Dane shrugged. “She helped me when I arrived. When she discovered how good I am with the boomer, she got me the whomper. We’ve been working together ever since.”
Shea’s face was thoughtful. “You seem happy.”
Dane frowned and then nodded. “I am. I still miss home, but I doubt I would have been welcomed back. Not with what they tried to do.”
“Ah, you heard about that,” Shea said. She hadn’t been sure. He’d left before that had been revealed.
His face was grim. “Yeah. One of the village men I got out was in cahoots with Paul and the old guard. He explained what happened. Evidently, he thought he wouldn’t get swept up in the capture. Stupid idiot.”
“What happened to the rest of the men you escaped with?” Trenton asked.
“They brought us here to be questioned more in-depth. The others found places in the Outside. I’m the only one who elected to remain at the Keep. Haven’t seen them in a while.”
“The Outside?” Braden asked, his eyes sharpening.
Shea answered for Dane. “There’s a city just to the North of us on the other side of the mist. It’s where those who cannot pass the test but still want to be close to the pathfinders live.”
Both Trenton and Braden looked at her with something akin to dismay. To the Trateri whose entire culture revolved around family and clan, exiling someone to a different city would seem horrifying.
“Barbaric, isn’t it?” Dane asked, understanding on his face.
Agreement registered in both Braden and Trenton’s expressions.
“These people certainly have their oddities,” Dane said with a sigh.
Shea couldn’t argue with that, even if she did understand the reasoning behind such an act. She might not agree with it, but she understood it. She didn’t bother explaining that to the men she was with. There were some secrets that just weren’t meant to be shared.
“Dane, get a move on,” Peyton yelled.
“I’m coming, woman!” Dane shouted back. To Shea, he said, “I’ll catch up with you later, once we’re through.”
She nodded as he loped off, leaving them to prepare themselves for the upcoming journey.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Fallon watched as Shea and the rest disappeared through the Keep’s gate. The smile faded from his face, leaving the inner monster he normally kept trapped inside to peak through.
“You sure you don’t want me to send men with her?” Caden asked from behind him.
Fallon was silent for a long minute, temptation biting at him. After wrestling between what he knew was right, and what his instinct said was necessary, he murmured, “No. It’s a simple trip. She can handle this.”
He just needed to keep reminding himself of that.
It wasn’t the first time she’d gone on a mission and certainly not as dangerous as when she had gotten their scouts out, but Fallon still had to fight with himself every time.
A huge piece of him hated letting her do this. It whispered and tantalized, telling him he needed to keep her safe, that letting her go was dangerous. It tortured him with visions of all that could go wrong, of how he could lose her in a split second.
He was almost used to the feeling by now. It had only grown as his feelings for his telroi had grown.
He’d gladly massacre the world for her, conquer it and turn her into an empress, draw down the moon and stars if that was what she wanted. Too bad her greatest desire wasn’t power or wealth. Those things, he could give her in abundance. No, what Shea wanted most in the world was to feel needed and useful.
This filled a need in her, and for that he’d strangle his protective tendencies, swallow them back, so she could flourish as she was meant to be, not smothered by his shadow. He wouldn’t let anything harm her, not even himself. Their relationship would die a slow death of a million tiny cuts if he continued acting the way he had been.
Oddly enough, it was her parents who had brought him to such a realization. They managed to make their relationship work by playing off each other’s strengths. Neither partner was stronger than the other. They were a unit, acting in each other’s best interests at all times.
It was the type of relationship his parents had. The type he’d like to see him and Shea achieve.
Still, it was difficult.
