Hele hated how reasonable he sounded. Her fingers tightened in the folds of the blanket as she tried to reel in her worry. “You don’t understand! Vael is soproudto be in the Wing. I don’t want him to give it up for me. I thought I accepted it but I decided I won’t. It’s not right.”
“I don’t know if you understand how difficult it is to dissuade a dragon from doing something for their Chosen.” Taevas’s tone was dry and laden with centuries of experience. “I believe you and Vael are perfectly matched. You both have it in your heads that you know what’s best for the other and you love to make a ruckus about it.”
Hele sniffed. “Idoknow. He should not have to give anything up for me, especially when I do not know what I want to do yet.”
“My sweet girl, did it ever occur to you that perhaps Vaelneedsto take a step back from his duties?”
She shook her head. “No. Why would he want that? He loves being in the Wing.”
Taevas wrapped his arm around her shoulders and led her into the sitting area. Guiding her down the steps slowly, he deposited her on one of the huge, curving couches before he plopped down beside her, legs spread and arms stretched out over the back cushions.
Giving her a serious look, he explained, “Hele, your mate is a good man. One of the best I know. If notthebest. Certainly better than me.”
“But—”
“Hush now. Let me explain.” It was impossible to say no to her Isand when he usedthattone. It was deep and dark and full of a kind of dominance that made her want to shrink into something smaller. It wasn’t mean or angry, but it was… heavy.
Hele snapped her mouth shut and pulled the blanket tighter around her shoulders.
Taevas patted the back of her head. “Good girl. Now, Vaeldoeslove the Wing. You aren’t wrong. However, I’ve known for a very long time that his sense of duty goes beyond what is probably healthy. He thinks that he owes me his life — all of it. Once he got his wings back, he spent the rest of what should have been his childhood training to join the soldiers. Then he spent fifteen years working his way up until I made him an official member of the Wing.”
His expression pinched. Hele was startled to see her normally genial, evenmischievous,cousin look so aggrieved. The faint lines around his eyes and mouth deepened. He looked… tired. “I allowed it because I thought he needed it. I still think I was right, but that was before you.” That hard, weary expression softened. “He wants to give you the time and space to find yourself. Could stepping back not give him the same opportunity?”
Hele looked down at her lap, fingers toying with the soft material of the blanket. Anxiety still prickled along her spine, but she could allow that her cousin had a point. Still, in a hushed voice she said, “I do not want him to regret giving up something so important for me, Taevas. Not when I do not even know what I want to do.”
“Ah, sweet girl, that is where your Isand comes in.” A claw skimmed her cheek, drawing her attention back to Taevas’s slight smile. It was always a little lopsided. Her mother called it roguish, but Hele wondered if there was another reason he rarely showed earnest happiness.
In his deep, rumbly voice, he continued, “Your matetriedto resign, but I wouldn’t let him. I’ve put him on sabbatical.”
“Sabbatical? I don’t know this.”
“It means an extended absence.” Taevas pushed a lock of hair over her cheek and behind her ear, his eyes crinkling. “Your mate will have his position whenever he wishes to return to it, Hele. I promise.”
A shudder of pure relief ran through her. Hele’s hair lost its snap. It fell limply all around them, looping over cushions and the back of the couch as she sagged, boneless, into her cousin’s side. “Why didn’t you say thisearlier?”she whined.
“I enjoy vexing you.” Taevas chuckled and nudged her shoulder. “Now, tell me this thing about the Collective. You do know that you could get into any ofourprestigious universities, yes?”
Hele shifted uncomfortably. Staring at the deactivated feed screen that took up the entire wall across from them, she answered, “I know. I think I should go to school. Learning makes me happy.”
“I sense abutthere.”
Her eyes swung to her Isand, who waited patiently for her to explain. Affection for him buzzed in her chest, warm and soft as the blanket he’d wrapped her in.
Taevas was not always the most agreeable man. He could be churlish, and loved to pick at those around him. According to her mother, he’d also left a legendary trail of broken hearts in his wake. He did not want a mate and he rarely took anything beyond the ‘Riik’s business seriously. He was dominant in an extreme way that raised the hair on the back of her neck and he tended to demand his own way in most things.
But he loved his family and his people. The fact that he took the time out of his incredibly busy schedule to sit with his distraught cousin and explain things to her was a testament to that.
After Vael’s story, she also had a much greater appreciation for why he was so widely beloved. After all, her mate was not the only person he pulled from rubble.
Perhapshecould make sense of her conflicting desires. “I am confused because I know what I want to do, but I do not know how to do it,” she confessed. “And I want to do more than that, too. I have many dreams.”
“Most people do, but then again, most people aren’t geniuses like you, so maybe you’ve got grander ambitions than average.”
“Notsogrand.”
“Uh-huh. Tell me.”
She peeked at him through her lashes. Choosing her words carefully, she said, “My mate told me that you united the clans at the end of the war.”
