Page 138 of What Fury Brings
“Olerra.”
The voice was right beside her then. It was Goddess Amarra. Olerra wasn’t sure how she knew this. She still couldn’t see a thing, but she knew all the same.
“I’m here,” Olerra said.
“I came to tell you something.”
Olerra knew without needing to be told. “The reason why I’m Giftless.”
“Yes, but I sense I don’t need to. Surely you’ve figured it out.”
She thought for a moment. “I don’t need it.”
“No, you don’t.”
“I became morebecauseI don’t have it.”
“Yes,” Amarra said. “You became sympathetic to those less fortunatethan you. The men of my kingdom. The commoners. Do I not love all my children?”
“You do.”
The voice grew distant, as though it were fading away into nothing.
And you will be the queen they all need. My chosen.
Olerra opened her eyes to startling brightness. It was so drastic from the darkness of her dream that she covered her head with her blankets.
“Don’t go back to sleep,” Sanos rumbled. “We’re getting married today.”
She threw the covers off as both the dream and the previous night came back to her. She didn’t know if the dream was just that, a figment of her imagination, or if it was really the goddess sending her a message. A special gift on the eve of her anniversary.
It didn’t matter.
Olerra knew who she was. And she was enough.
“Do you know what?” she said. “I think today is going to be a perfect day.”
“You say that only because you haven’t met my brothers yet.”
“They can’t be worse than you.”
Sanos rolled atop her, yet held his weight up on his hands so as not to disturb her injury. She couldn’t wait until she was well enough to feel all of him atop her.
“Cheeky thing,” he said, before his lips descended to her neck.
“You seem entirely cured of your aversion to physicality,” Olerra remarked. They had lain together not once, but three times in quick succession. The Brutish virility really was something remarkable.
“You know very well the cause of my former aversion.”
“And you had no one to blame but yourself for that. Will I meet the real Andrastus today?”
“Ugh. Please don’t say his name in our bed.”
She grinned. “Our bed?”
Sanos looked at the door to his room. “Would you rather I spent my nights in my own bed?”
“I’m teasing. You’ll be lucky if I ever let you leave our bed.”
