They both knew he wouldn't be joining her in that penthouse. He would be here, in this windowless room, until his captors decided what to do with him.
The uncertainty of what they intended was perhaps the worst part of his captivity.
"Has anyone else come to see me while I was sedated?"
Areana shook her head. "Just the medical staff. And me."
Either they were deliberately isolating him, which was a classic interrogation technique designed to make prisoners sweat, or perhaps they simply didn't consider him important enough to warrant attention. Not that the latter was likely. The Brotherhood was still a threat to the clan, and he had no doubt that whoever was in charge of strategy would want to interrogate him. Perhaps they were waiting for him to heal so he could feel pain. After all, it was difficult to torture information out of a paralyzed male. He could think of a number of techniques, but maybe none of them had occurred to his softhearted enemy.
"Does Annani intend to visit me?" he asked.
"She's coming to see me later today, but she didn't say anything about visiting you. She wants to spend time with me."
Navuh's jaw tightened. "I asked Bridget to request an audience with Annani on my behalf. Days ago. Either she failed to deliver the message, or Annani is deliberately making me wait."
"Perhaps she's waiting for you to get better."
"Annani is making a point," he spat. "She's making me wait on purpose. When you see her today, tell her that I wish to speak with her. It will be worth her time. I promise."
She nodded. "I'll convey your message. What about your sons? Do you want them to come visit you?"
"I don't want to see them." The words came out flat. "I don't want to talk with them. They betrayed me, and I want nothing to do with traitors."
Areana's face crumpled, and he felt a stab of guilt that he quickly suppressed. She wanted him to reconcile with his sons, not understanding that once some lines had been crossed, there was no coming back.
"I know this isn't what you want to hear, but they made their choices knowing the consequences. They can't have their cake and eat it too, as the Americans like to say."
"They're your children, Navuh. Your flesh and blood."
"They stopped being my children the moment they turned against me."
"That's not how it works. You can't just?—"
"I can." He held her gaze. “Let it go, Areana. It's not going to happen."
She was silent for a long moment, and he could see her struggling with his words, wanting to argue but recognizing the futility of it.
"You can see them," he said, softening his voice. "You can spend as much time with them as you want. Get your fill of mothering. Fates know you need it more than they do."
"That's not fair."
"What's not fair?"
"It wasn't my choice to give them up." Her eyes glistened with unshed tears. "You're the one who took them away from me. You're the one who decided it was safer for them if no one knew who their mother was."
"I did what I had to do to protect them. I don't regret my choices. Do I wish it could have been different? Of course I do. But everything comes with a price, especially power. If I showed them any preference or if it became known that their mother was my fated mate, they would have been murdered as boys. They wouldn't have been given the chance to grow into men who could look out for themselves."
She met his gaze. "Are you sure that was the reason? You were so powerful, Navuh. How could it be that you were unable to protect your children?"
It hadn't escaped his notice that she referred to him as powerful in the past tense.
"When a boy I claimed as my own and showed attention to was murdered by a jealous concubine, I realized that to protect thoseI cared about I had to do one of two things. One was to severely restrict everyone else's access to them, and the other was not to show that I cared. That's why I kept you safe in the harem and didn't allow any immortals inside. I knew you could handle the humans and were in no danger from them. To protect my sons, I ignored them and treated them with the same indifference as those I claimed as mine but weren't."
He had made the only choices he believed could keep them safe, and he was living with the consequences.
Areana leaned forward and pressed her forehead to his. "I understand." She pulled back just enough to meet his eyes. "I love you, and I always will." She cupped his face in her hands, her touch soft and gentle. "You're not the monster they think you are. You're complicated and ruthless and sometimes cruel, but you're also the man who jumped off a cliff to save me. The man who's spent five thousand years trying to protect those you cared about the only way you knew how."
It hadn't been enough, though. Fate had gotten him anyway. He hadn't been able to save his empire, hadn't been able to keep his sons loyal, and he'd been bested not by his enemies but by a three-hundred-foot fall onto jagged rocks.
