“I may need help to hold him down.”
Dyna laughed, and he loved the sound.
“I hear you already sent Sowmya on a mission to Edym.”
A cunning smile graced her lips. “I did.”
Rising to his feet, Cassiel scooped up his mate and strode for the bathing chamber. “While we take a much-needed bath, you can tell me what grand scheme you have conjured and whatever other secrets you haven’t told me yet.” The light of her smile faded, and he felt the bond shake. “What is it?”
Dyna couldn’t look at him. Her voice became small and brittle. “I did something terrible, Cassiel.”
Trembling, she turned over her wrist, exposing a new geas in the shape of a sage leaf. And he sensed the first trial of their future was already here.
CHAPTER 94
Rawn
Rawn jolted up in bed. His chest heaved with ragged breaths, a layer of sweat coating his skin. It took him a moment to recognize his bedchambers in the estate. So starkly contrasting from the bowels of the dark Blood Keep that plagued his dreams. His pounding heart slowed when he saw Aerina sleeping beside him, nestled within the covers. The morning sun streaming through the windows fell over her bare back and the golden strands of her hair.
The remnants of his nightmare faded with each of her faint breaths. Rawn kissed her cheek. This was real, he reminded himself. She was real. He was home.
A month had passed in Sellav.
It was a month of healing for everyone, though it may not have been enough. Some wounds ran too deep.
On the right side of his chest was a new tattoo with the Greenwood sigil of a dynalya in full bloom. He rubbed the pink scars on the left side that still dully ached. Perhaps because they reminded him of Fair.
Above his mantle was a box of white wood. It held Fair’s ashes that Dyna kept for him. She had broken down in his arms as she begged for his forgiveness, but Rawn didn’t hold her to blame. The spear wasn’t thrown by her hands.
A twinge gathered in Rawn’s chest as he blinked back his tears. His dear friend was gone, and he would always miss him.
Distant neighing came from outside, and he stilled at the familiar sound. The morning breeze tousled the sheer curtains framing his open terrace.
Picking up his clothes off the floor, Rawn dressed and went outside. He leaned against the terrace’s column as he watched his son train a white stallion in the pen far below. The horse looked a lot like Fair.
Aerina wrapped her arms around his torso from behind. He brought her hand to his lips.
“Good morrow, wife.” Rawn pulled her around and met her beautiful smile.
She wore only a white sheet around her, and he was glad of the sight. Messy blonde curls fell around the face he had only seen in his dreams for the past two decades.
“I will never grow tired of hearing you wish me good morning.” She sighed happily, but her smile was also sad. “Did you have another nightmare?”
Rawn trailed his nose over her bare shoulder, relishing the feel of her soft skin. Memorizing it anew. “At times I am half convinced I am still in that dark pit, and this is only the weavings of my imagination.” He planted a light kiss over her jaw to her lips. He sighed and looked out at the fields again. “Yet I know this is not another perfect dream…”
Aerina laid her head on his shoulder. “Rawn, I was without you for twenty long years. I suffered your absence, but I did not begrudge you. I held faith you would return, for I know the man you are, and what lengths you would go for your family. Nonetheless, our son was denied his father, often reminded it was due to our past transgressions and duty to the crown. It is not aversion, my love. Raiden feels aggrieved.”
Rawn shut his eyes. “As he should.”
He should have been here to raise him and protect him from the world.
“When Raiden was a boy, I would often find him in your study, admiring your badges, your armor, and weapons. He would spend hours gazing at your portrait, wondering who you were. Yet as he grew, the other nobles slighted him for being the son of a soldier, one the court both acknowledged and reviled. Then your prominence became a shadow he could not escape. Now that you have returned, he is at a loss for how to perceive you.” Aerina took Rawn’s hand, placing his palm against her cheek. “Yet I have no doubt Raiden will come to see what a noble father he has before you go.”
Rawn’s hand shook slightly. He had tried not to think about having to leave again, but each day brought that reality nearer.
“My courage fails me,” he admitted. “I have at last come home after so long. I cannot bear the thought of leaving you now.”
Aerina’s blue eyes glistened with tears, and she wrapped her arms around him. “Nor I, but I know why you must.”
