Page 23 of Great Falls Protector
“Forgive me, Lilac Girl.”
“What—” My words catch, my heart skipping a beat. The name Tye used to call me in Lunos teases my skin, pulsating with meaning. “What did you just call me?”
With a shake of his head, he dislodges my hands, hesitates, then takes them so tightly in his that my knuckles crack.
“I remembered,” Tye whispers. “And I’ve been trying to work out why you did it, fought Zake to protect me. I certainly deserved none of it.”
I bite my lip against sudden tears, my body flooding with a relief that’s almost too much to bear. Too much to believe. With everything that just happened, it’s very possible that the only way for the amulet to have overpowered Tye’s memories would have been to kill him. My heart quickens in delayed fear of how close we might have come to that.
Tye’s chin drops to his chest again. “I remember everything. Remember wanting the cadet I thought you were, remember watching you fall off those bleachers, remember choosing the Prowess Trials over your word.” Each of his whispered words makes him flinch. “I remember it all, Lera. And I’ll bear any punishment you can think of.”
“Tye.” I swallow, my heart aching for him. For us. When the male refuses to lift his eyes off the floor, I take his face again, tracing his cheekbones, the square angle of his jaw. “The magic—”
“I should have fought harder!” Tye shakes his head, his red hair flying violently from side to side. Tears glisten on his cheeks, catching the flickers of torchlight in the hallway. “I failed you, Lilac Girl. And it nearly cost us all.”
I wipe his tears away with the back of my hand, the immortal male beneath my touch shuddering at each caress.
Tye looks at me, and at last, I see the faintest glimmer of a smile in his beautiful eyes.
Before he can withdraw again, I throw my arms around his warm shoulders, burying myself in his pine-and-citrus scent and velvety strength. The pounding of his heart against his ribs is so powerful, I feel each beat vibrate through my own body. Once. Twice. Then the male’s strong arms wrap tightly around me, crushing me against him.
“I’m not letting you go, Lilac Girl.” The whispered words ruffle my hair, tickling the back of my neck. “Ever.”
* * *
“Mearrrow!”Leaping off the top of a bookshelf, Minion catches himself on Tye’s bare shoulder—the male’s tunic now covering me—and scrambles up his flesh. Several of Gavriel’s treasured books, which the cat launched off, fall to the library floor in a cascade of slithering booms that make Rabbit tuck himself deeper into a corner.
Twisting lithely, Tye grabs the orange kitten by the scruff of his neck and holds him at arm’s length before him, the small bundle of fur hissing and clawing the air with demonic intent.
“I’ll kill him,” he says—the first words he’s uttered since I pulled him to his feet in that dusty closet and half dragged him here.
“Would you?” Gavriel asks, warm brown eyes looking hopeful. “It would be a great service to humanity indeed.”
“No!” Arisha lunges for her beast, her braids and glasses bouncing along with her.
Bringing the still-hanging kitten close to his face with one long sculpted arm, Tye locks green gazes with the sharp-clawed monster and growls, the noise rumbling from deep down inside his wide chest.
Minion’s air clawing stops at once, the tiny kitten suddenly meowing piously and licking his own nose with a tiny pink tongue.
“Not the cat,” Tye says, setting Minion back atop Gavriel’s books. “Coal.”
“You can try,” I mutter, nearly laughing when I hear the warrior’s own words come out of my mouth. But laughing would be too much work. Everything hurts. My back. My ear. My heart. And that’s all before I can even get started parsing out the disastrous mess that we still have to deal with.
“He should have fought,” Tye mutters. “The bastard should have interfered sooner.”
“The gentle soul that Coal is?” I put my hand on Tye’s cheek, the light stubble scratching my skin. My voice softens. “Coal knew a great deal about what was happening in that closet. I think… I think I needed someone to trust in me more than I trusted in myself just then.”
Tye turns to me, meeting my eyes—reluctantly, it seems. The emerald green in his penetrating gaze is as beautiful as his hard body, each line honed to a deadly perfection. If I thought the male was ethereal back in Lunos, under Han’s harsh tutelage, he’s a predator incarnate. “So if you forgive Coal, do you think you might eventually—”
“Tye.” I raise my bow. “There is nothing to forgive. Not anymore.”
Tye shakes his head, his shoulders hunching, the four parallel scratches Minion left on his skin beading with tiny drops of blood. Around us, the library quiets, Gavriel setting his teacup gently on the porcelain. “You did it all,” Tye says. “Everything. And I tried to trip you every step of the way.”
“Noteverystep.” Sitting on a chair a few paces away, Arisha strokes the impertinently purring Minion. “And then there were all those times that involved no standing of any kind. I’m rather certain Lera enjoyed those.”
“Why weren’t they standing?” Rabbit asks, brown eyes wide.
“I’m trying to apologize, if you two don’t mind.” Tye swings his face around to glare at Arisha, his tight brow narrowing. “Wait. Does Braids know—”
