Page 132 of The King is Dead
He nodded solemnly. “I know. I was afraid you were coming to tell me that I had to leave,” he admitted.
And yet, he’d greeted me with an embrace. My heart squeezed as tightly as his hug.
I patted his arm. “Well, I’m not. In fact, I’m going to ask you to come with me and Istral when we leave here, because she’ll be moving back to her normal quarters, and I think… I think we should find a place for you close to her there.”
Gall’s face dragged towards floor. “We can’t go back to the cottage?”
“Not now,” I said as reassuringly as I could. “Come in with me, and I’ll explain to both of you at the same time.”
He followed me like a dutiful son, and my heart pinched for him as well. Things were still a little tense between him and Melek, but I had no doubt he’d be scared when he heard what we planned to do. I prayed he could stay calm, and that he and my sister would keep each other company while we were gone.
Leading him into the room, I found Harris and Istral both seated on either side of a small table made for two, leaning over a puzzle.
Istral’s eyes lit up when she saw who was entering—but to my surprise, though she hugged me first, she quickly leaped from me to Gall, grabbing his arm and pulling at him.
“You’re allowed in now? I’m so glad. I was worried about you. You’ll need some sleep and I think you’re hungry? I’m sorry that they wouldn’t let you in. I told them it was safe, but they were speaking about military things and—”
“Izzy,” I said quietly.
My sister went still immediately. Then she swallowed before turning to face me. She still hadn’t let go of Gall’s arm.
“What is it?” she asked nervously.
“There’s something very important that I need to tell you about what’s going to happen in the next couple of days. But also, I want you to know that when we’re finished here you’re going to returnto your normal quarters here in the Palace. And I’m going to tell them to find rooms for Gall in your wing.”
Harris, who’d gotten to her feet too, but not approached, clasped her hands at her chest and I saw the relief on her face as she smiled at Istral, and then Gall, before looking at me and mouthing,Thank you.
“Now,” I said after nodding at the lovely woman. “Why don’t we all sit down and I’ll fill you in on what’s happened.”
Half an hour later, Istral was crying, sitting next to me on the lounge, hugging my arm.
“But why must it beyouagain?!”
“Because I’m the most skilled, Izzy. We talked about this last time, do you remember? But also, Melek is my mate and I can’t… I can’t let him go without me.”
She sat up, staring at me with her beautiful eyes welling with tears. “Is that what it means to be mates? That you can’t be without each other?”
I nodded slowly. “We are one, Izzy. I still love you as much as I ever did. But I can’t leave him.”
Her face crumpled, but to my surprise, instead of burying her head in my chest and sobbing as she would have done before, she pushed off of the couch and hurried to Gall who stood at the door, guarding it for us so we wouldn’t be interrupted.
I blinked at her abrupt departure, but then watched her stand at Gall’s toes, looking up at him. And the sadness on his face mirrored hers—but not only because he was sad himself. It was very clear that Gall felt deeply. And seeing my sister cry made himmiserable.
I was stunned as he touched her face and murmured to her in a deep rumble I couldn’t quite make out. But she nodded, then leaned forward to lean into his chest, and he wrapped his arms around her shoulders and… held her.
“I stopped trying to make him leave. He’d just wait until we weren’t moving around in here and come back and threaten to fight the guards again,” Harris whispered in my ear. “And she never settled until she heard him thumping on the other side of the door.”
I turned to look at her, shocked. “Are they…?”
“They are… attuned to each other,” she said carefully, watching my sister and Gall as she whispered to me. “If we’re to stay here in the Palace I think you should consider allowing him to take the adjoining suite? I could watch them—”
I gasped, truly stunned. “You’re suggesting I let them—”
“No! No! I don’t think… at least, as far as I know, they are both still very… innocent in the way they love each other. But they do love, Your Majesty. And there is something between them that defies simple attraction. I’m not certain how deep it runs. But for who they are and how they work… they’reconnectedin some way,” she said pointedly.
My whole body tensed in resistance to what she implied. I’d never imagined Istral eventhinkingabout a male that way. Not after the way she’d been abused by her peers when she was younger. But watching the way she clung to his waist and he stroked her hair, if I hadn’t known them both, I would have seen lovers in an embrace.
“But… but they'rechildren!”I hissed.
