Maybe ever.
She straightened her skirts and combed her fingers through her hair. “If there’s one person in this world who has absolutely nothing to fear from me, it’s Brand.”
“I can see that.” Another step. “I might even believe it, if I didn’t know what you’re capable of.”
Her laugh was an ugly thing. “Araxis, if I hadn’t come to help when Thad asked me, you’d never have known I was alive. The only way I could be capable of the things you’re talking about is if I claimed the Tear Stone—which I abjectly refuse to do.”
“The next Occurrence?—”
“I was there for the Evesong’slastOccurrence,” she snapped, uncaring he was an Imperial. Shite, at this point, she might even outrank him in the same awkward way Lyriat sometimes outranked Brand. “Was there when exactlynothinghappened, despite there being no Keeper to facilitate it. There to hear the uproar of whispers and wonderings as everything remained completely unchanged, much to everyone’s shock. Nachthelliae will be fine.”
His nostrils flared, a muscle twitching beneath his eye. “What will you do?”
“Funny you should ask.” It was becoming more real with every word. More painful. “As far as I’m concerned, you owe me a favor, Araxis aht Bordoroth. Maybe a lifetime of favors. Fuck,twolifetimes.”
“That night wasn’t all it seemed.”
“No?” she hissed. “Seemed real enough to me when I watched my parents get brutally ripped apart, and half a city with them, while the rest of the Council dined and danced, you fucking coward.”
His fists clenched. “What would you ask of me?”
“Take me back to Straelon, to Lyriat, and tell no one where I’ve gone.”
“He’s going to chase you.” Araxis nodded his head towards the bed behind her, and she had to fight against every particle in her body as they tried to follow the gesture and turn her around. “And I value my life just enough not to try and stop him, even though I might want him to.”
“Yes, so he said. And I valuehislife enough not to give a starry shite about my own. He might try to find me, but it won’t matter. I won’t let it happen. Are you going to help me or not?”
Lyriat jolted,the three-petaled blooms he’d been gathering flying from his hand. “What the fuck!”
Normally, Lunara might’ve been shaking in her boots, red with embarrassment at treating a Realm Ruler thus. Right now, she couldn’t be bothered to care. “I require the payment that is due to me.”
“Hello to you, too.” He bent and retrieved the flowers from the ground. “Would either of you care to explain why you’ve appeared in my garden?”
Araxis cleared his throat, chin ticking upwards. “There are many reasons, Your Majesty. All of them good, none of them your business unless she or he would like to share it.”
He didn’t wait for a response before disappearing in a winking flash. Probably back to Argoph.
Probably back to Nachthelliae, to tell everyone he bleeding can that you’ve been found.
Interesting. She didn’t give a fuck about that either.
Lyriat loosed a long-suffering sigh. “Do I even want to know?”
Solyrian hadn’t yet cleared the mountain peaks, though the light was bright enough to see. They stood at the base of the biggest tree Lunara had ever seen, its feathered needles littering the ground nearly as long as her arm.
All around them, the trilliatum were rampant, punching up through the tree’s detritus in shades of emerald and ivory. Possibly the most stunning plant she’d ever seen, but she didn’t care.
Didn’t care. Didn’t care. Didn’t care.
Good. Just as it should be.
Maybe if she repeated it to herself enough, it would be true.
“I am the Keeper of Illamiata.”
That brought him up short. His brows popped up high enough to nearly disappear into his copper hairline. “Going by the look on your face, I assume this was something of a surprise?”
To his credit, he didn’t seem repulsed by or terrified of her. Something, at least. Hard to have a conversation if someone’s running away screaming.
