“But you had to have gone somewhere,” Razik pushed. “We might be able to?—”
“That’s enough for now,” Cethin cut in, and she glanced over at him, finding his attention still fixed on her. “She has relived enough for now,” he repeated. “I’ll stay the rest of the night.”
“Cethin, if I’m right and someone is hunting her, she needs to be watched at all times,” Razik warned.
“Are you telling me you’re not able to do your job well enough?”
Razik bristled, getting to his feet. “No, you dick. I’m telling you to stop leaving your wife unattended when I’m off duty so she doesn’t feel the need to drink her weight in ale.”
He was gone before Cethin could answer, the heavy doors to their rooms slamming shut behind him.
Kailia could feel Cethin’s gaze boring into her, and she fixated on the piece of bread in her hand.
“Is what he said true? That’s why you went to the tavern today?” Cethin asked, each word measured and stilted.
“We went to the tavern because he needed to collect something,” she replied.
“And the ale?” When she didn’t answer, he pushed, “You can speak plainly, Kailia.”
“I understand your responsibilities,” she said, setting the bread aside before she made a bigger mess with the crumbs.“But I don’t entirely understand what has happened. For a while, you were here when I woke in the mornings, but these last few days it has gone back to how it was. I woke up this morning to find you gone and was…confused by it all. Trying to figure out what I’m doing right and wrong.”
“You’re doing nothing wrong, wife,” he answered. “With more Fae deaths last week, the pressures have increased.”
“And instead of letting me help, you leave me behind. I know my position is in title only, but I could help,” she insisted. “If you’d let me.”
“You understand the mixed messages you’re sending when I couldn’t convince you to help in the beginning without coercing you into a marriage, yet now you are upset because I’m not asking for your help?” Cethin asked, and her gaze snapped to him.
He’d propped his elbow on the back of the sofa, temple against his fist as he watched her.
“I can see how that could be perplexing,” she replied.
“But I can include you more if that is truly what you want,” he added.
“I think I would like that.”
“It’d likely help everyone accept you more as well. To see you interacting. Although saving everyone at the Union Ceremony certainly helped in that respect.”
“Right,” she murmured. Because safety and security was what she could offer them. That’s where her value lies.
“Kailia?”
“Hmm?”
“Were you forced to— In those Cliffs. Is that where your experience with sex came from?”
She lifted her gaze to his once more, finding a mixture of anger and dread on his features.
“I was tortured with fire and fists,” she said, knowing what he was asking. “The one and only time I was sent to the rooms where there was forced sex was the night the Reaper freed me. I was never touched in that way, but only because my magic was useful to the Baroness in other ways. Until it wasn’t.”
He leaned in, catching the end of her braid and tugging lightly to pull her closer too. “I’ll help you hunt them down, Kailia. Every last one. They’ll pay for their part in this.”
“I know,” she said softly. “I’m going to ensure it costs them everything.”
Chapter 36
Cethin
“Come in,” Cethin called from his desk, glancing up from the endless reports and paperwork.
