“I’m sorry.” He reached out to take her arm lightly. “I heard from our spies about the meeting of the Council earlier, but the new Skyborn guards your lover has been setting out have been harder and harder to avoid.” He took her other arm and looked down at her, not angry, just so sad she could feel it through the touch. “I’ve been out here every week since I saw you last. I didn’t know what to think.”
She felt like pulling her arm away, but she didn’t. “They really almost killed me.” Zara sighed as she looked away from him. “I wondered if you’d even notice.”
As she turned away from him, his hands stayed on her arms, and he pulled her back against him. “I had hourly reports on your welfare for the first three days. I didn’t sleep until you woke up.” He whispered in her ear, and she was flooded with the feeling of his concern for her. He knew she was strong, that she could come back from anything that happened to her, but that hadn’t stopped him from almost feeling like he’d lost the other half of himself the entire time.
Tears blurred her vision and fell into the water around them, and she trembled a little as he held her. “Why did you want me to do this?”
“I didn’t.” He said earnestly. “I wanted you to leave with the rest of the guards in Geneva, to be safe. But you got taken off instead. That was not what I wanted.”
“I can’t do it anymore.” She whimpered as she turned slowly, almost afraid that he would drown her at what she was about to admit. “I…”
“It’s over.” He said as his hands moved to her cheeks that still bore some of the marks from the beating she had taken. “You don’t have to do it anymore. You’ve done more than enough.” He kissed her forehead as he held her tenderly. “Tomorrow it will be over, and we can go home. Together.”
Zara finally looked up into his dark blue eyes and she cried harder. “I’m sorry, Coren. I didn’t know that I could feel this way…I…it’s so different with him. He’s not ashamed of me.”
“Nor am I.” He said as if he had expected her to admit what she was admitting. He could hear her thoughts just as well as she could hear his, after all. “You didn’t hear me. I said we can go home. Together. When this business with the Ironborn and their friends is finished, I want you with me when we go back to Geneva. I want you sitting behind me in your rightful place in the Council chamber, not standing at the door a hundred strangers away from me. I want you with me.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him through her tears as she hugged him tightly. He was saying all the things she wanted to hear, all the things she hoped for as his mate. Not Alina?
He actually laughed in the middle of the kiss. Alina may be decent in bed and a highly effective co-ruler on the Council, but she has about as much real heart as a puddle of dog piss.
Zara kissed him several more times, since she couldn’t be happier to hear that. Her nature enjoyed feeling multiple connections, but she liked having a strong one with her mate. They’re going to march together on each of your homes. I tried to get them to march on Geneva, but they wouldn’t. There are others on the Council giving out information.
You mean besides Teresa and Ivy?
She nodded and then sighed. The Skyborn Alpha knows too much. She said she has connections. It has to be Isela. Or someone close to her.
I’ll look into it. Thank you for telling me. There was a time when they had taken such communication for granted, but they’d been apart for too long to do that at the moment. But they won’t get the chance to march. It’s going to take them at least another two days to get themselves organized, and they’ll all be dead far sooner than that.
Your guards still think I’m a traitor. I could be dead too.
My guards won’t be the ones doing the killing. Don’t worry. You’ll be safe. Just try and keep your distance from Nick when it happens.
Zara trembled again and then hugged him even tighter. “Say it again.”
He kissed her deeply, the water sliding up around her body to wrap her up in a hug more completely than he himself could. “I want you beside me.” The water ran through her hair and down her back, making her forget the scars she still had there. “I love you.”
She moaned softly and buried her soaking face into the side of his neck where she kissed his skin several times before she lifted her head and whispered in his ear. “And I love you, Coren.”
XI
After the events of the meeting, Candra and Orlando decided to run and hunt for a few hours as wolves to relieve the stress of the afternoon’s events. By the time they were satisfied with their hunt, they went back to their small house only to hear the noises of a large compound of wolves gone wild back through the gates. Candra knew it was because of the plans for the days ahead, but it scared her more than it excited her.
She went inside their house before Orlando and grabbed a bucket, then ran out to the well in the dying light to get some water before she came
