She was alive. She was well. She was with him. Nothing else mattered.
“Brand.” Lyriat stood with arms crossed at the foot of the bed, back to his lesser self. “May I offer some advice?”
He already had an inkling of what his friend was about to say, already wanted to argue it, but he nodded once.
“Leave her be for a few days.”
Furious tingles crawled over Brand’s limbs, his suspicion correct. “Why the fuck would I do that?”
“Because she needs to realize for herself that running isn’t the answer, and she won’t be able to see through her fear if you’re crowding her.”
“Crowdingher? She’s my mate. We are one being now.”
“Yes, but that half”—he jutted his chin at her—“is more terrified than I’ve ever seen another living creature. If you’dbeen there this morning…” His cheeks puffed out as he shook his head.
“I watched her try to leap from my tower in Argoph to save me,” Brand rasped. “I have a fairly good idea.”
Lyriat recoiled. “Weeping fuck.”
Brand caught himself before he could dig his hand into the permanent groove in one of his primary horns. He’d never once sought the soothing motion while raging. He wasn’t fucking starting now.
“I knew it was bad, but I did what I could, Brand. I kept her here, knowing you’d be back as soon as you were able. The rest she has to do for herself.”
“She’s already done too much by herself.” It was getting harder to keep his form, sorrow setting in and trying to wrench it away from him. “For so long, she was alone. Why would you ask this of me?”
“I recognize someone carrying old wounds—wounds that have just been ripped wide open again.” His voice was hushed, the tone of a male who knew what it was to lose everything at a young age. “Give her some time to see sheisn’talone. Let Hedda and Nyri care for her while she tends to the Fae. Let her see she has friends outside of you, people who care what happens to her. Maybe if she realizes how many would be affected by her leaving, she’ll pause to think. You can use that space as well. You don’t have to be right next to her to love her.”
Those last words hit hard. Hadn’t he been doing that before Glynmor? Days into meeting her and he’d been mostly head-over-heels already.
“You truly think it will make a difference?”
“I do. Let her spend some time missing you, and she’ll see it’s no way to live.”
Brand drew two fingers across her brow. “She’s Nachthelliae’s fucking Keeper, Lyriat. That’s no way to live either.”
“I know,” he whispered. “You’ll just have to cross that bridge when you get to it.”
“Areyou absolutely certain you want to go back in so soon?”
Lunara looked up from Fern’s supine form, Hedda hovering over her like a fly on shite. “Yes. And for the hundredth time, you should go. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
“I’m not leaving you to thatthing. Not again. Since you already kicked Nyri out, you’re stuck with me.”
“Of course I kicked Nyri out. She’s basically achild.What any of you were thinking letting her be so close to me, I’ll never know.”
She’d woken sometime in the middle of the night, tucked into her bed, the young Demon cuddled up beside her. The absolute horror of it was still fresh in her mind. Something could have happened. She could have snapped, or had a moment of madness, or done something she couldn’t take back.
And she was absolutely ignoring how she’d probably gotten into that bed in the first place.
Sure you are. You’re doing a fabulous job. Not thinking about him at all.
“I’m not a child!” Nyri called from the other room.
Lunara rolled her eyes. Of course, kicking her out had been relative. Nyri’s meddling damned kinghad ordered her to stay here, so banishing her to the other room was the best Lunara could do. It at least gave her a chance to escape if it all went sideways.
Again.
“Wait.”
