“It was. Sort of.” I grinned. “Vex, you won me with your words, and that is a deeper attraction than the physical. More solid. An unshakable foundation. My heart is confused right now. I feel like a traitor every time my feelings for you grow. And that's slowed our progress. But that foundation has neverfaltered.” I shook my head. “The whole situation has made me anxious, and I'm sorry about that. I'm sorry if I've made you feel any less important than you are. You don't deserve that. You deserve someone who will make you feel like the Emperor himself. I want to be that person for you. I'm trying. I'm just—”
Vex cut me off by yanking me forward and with the initial motion, I thought he was going to kiss me. But he didn't. Instead, he hugged me, folding his body over and around mine. My ear pressed against his chest and his heartbeat filled it, steady and strong. I knew that heart was mine, and it was hard not to demand that he just fucking hand it over already. Ara's freedom might depend on my bonding with Vexen. But Vex was important too. I had to remember that, unlike my lovers, he didn't have access to my emotions. He couldn't reassure himself by focusing on the piece of my soul inside him. I had to use my words and actions to reassure him.
“Your words won me too,” Vex said as if he could hear my thoughts. Then he kissed my forehead. “And I know you're trying. You don't have to do that with me, Ember. Just relax and be with me. Let our relationship grow naturally.”
“All right.” I leaned back to look at him better. “So, everything is good between us?”
“Yes. We're good.”
I stepped out of his arms “And you weren't flirting with Hess?”
Vexen laughed. “Hess is a friend. He was listening to me whine about you and offering advice. His advice when you ran off was to follow you.”
With twitching lips, I said, “I knew I liked Hess.”
“He's a good guy,” Vex said as he looked around the secluded glade. He wandered over to the little stream that trickled past an ancient oak. “And I'm glad I followed you. This is a much nicer place to have our conversation than the citadel.”
“Yeah, I suppose.” I joined him at the stream and waved at the oak. “That's the first tree I climbed. This is the only place my parents would let me play without them.”
“What?” He frowned. “Why?”
“Because of my magic. They didn't trust me to not reveal it when I was a kid. Of course, when I got older, I could go where I pleased. By then I knew better. I didn't want to share my magic anymore. I understood the consequences.”
“I'm sorry. That sounds difficult. I can't imagine growing up hiding a huge part of who I was. It would be like me never shifting in front of others.”
“The hardest part was not getting close to anyone. I didn't have friends because my parents would never leave me alone with other children long enough to establish any bonds. When I got older, that caution they had instilled in me prevented me from forming adult friendships. And forget intimate relationships. I couldn't date. I would meet men secretly for sex when my body's needs got too strong to ignore. That was it.”
Vexen's eyes widened. “I didn't realize you were so cut off from life.”
“Well, I've made up for it.” I grinned at him. “But back to us. I just wanted to tell—”
A scream cut me off.
Vex and I spun together toward the sound. Another followed. And a whole lot of shouting. Then came the roar of a Tytra male. A Tytra mated male who was also a wraith lord.
“Get inside!” Nex shouted.
“Oh, fuck!” I took off toward the village, Vex right beside me.
We got there in less than a minute, but it was long enough for chaos to descend. The street was full of dead people who didn't know that they were dead. They chased the living, rounding them up. The attack must have come too quickly for anyone to summon the Wraith Lords. I saw a few people running for the nearby tower. It would take them several minutes to reach it and summon the lords. But that didn't matter. There was a lord in residence now.
And he was furious.
Nex stood before the orphanage, villagers streaming past him, running for the doors. He looked as if he had grown wider, as if his will to protect his mate and the young under her charge had expanded him so that he barricaded the path entirely. But he forgot something important—he had mated a Bear.
Evina came roaring out of the orphanage in her bear form, head tossing so that spittle flew from her strong teeth. She passed Nex to launch herself at the nearest dead man.
“Evina, get back inside!” Nex shouted.
A head went flying and smacked Nex in the chest. He looked down at where it fell—the eyes still moving—then up at his rampaging mate. His lips twisted, then he chuckled.
“Fine, love. Go ahead. Just leave some for me.” And then Nex saw us. “You came faster than I expected.”
“We were already here,” I said as I blasted back the dead with Air, palms out before me. “So we don't have any spell spheres on us.”
“What you're doing is good enough.” Then Nex called to his mate, “Evina, pull back! Let Ember herd them until the lords can get here with the spell spheres.”
Evina came thundering back to us, her massive paws hitting the packed earth and leaving divots behind. As soon as she was out of range, I was able to open a pit in the ground and drop the dead into it. It was an old trick. One the Corrupter was prepared for.
