Chapter 67

Ronan's POV

Harlan met us in a cold room above Frostmere's east gate. His hair had thinned since our last border negotiation, but his grip was strong when we shook hands. He had signed Severin's temporary offer after an hour without warning lines during the last storm. I could picture his people at their windows, unable to tell whether anyone at the next post was alive.

“I gave them three nights without another outage,” he said to me before Mara entered. “Now they ask why I did it.”

“What do you tell them?”

“That I was afraid and it worked. I wish that were enough to let me sleep.”

Mara came in with Lucien and Helena. Severin sat near the stove as if he had paid for the wood. His fatherhood had begun to show in Gideon's face since I had seen them together at Ironwood: the same line at the brow, the s