“Why?” he repeated.
“I don’t know.” I had no good answer.
“It wasn’t his fault,” he said quietly.
“Just as it wasn’t your fault that I was taken. You were a child; it was a miracle that you found me. And now you can tell everyone and restore your family honour.”
His face tightened.
“I refused to listen to him.”
“What?”
“When we met at the castle, he wanted to tell me something but I refused to let him. What could he possibly have said that would redeem him?” His lips thinned. “Why didn’t he tell anyone?”
“Perhaps he felt it was his duty to keep it secret, to hide whatever it was that motivated the lady. His final act of loyalty.”
“He asked me if I still believed the baby had lived.”
I looked up. I hadn’t seen Rhodri before we left. Perhaps…
“Did you tell him?”
His lids dropped as he shook his head, his dark curls glinting in the firelight. His slightly longer hair made him look more like the Celt he was and less like the Roman citizen he had pretended to be for so many years.
“I was so angry. I should have told him but I’ve been angry with him for so long. I’ve blamed him for so long. I looked at him and saw everything I would be if anything ever happened to you. All I could think was that there was nothing on earth that would prevent me from keeping you safe. I will never be like him, I will never live in a world that doesn’t contain you.”
He was so fierce, so resolute, that chills washed over me. I forced out a laugh, dismissing the idea that he would ever be faced with such a choice.
“My mother thought it was important for you to stay alive, so let’s not be crazy here.”
His eyes locked with mine.
“I would give my life for yours,” he vowed. “Every time.”
“I’m not asking for your life. I’m only asking that you keep your promise,” I said, reminding him of the discussion at hand.
“Your brother will not allow it. The Griffin and the lady can never—”
“Damn my brother. And damn you too. I decide who I love, and I choose you. All right, idiot?” I demanded. I’d had enough, enough of doing things that others wanted. My mother had allowed me to be taken by the council who had manipulated me my whole life, and the brother I had never even met was trying to keep me from Devyn.
I poured every bit of determination, will and love that I could down that bond. It was a white light that washed away the darkness of his shame and powerlessness as a child, the pain and blame my family and society had dumped on his young shoulders. The reflection of that shadow lifted from him, and his face lit up, softening as he finally met my eyes fully. My determination and love reflected in eyes so dark I could barely tell his iris from his cornea. His shoulders squared, as though he was physically readying to take on all who attempted to get in our way. His lips descended on mine, and he kissed me so thoroughly that I could feel its heat spreading down through my body, melting and tingling its way down to my toes.
He stood, lifting me with him, his arms filled with the strength of his renewed will.
“All right,” he answered me, tumbling me into the bed that was just a few steps away, before crawling up my length until he hovered over me, his arms caging me in a cocoon of him. I inhaled the warm scent of him, that fresh smell that was all him, that reminded me of open skies and mountain ranges.
“Idiot, huh?”
I beamed up at him.
“My idiot.”
He wouldn’t back away again, I could feel it in my bones. This time, everything was out in the open. I understood why he had resisted but those walls had been torn down and they would not go back up, I vowed.
“Cass.”
“Mmm?”
“We can’t… Marcus.”
“What about Marcus?” I rolled him over so I could explore him with my hands and lips.
“The handfast.”
I frowned. Was he really asking me to respect the—? “No. Remember, unlike me, he is protected by the charm; nothing will leak out of this room. Now, can we stop speaking of—”
He stopped my words with his lips. Nicely done. That was the last sensible thought I had for a while, as those warm lips traced a path down my neck and along my once again bare collarbone as I arched up into him. The sensitive skin tingled in the wake of his path down, down, down…
My eyes opened to the breathtaking sight of a healthy sleeping Devyn. I pressed my lips softly to his before slowly levering myself off the bed.
“I’ll need those.” He caught me twining the ties of his soft knee boots around my calves.
“I didn’t want to wake you. You need your rest.”
I bounced back over to the bed and, after a much more thorough morning kiss, I floated out of the room.
The first light of day was only just beginning to creep across the sky. Unable to resist, I made my way outside to take in the light breaking over the wide-open water. There was a brisk wind coming in over the bay, creeping underneath my tightly wrapped cloak, but with my feet snug inside the multiple layers of socks with which I had padded Devyn’s boots, I savoured the sensation of the fresh wind on my face. No wind in Londinium was ever this clean, this pure. This wind was untouched, having crossed miles and miles of empty sea before hitting my skin – which had been made even more tender by Devyn’s
