Page 134 of The Sundered Realms

Vhann snorted, darkly amused. “Need I choose? That you had to reveal what you did to him of all people, that we are still here, that I left you alone, that you were alone for so long, Liris—“

Liris turned in his arms to face him. “That at least is hardly your fault.”

“Isn’t it?” His gaze searched hers. “Serenthuar is... your elders are so afraid, Liris. I know what people are like. It should not have been a surprise to me that extended to their own people. To you.”

Afraid. That was exactly it. The elders’ pride and obduracy and ruthlessness came from the same source.

Liris leaned her head against him, speaking her words to his chest. “You know, I knew those field trips they took me on were messed up, and I thought I knew they were afraid I would mess up, but before today I hadn’t realized that they were worried I wouldn’t mess up. That making all those people perform for me was a way of separating us, to keep us from forming bonds, because the elders feared people might agree with my radical idea that Serenthuar didn’t have to be the way it was. I didn’t realize they were afraid of me.”

“And now?”

“Now?” She drew back, frowning, because surely the answer was obvious. “Now I will drag the elders kicking and screaming into the future rather than let them mire Serenthuar in the past, and they can’t stop me anymore.”

Vhannor’s snort that time was significantly more amused and fond. Liris smiled faintly, comforted by how well she could read him in the man’s snorts, of all things.

Comforted by how quickly he’d become home to her.

“Then they will reap what they have sown and get better than they deserve for it,” he told her. “You know I will lend you whatever you wish for to that end.”

Liris studied him. “Why are you feeling guilty about this?”

“You have to ask?” Vhannor’s gaze seared her to the quick. “I don’t regret who you are, Liris, but I can wish you’d had to endure less. What is the point of my position if I don’t use it to help people?”

“You... do realize you already have helped? While becoming the best field caster in the Sundered Realms, as one does, and leading Special Operations to help as many people as you can despite their governments, you’ve also specifically championed the Coalition that would make a meaningful difference to the future. You can’t personally fight every battle, Vhannor, and I know you know this because Special Operations exists. I can’t be sorry about the one you chose.”

Vhannor bent to kiss her tenderly, then scooped her up under her knees to carry her cradled in his arms to a plush chair, settling her in his lap.

“Here,” he said. “Is it all right if you don’t have to touch anything, then? I’ll happily serve as your stepstool.”

She had to make a joke of it. “Ah, so the Serenthuar comes out on top?”

“All the standards Ormbtai upholds are beneath you,” Vhannor answered, brushing her hair out of her face.

Oh, this man. Liris swooped down to kiss him swiftly before he said anything else and she stopped being able to say anything at all.

His arms tightened around her, and she melted into his chest, and even without his voice, he could center her and inflame her at the same time. She clung to him, this man, the most powerful field caster in all the Sundered Realms, who saw her and wanted her, and she wondered how she could ever, ever get enough of him.

Eventually Liris pulled back, but only because she didn’t need to torture herself by getting somehow more worked up over him when she knew sex wasn’t on his imminent agenda.

And there was one relevant topic guaranteed to douse her mood.

“You haven’t told me how it went with the chancellor.”

Vhannor tilted his head back and sighed in frustration, and Liris grimaced.

“That well?”

She’d known she as a Serenthuar wouldn’t be able to wring any concessions out of Chancellor Ariurn, but she’d hoped that with the stage she’d set Vhannor might have better luck.

“He still won’t commit any of Ormbtai’s resources, even to helping us get to Jadrhun and whatever he might have put in our way,“ Vhannor confirmed, eyes flashing with ire. “I did at least manage to establish that in the event we encounter a demonic portal that would require a larger team, Ormbtai will pay for damages incurred by not having supplied us adequately.”

“He doesn’t really believe Jadrhun or Serenthuar is worth taking seriously.” Liris sighed too. “And Ormbtai’s rich enough to pay whatever they’re fined.”

“Not this time, they’re not,” Vhannor said with a sort of grim satisfaction. “The price will be joining the Coalition of Tethered Realms under profoundly unfavorable terms, as reparations for knowingly standing by and doing less than nothing when the destruction of all realms is at stake.”

Liris stared. Since the Sundering, there were technically agreed-upon clauses that could be invoked in cases of threat to the integrity of all the remaining realms, but they never had been successfully. “You really think you can do that?”

“Gods themselves couldn’t stop me,” he growled. “And more to the point, Nysia will be absolutely thrilled to ram it down Ariurn’s throat. You’ve never seen her in her element, but I promise you when she digs in, she doesn’t let go. And she will never let this go.”

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