Page 184 of A Crown of Tears and Treason
I frowned. That sounded like an omen. “Why wouldn’t I?”
“We will get married, as we must to protect you and the Clan.” His thumbs caressed my skin, careful not to get too close to the gauze on my nose. “Believe me when I say I would destroy myself to keep you safe.”
“Why are you saying these things?” I covered his hands with my own. “Zandyr, what’s going on? Will the Serpents attack tomorrow?”
“No. Even if they dared, my warriors would stop them.” He hesitated, mouth set in a grim line. “We’re dealing with something far more dangerous.”
A fragment of fury burst through the connection. It vanished as soon as it appeared, as if he’d strangled it back into the shadowy depths of his soul. But I’d gotten enough of a whiff ofit to detect the dread beyond it. It wasn’t fear, oh, no. It was the wretched acceptance of the inevitable.
“The imposter tried to slit her own throat,” he said and my body seized. “Adara stopped her. Only then did she swallow the poison she had hidden in her mouth.”
I took a step back. Then one more. Zandyr let me go, his arms falling to the side. Then another, until I fell into a seated position onto the bed, the weight of the revelation beating through me.
“I was right,” I muttered.
“You were.” Zandyr approached, steps heavy. Perhaps the forest had left its mark on him, too. Or maybe my kidnapping had. “I’ve ordered my closest allies to find any scrap of text they can on the Quoriliths. More texts have to be out there and someone doesn’t want us to decipher them.”
“What does all this–” I flailed my arms at the chaos of it all. “Have to do with the death of my parents?”
I didn’t believe, not even for a second, my parents had slit their own throats. Mara and Falor Vegheara had been too proud to ever take their own lives, out of sheer stubbornness if nothing else.
“A message. Clans are masters at that. The question is…” He crouched in front of me in one fluid motion. “Who was it meant for? Not for us, we don’t know what it means. Yet. Not to strike fear in the hearts of civilians, nobody has claimed their murder.”
I frowned, my tired mind struggling to put the pieces together. “For whoever had ordered their assassination.”
Zandyr nodded gravely. “To know they can strike where they want, when they want. A show of strength.”
“I was the only witness.”
“You were the one they wanted to terrify.”
“Why? Nobody knew I was even alive.”
“Exactly. Someone has gone through a lot of trouble to get you back into Clan life–then take you out of it. That–” He tappedmy forehead, then his. “Is what we need to discover. And we will. Together.”
A ghost of a smile lifted my lips; it felt like a lifetime since I’d smiled. “Together.”
“May the gods have mercy on whoever is behind this, because I won’t.” He grabbed the back of my neck, bringing our foreheads together. He inhaled long and sharp, as if he wanted to imprint my scent into his mind. It stirred something in my belly that had no business waking up now, when I was only half-healed. “I went mad when I couldn’t feel you. The breaking of a bond like ours is unfathomable. I was ready to strike down anyone and anything that would have stood in my way to find you. No mountains could have stopped me, no rivers could have swallowed me. I would have burned the whole continent to get to you. And when I finally found you, you were bloody and depleted…”
Another wave of fury rolled off him, so abrupt and raw, it sunk into my bones.
“Then,” he went on, voice now pulsing with barely leashed rage. “When you sat on the bed, Master Sylvannis mending your nose and lip, I would have marched straight into the palace and–”
The muscles of his chest constricted. A warning from the oath.
I ran my hands through his hair, willing away some of the shadows crowding his gaze. “I’m here. I’m alive. I’m safe.”
“You are.” He smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “And I will always find you, for as long as you want me, this I swear. You are mine and I am yours.”
He made a move to get up, but I caught his shoulders. “Stay. We need a good night’s rest for tomorrow. Leesa has been warning me all these months that our wedding day will be exhausting.”
He hesitated for the slightest moment. Then he relaxed under my touch. “And wedding night, traditionally.”
“I do like the sound of that.” I giggled as I fell back on the bed, his weight comforting on top of me. Zandyr kissed my neck, my cheeks, my eyelids. Every inch he found, his lips pressed against it reverently.
When he finally captured my mouth, the kiss was slow and sensual, languorous in every swipe of his tongue against mine. Tasting me fully, like he didn't think he’d get the chance again.
Fatigue clawed at me when we finally settled for sleep in our favorite position, my back to his chest, his strong arm around my middle. I was so tired. My nose was still a mess. I’d barely scraped by with my life.
