How The Warrior Fell (Falling Warriors series Book 1) by Nicole René Page A

again, his brows drawing together. “Well, yes. His father was my uncle and chief before Xavier took over. I am third in line, should anything happen to Tristan.” He spoke slowly, as though he was explaining something complicated to a child.
    “I know how it works!” Leawyn snapped, glaring at him. “I’m just surprised. You look nothing like him.”
    “’Tis a fact I’m very proud of!” Tyronian laughed, standing up from his chair. He bent down and placed his hand out to take the bowl back from Leawyn, which she gladly gave over to him. “I am better looking, after all.”
    Leawyn watched him walk towards the flap of the tent in a daze.
    “’Till next time, my Lady Chief!” Tyronian called over his shoulder. He flashed her one last mischievous grin before he ducked out of the tent.
    She stared after him, waiting for him to come back and laugh at her for falling for his joke. But the longer she stared at the flap in stunned disbelief, the more she knew it wasn’t a joke. Tyronian was Tristan’s cousin, which meant he was Xavier, her  husband ’s, cousin. Third in line to be chief of the Izayges.
    When she was fully able to process it, only two things remained on her mind.
    If Tyronian was the chief, she imagined she would actually like the Izayges.
    Why couldn’t she marry  him?

    Over the next few days, Tyronian came and brought Leawyn her meals. It was something she was genuinely happy about, for she very much enjoyed his company, and even started to consider him a friend.
    Tyronian made her forget her captivity. If only for a brief moment in time.
    He was always able to make her laugh, especially when he would tell her stories of his childhood. It seemed Tristan and Tyronian were quite the troublemakers in their youth.
    Leawyn found herself telling Tyronian things she hadn’t told anyone else before. She told him about her village, and how she missed the sound of the waves crashing against the cliff rocks. He told her about his mother, and how she had died when he was just coming into manhood. Leawyn in turn told him how she never knew her mother, and how difficult it was for her father to be around her because of it.
    It wasn’t until Leawyn broached the subject of her husband one night during her evening meal that she saw the more serious side of her friend.
    Leawyn told Tyronian about her wedding night, and how she always seemed to make Xavier angry. How mad she was at her father for making her marry a man who was always so cruel and uncaring. She told him how she felt like she was nothing but a prisoner, married to a man who was a monster. Tyronian’s response surprised her.
    “Do not be so quick to judge my cousin, Leawyn,” he told her seriously, calling her by her name for the first time since she met him. “There are many things you don’t know about him. He’s seen things that, if he were a lesser man, he would have gone mad over.”
    Tyronian’s blue eyes met her own, staring into them deeply. His usual mischievous glint was absent.
    “You’re lucky that’s all the monster he is, Leawyn.”
    After saying that, Tyronian didn’t say any more, and went back to being his usual carefree, playful self.
    But still, Leawyn couldn’t get that conversation out of her head.
    There was something in the way he said it, and how his eyes looked when he did.
    Leawyn didn’t know why, but it bothered her.
    Later that night, when she finally succumbed to the heaviness of her eyes and fell into an uneasy sleep, she dreamed of her husband and the horrors of war.

X AVIER AND HIS men had been riding for days, following the trail of the unknown company of men who were swiftly making their way closer and closer to Samaria.
    It was increasingly grating on Xavier’s nerves that the mysterious men always seemed to be a step ahead of them. It was as if they were expecting someone to be looking for them and left different trails to throw them off.
    They were playing a game Xavier did not understand, and