“It was just in case!” Thad threw his arms up. “She was there, Da. She knows what it was like, and I didn’t want to be cut off from her. I thought if I ever needed to talk about it, she would understand.”
“Aye. She would. But you were still forbidden.” Caius turned to Lunara. “I’m not particularly happy to see you, lass.”
Lunara’s lip was trembling when she lifted her head. “I know. I didn’t particularly want to come, but I couldn’t say no to him. Not after everything. Besides, you know how he is.”
“I do, unfortunately.” Caius rubbed at his temples with one hand. “Well, I sure as shite didn’t see this coming. What a fucking mess.”
More details of Meliora’s illness, still hidden beneath a shroud of secrecy. Caius had refused to speak about it. Thad had shrunk further and further into himself. Andthe healerhad been as much a mystery as the rest of it until a few days ago.
Some had tried to claim they’d been there. That it had been gruesome. That they’d never seen anything like it.
Liars, of the worst sort.
No one, in their family or otherwise, had seen Meliora for at least a month before her death. That didn’t stop the whispers, though. The rumors, rife with conflicting information. The gossip.
Now, Brand was somehow staring at the only three people in the world who knew the truth, and the urge to demand answers roiled within him.
“Right.” Caius drew himself up, back to business. “If Baldrir didn’t do it, who the fuck did?”
Lyriat folded his arms, head tilting. “Is just seeing her enough to assuage you? Do you not want to be briefed on her findings?”
Caius waved that away. “I wish I didn’t know what the lass is capable of, but I do, unfortunately. If you say she’s the one who did the healing, then aye. It’s all I need to hear.”
Brand’s eyebrows shot up. High praise from a male who gave it sparingly.
“May I release him then, uncle?” Magnus asked.
“Aye, let the lad go.”
Baldrir hurried down the steps and straight to his little sister, Nyri meeting him halfway and letting out a sob as she threw her arms around him.
Caius watched the exchange. “At least one of them is getting a pleasant ending.” He signaled for the Wolflords who’d accompanied him to come forward. “Straight home,” he muttered low. “Send the Demon messenger back, and relay all you’ve heard to the Chieftains. Tell them I’ll be staying for a spell to figure this out. And tell Lilius we can’t be putting her daughter to rest just yet. She’ll not be pleased, but promise her whatever she needs in return. Go.”
The males turned on their heels as one and sprinted for the portal, barely a blink between them tossing the toll and leaping through it.
“Now,for the love of the Sisters, can we please take this somewhere fucking else? I need a damned seat.”
Lunara took Caius’s grumbled request as her cue to back away and get out of there.
Nothing in the realms could have prepared her for coming face-to-face with the Imperial Wolflord again. Thaddeus had been bad enough, but Caius…
Shitting stars.
She’d known he was coming, but reality was oft worse than anything she could conjure up. So much worse. She needed her own place to sit. Quiet and alone.
You never should’ve let yourself believe it when he’d said you were forgiven. Who could ever actually forgive someone that let their mate die?
Not Caius, obviously.
Lunara shuffled backwards, hoping to melt into the crowd of Demons and?—
“Now, I’m not sure where you think you’re going, lass,” Caius said, “but I have need of you, yet.”
She swallowed. “But I thought?—”
“I know what you thought. I need you to stay.” He turned back to King Lyriat. “It’s beneath me, but I’m bloody begging—clear the room or take us somewhere else. I don’t care which, as long as there’s a chair.”
With a nod, the king flared his nostrils and planted his feet. He seemed to swell, lines of light tracing over his skin that were so faint she might have imagined them.
