Théodred and Karl: How Far Will You Go?

Takes place directly after A Promise Kept, Part 2.

Karl: I wake up to sunlight slanting across the end of my bed, and I stretch lazily, feeling my muscles flexing. But I realize that I’m naked and terror freezes my heart. I don’t move, afraid of what I’ll find, but I open my eyes and turn my head to the side. I’m in my own bed, and I’m alone. Relief floods me and I think how warped is my life that I’m happy to wake up alone. But I feel amazingly contented and relaxed, almost like I could purr. I can’t remember waking up feeling this good, in well . . . forever. I roll over to my side, smiling, to look out the window at my forest, but I’m startled to see someone partially blocking the light.

My heart is pounding again, until he moves. “Théodred?” Oh, god, please don’t be Paris.

He comes out of the patch of sunlight and I can see him better. I think I have seen him enough to know the difference now. He doesn’t move like Paris, he moves with the easy grace of someone used to being on horseback, and his face is older somehow, or maybe it’s just the look in his eyes.

( You kept the bargain, I think happily. )

PG-13