Dante put his hands back up. “We do this to show we don’t carry weapons. It’s a gesture of surrender meaning we don’t want to fight. Although, I do tend to use it when I’m joking, so you aren’t wrong about that. But I apologize for making you feel unsafe.” He slid down off the pipe. “I should probably avoid shit-stirring around new people.”

A horrified silence fell over the small group.

“I have a request.” Regi lifted his hands halfway to his temples before lowering them again. Dante had seen the gesture often enough to suspect it was his version of crossing himself, the way Dante’s Catholic grandmother had every time someone mentioned Dante’s father. He didn’t know if his grandmother was asking for forgiveness for whatever murderous thoughts she harbored for her son-in-law or if she was praying for her daughter to leave the bastard, but Regi’s gesture had the same solemn element of ritual. Since Kowri gods took a more active role in life, Dante could appreciate the need to avoid pissing off such powerful, non-corporeal neighbors.

Regi touched his temple. “That is not our way.” The man was too polite to accuse Dante of being an asshole, but he was probably thinking it.

However, Dante could not control his own disgust. “Your way sucks.”

Regi’s ears flattened. It was not difficult to interpret that expression. In fact, Dante’s horse had leveled that expression at him more than once. And like when his horse had done it, it preceded a sharp kick.

“Regi ran until his breath was coming in heavy gasps. He worried the level of physical exertion would overtax Dante’s system, but Dante had not only kept up, but he struggled less than Regi. Given that Dante was a fragile species, that was a stiff condemnation of Regi’s fitness regime.

Dante waited until they had reached the shadow of a boulder before he asked, “Where are we going now?” He had begun breathing out of his mouth. Even after seeing him change his method of breathing several times, it was still odd.

“I get that, but I’m not leaving you no matter what happens. There are few enough people in my life that I genuinely like that I am unwilling to give up on one.”

“That’s foolish.”

“Then I’m a fool, and if you want to keep me from getting shot, you need to keep yourself out of the line of fire.”

“I don’t want you to die, even if the gods decide it’s my time.”

Dante smiled. “I think you’re saying you like me, too.”

“Of course I like you. You are challenging and confusing and you accept the Kowri parts of me in ways that Coalition members never have and accept the Coalition parts of me in ways that Kowri never will. But that is why I am telling you that if the enemy finds us, allow them to target me. I would rather give you a chance to continue being brave and challenging and odd. I don’t want to die knowing that you are fated to die next to me.”

Dante blew out an explosive breath. “After we both survive this, I’m sending you for therapy and possibly antidepressants.”

Spreading more book love!
Here are more of my…

✓ recent reads
✓ current reads
✓ re-reads
✓ want-to-reads

(all genres included)

About My #Treadmill / #AmReading Posts

I started out with this being a Sunday thing, but sometimes I’d rather not mash multiple books into a single post, so now, you never know when you might see one of these posts.

Rather than give a true “review,” which I’m not entirely comfortable doing as an author myself, I share snippets from books I’ve read and enjoyed, letting the authors’ words speak for themselves.

As you’ve possibly noticed, if you’ve been following along, I highlight snippets for reasons of my own which might veer from what is often seen. Sometimes my highlights have more to do with a paragraph simply impressing the heck out of me for its fabulous writerly technique, other times it has to do with the lovely way it gives subtle insight into the story/characters. Still other times simply because it made me laugh.

Anyway, I sometimes add a little commentary, but not always, which is not in any way, shape, or form, to be taken as unwritten commentary. Most likely it just means I’m short on time and/or context isn’t needed to understand what’s happening, and/or my brain doesn’t feel like putting out the effort in that particular moment.

Also, I’m going to try to spread the book love by tacking on covers of more books at the end of the post that I’ve either recently read, am currently reading, or want to read. Not seeing a full post with snippets for any of these books is not a commentary on anything other than how much time I have available in a day either to read or to create a post about what I’ve read. It might also mean I listened to the audiobook only or that it’s a reread that I’ve featured previously, or it’s not M/M so probably not a good fit for featuring on this blog.

Happy reading!