Page 119 of The Golden Rose Of Valenul

“I won’t make you travel with a guard,” he said, searching her face, “because I don’t trust anyone to keep you safe.”

She snorted a laugh. “Except yourself?”

“Gods,” he breathed and kissed her softly. “I don’t even trust myself. But yes.”

Pursing her lips, Ariadne squirmed back a bit. Her stomach sank at the seriousness on his face. “Why do I need a guard now that we are married?”

Azriel did not respond right away. His brows pinched up in the center, and he wound one of her dark curls around his finger. The reticence drew out as he decided on his words. His jaw flexed, and he sucked in a long breath before saying, “There’s been reports of more dhemon sightings in Laeton.”

“In town?” Her heart felt heavier with every beat. After the attack at Laeton Park, she had thought them to be more cautious. Those monsters were, as she well knew, persistent and unyielding.

“On occasion.” He scanned her face again. “And they’re after me.”

Ice cold dread leaked into her gut. For a long moment, the air seized in her chest. Everything made sense. The bolt on Vertium had not been aimed at her but at her guard, standing right beside her. The dhemons in the park did not come after her—they focused on Azriel and anyone who stood in their way. Gracen died to keep her husband from their clutches. The question, then, became: why were they after him?

“Was this discussed by the Council?” She ran her finger over the brand on his chest—the twin to her own.

He dropped the twist of curl and rolled onto his back, closing his eyes. “No. No one else knows.”

Ariadne gaped at him. She sat up, pulling the sheets up to her chest as she moved to stare at him. “Then how do you know?”

“The dhemon that attacked us in the park told me.”

When he spoke their language. Ariadne had been so overwhelmed by the very appearance of the dhemons that she had forgotten. Almost as though their presence numbed her mind. After all, she knew what happened when someone tried to disobey a dhemon.

Their name got carved into your back night after night, and they sent others to visit your cell day after day as a constant reminder of who was in control.

Her blood chilled. “What does that have to do with me?”

Azriel’s eyes snapped open and swiveled to where she sat. They almost glowed through the darkness. “Because they know what you mean to me.”

And just like they tortured Darien, they would use her to get to him. “Why do they want you so badly?”

“They blame me for their leader’s death.” He draped an arm over his eyes as though blocking out the world would shield him from its evils.

Yet the evil of the dhemons always prevailed. She had attempted to keep them at bay in the same way many times. The true haunting lived in her mind and stalked her thoughts, just as they seemed to do to Azriel.

Then it dawned on her. That timeline did not match up. The Dhemon King, the Crowe, died the night Madan rescued her. She had seen him, in fact, as they escaped, with two more dhemons in his wake. They ran in the opposite direction—into the mountain keep where Ehrun fought with her kidnapper. The memory flashed through her mind, vivid as the night she had witnessed it. The one and only time she had laid eyes on the Crowe.

“You were there.” She stared at her husband, breath caught in her lungs. “You were in the mountains with Madan.”

Slowly—oh, so slowly—Azriel removed the arm from his face. Through the dim light, she watched the color drain from his cheeks. “Yes.”

She had always wondered how Madan got in and out of the keep unscathed. No dhemons had seen them, except the Crowe and his cronies. He had slowed just enough to take in Madan and her before barrelling on. One of his companions stopped completely to gape at them yet never moved to stop them. While she knew her old guard’s skills outranked most soldiers, Madan never drew his sword.

Someone else had to distract the dhemons to get her out.

“You could have died,” she breathed, the words burning in her throat. Her fingers curled a little tighter around the sheets in her hands. “You got us both out.”

No wonder he had dueled Loren like a dhemon. Such skills were needed to clear a path for their escape. Without it, he would have fallen. Without it, Madan would have been killed. Without it, she never would have been freed.

Azriel watched her like a caged animal, eyes wide and lips parted in fear. All he said in response was another simple, “Yes.”

“Why did you keep it from me?” She frowned lightly, heart throbbing from the secrecy. “Why would you not say anything to anyone? You would have been praised the same as Madan this entire time.”

“I told you,” he said, gravelly voice quiet, “I bonded with you the moment I saw you.”

“There was music playing when you first saw me.”

---