"I'm here," Nyrielle whispered as she held Ashlynn close. "Tell me what's wrong. What has your heart aching so…"
Ashlynn clung to her lover with a strength that would have cracked the ribs of an ordinary person, burying her face in Nyrielle's chest while her body shook with uncontrollable sobs.
She'd tried. She'd tried so hard to hold things together in Lothian Manor until Nyrielle arrived with the rest of the Vale's forces tomorrow. Even after everything that had happened with Jocelynn, she'd projected an aura of calm, competent authority as she brought both the lords of the march and Lothian City under her control.
But the strength she projected was like armor made of glass, and Wolstan's news had shattered it with the force of a sledgehammer's blow. Her heart bled from dozens of tiny hurts while her soul ached from the massive shock of the message's impact and her body shook in the aftershocks of it all.
