable, which won’t be possible until spring.” Then he lifted his head, meeting her gaze. “You fulfilled your contract with the Senate, Teriana. And with me. Cassius will have no choice but to release your people, and once we’ve crossed back to Arinoquia, I’ll do the same for the Quincense and your crew. You’ll be free.”

Just like that.

“Can you please go set some water to boil? I need to get this skin off before it freezes.”

His voice was toneless. Utterly and completely devoid of emotion, as though he were a shoemaker informing her a pair of boots would be repaired by next week. Not the commander of the most feared military power on Reath telling her that he now had the capacity to conquer the world if only he could cut the skin off a wolf before it froze.

But her dilemma hadn’t changed.

Save her people or save the West. One or the other. If she and Marcus survived this, everyone she loved would be saved. But in the saving, Cassius would regain total power over the legions in Arinoquia, bolstering their ranks with tens of thousands more soldiers. Marcus might regain command, but it would be the Empire who ruled, he nothing more than a tool in its arsenal. War was unavoidable. The Empire’s triumph inevitable.

Marcus’s hands stilled, his arms elbow deep in the carcass. Then he looked up at her. “As long as you’re still breathing, you can keep fighting. Right now, you need to focus on doing whatever it takes to get out of Sibern. Leave the rest for another day.”

Fight to live. Live to fight.

“Cut off a chunk of meat while you’re at it.” Teriana squared her shoulders. “Might as well cook us some breakfast.”

She’d never known such toil.

While the sun raced across the sky, they finished skinning the wolf, Marcus working on the hide while she’d turned to butchering the animal, having found the knife she’d dropped the prior night. But gods, the cold. It sank into her bones, chapping her skin, numbing her hands, then her feet.

They barely spoke, both of them fixated on their tasks to the exclusion of all else. Teriana found she could barely think, her mind wholly consumed. There was only