Well, she had told him the truth and he could do whatever he wanted with it.
“It is so very cold,” came Veer’s sleep-slurred voice.
Please, don’t turn this way, prayed an alarmed Chandra. But her prayers were in vain.
He turned, reached out a long arm to catch her shoulder, then pulled her up to him, so he sat leaning against the pillar, with her tucked against him.
The beat of his strong heart was a comforting rhythm under her ear. Belatedly, she remembered to resist him.
“Calm down, Princess, I’m not going to molest you,” he mumbled. “Do you think you can relax your principles enough to allow me to get some warmth?”
Chandra was too shocked to reply. It was indeed deliciously warm in his embrace. His pine scent rose to wrap around her as comfortable as a blanket.
A large hand crept to tuck her head more securely against his broad chest and remained on her back, rubbing in soothing circles, the way a mother would tend to a crying child. There was nothing sexual in his touch.
Fresh tears leaked from her eyes.
Until he pulled her to him, she hadn’t realized how much she needed a hug.
He was lying about the cold. He came from a mountainous area. He was used to the cold, and it hadn’t been chill enough to be uncomfortable.
How long had he been awake, listening to her?
She tilted her head, afraid to look up and find him staring at her shame. So she glanced at the stubble on his strong jaw. A pulse flicked strongly at his throat, in time with the thrum of his heart.
She had almost killed him today. Would have succeeded, too, if she had been unhesitant.
He had the excuse of not being in his sane mind. She didn’t even have that.
Tears burned behind her eyelids again.
He should hate her guts on principle alone.
And yet, she couldn’t pretend anymore that he hadn’t heard her and chose to provide comfort in the only way he knew how.
Why did he have to make it so hard to hate him?
It was her last thought before her eyelids grew heavy and she drifted off to an exhausted, dreamless sleep.
* * *
Veer couldn’t sleep that night. Chandra’s revelation played over and over in his mind, digging like a sharp claw at his memories and impressions of that night. After spending seven years trying to erase his memories, he was suddenly eager to recall and find out as much as he could.
If what Chandra was saying was true, then he had wronged her terribly. Virat was his responsibility. While he didn’t want to make the same mistake as before and jump to conclusions without proof, he was honest enough to acknowledge that it was more than a possibility.
Virat could be impulsive and blind. In his pursuit of magic, he often didn’t consider the consequences of his actions.He was one of his oldest friends. When Veer was sent to be raised in Vivismati, his uncle had found him to befriend Veer and be his childhood companion.
Virat came from an obscure desert tribe and was a godsend to a lonely kid with magic bursting out of him. As a magic user himself, Virat was able to control Veer’s wild outbursts of magic and helped him fine-tune its use. They had been together for most of his life learning, fighting, and practicing their talents together.
Virat’s specific skill of controlling others was a bit daunting to others, but they had devised a way—a pair of entangledbracelets—that alerted one when the other was using their powers.
After Virat died, Veer thought the magical entanglement had broken, but now he wondered how long it had been since it stopped working. They had been growing apart toward the end, each immersed in their own interests and responsibilities, and Veer admitted he had been lax in keeping an eye on his friend.
For this is the one thing he believed without a doubt: Virat had used his powers on the princess. She knew too much about how it worked, to not have experienced it.
Only a small kernel of consideration for his dead friend kept him from believing her account completely. He owed it to him and everyone else involved to be impartial before he reached a conclusion regarding the past.
Chandra had quieted down and seemed to be sleeping. It had twisted him inside to hear her trying to be quiet about her sobs. He never intended to hurt her.
