“You seemed like you needed reminding.”
“Ha ha.Well, I don’t.We have no legal recourse to rescue Alise, only illegal ones.”
“And yet,” he commented, wizard-black eyes tracking her restless pacing, “you dismiss the illegal options.”
She rolled her eyes at him.“We’ve only just gotten House Phel on a reasonably firm financial footing.Our enemies are at least leaving us alone, for the first time in nearly a year.We might actually meet the metrics to be firmly reinstated as a high house, and being off the probationary period would give us far more negotiating power in the Convocation.We can’t risk any of that by engaging in illegal activities or heating up the current cold war into an actively raging one.”
“As we’ve discussed many times already.”
“You seemed like you needed reminding,” she shot at him.
With a sigh that was half laugh, half exasperated exhalation, Gabriel flattened his palms on the desk and rose to his considerable height.Nic never ceased to be a little surprised by Gabriel’s size, the breadth of his shoulders, the warrior’s musculature so unusual in the wizard set.But then, Gabriel had never been the typical wizard in any way, from his unconventional upbringing to his lack of Convocation education to his stubborn refusal to capitulate to social conventions.He came to her and she experienced that intimate thrill, his wizard’s magic and sexuality so heady they made her dizzy.The wizard–familiar bond between them hummed with the intensity of their connection, amplified by love, a meeting of minds, hearts, and bodies that transcended anything she’d thought possible for her to have.
“My love,” he said, setting his big hands on her shoulders, only compassion and no exasperation in him now.The simple words held a world of meaning.With Bria sleeping peacefully between them, sheltered in the circle of his loose embrace, Nic felt herself settle.The three of them together in this quiet early morning, the manse not yet awake, rain pattering outside… It seemed possible that all could be right with the world.“Let’s try solving this conundrum via a new path,” he suggested.“We all agreed to wait.We’ve been waiting—”
“For weeks!”she interjected.“Soon it will be two months.”
“Right.For a long time, but we never defined what we were waiting for.”
She supposed that was true.“I guess for things to settle down.”Like Bria, she thought, looking again at her adorable healthy daughter.
“Yes, for Bria to get a bit older.For you to heal from childbirth.”
“For someone to contact us,” she pointed out.“To find out something, anything.”
“Which is what set you off this morning.That we haven’t heard anything from any of them.”
“Yes!I thought that Han and Iliana would at least have sent word.If we could find out what’s so blasted important in those hidden archives from House Phel, we’d have negotiating power with the Convocation.But House Harahel isn’t—”
“I know, I know.”He breathed a quiet laugh and squeezed her shoulders.“House Harahel isn’t communicating.How about this?We agree that going to House Elal is a bad idea foranyone at all.”He paused meaningfully.“Don’t we?”
She nodded reluctantly.He knew her well enough to suspect that she’d been in part scheming about a way to sneak off to Elal and speak to her father personally, perhaps visit with Alise to assess her sister’s wellbeing for herself.It pained her to think of leaving Bria, but the baby was old enough now to not need her mother every moment—and Bria had a veritable entourage of people wanting to cuddle, carry, and feed her.Nic had even worked out a kind of a plan for traveling to Elal.
Only knowing how panicked Gabriel would be to discover her gone had stopped her.Well, that, and that it wasn’t a watertight plan.Watching her now with his keen black gaze, Gabriel dipped his chin knowingly.“I understand how very difficult it’s been for you to wait all this time.I want you to know I appreciate it.That you’ve held back for so long shows me that you love me more than any words could.”
She swallowed back the sudden tears.“I do love you.”
“I know.And I love you.”He flexed his fingers on her shoulders.“And because I do, I say let’s go to House Harahel.”
“Really?”Her heart lifted with such incredulous hope that she realized just how heavily inaction had weighed on her spirits.She was not a person who was accustomed to letting others take action; Nic had always wanted to grab a situation with her own two hands and wrench it into the direction she wanted.Arguably, she’d gotten herself into trouble that way—what with trying to escape her arranged marriage, an unwanted pregnancy, and the future designed for her by the Convocation—but ultimately it had all worked out.And look at her now, with a loving husband and wizard, a very much wanted child, and more control over her fate and future than she could have imagined.
“It’s about time we paid a social call on some high houses in the neighborhood.”
She arched her brows.“House Harahel is hardly in the neighborhood, and they are definitely not in the social whirl.No one pays them courtesy visits.”
He smiled innocently.“Too bad I’m such a Phel outcast that I don’t know these things.”
Laughing, she shifted Bria and extracted a hand to lay on his chest, right over his heart.“I appreciate this.I really do.This—you, Bria, and me—matter so much, but Alise is important to me, too.I’m more than a wife and mother.”
“More than my familiar?”he teased with an arch look.
She flushed at the reminder of some of their early arguments.“More than that, too.”
“You’re also your own person, Nic,” he said firmly.“I’m well aware that you need to be part of what Alise, Cillian, and the others have been working on.”
“Yes.I can’t know that I could be doing something and am… not.”
“It matters to me, too.Not just for House Phel’s future, but for the Convocation.You once said I was the sort to knock myself brainless against the wall of their detestable social norms.I’m on board for a way to tear down that wall while keeping my skull intact.”
