Darion walked to where she sat and sank down beside her as she continued to heal. Her skin was becoming less translucent as he watched. “How long can you survive without needing light from the crystal?”
She gave him an ageless, yet weary, smile. “With only one to restore me, less and less, as the decades pass. It is irreversible now.”
A tightness formed in his chest as he considered what she was saying. “There’s no way to change that?”
“There are rumors, but I only know of one way. That is to have a crystal living inside me.”
He swore under his breath. “That’s why you want the Order’s crystal. You can’t deprive the realm of this one, and you won’t take the colony’s away from them, either. You’ve been sacrificing your own life to keep both the realm and the colony safe.”
He stared at her, astonished not only by the depth of her honor, but by the goodness of her heart. Her motivation to win back another crystal wasn’t steeped in vengeance or the wish to retaliate against her enemies. She needed it to keep herself and her people alive.
“You amaze me,” he said, unable to resist the need to touch her beautiful face. His fingertips tingled with powerful energy as he stroked her cheek. “I’ve been so wrong about you. Selene, you are the most extraordinary woman I’ve ever known. You are a compassionate, true leader who cares about all her people, even the ones who are no longer aligned with you.”
“No.” She winced slightly, glancing away from him. “What Taebris said was right. I am to blame for thousands of deaths. The first paradise I built for us in this world fell because of me. Because of my foolishness.” She lifted her gaze to him. “Because of my unbearable loneliness.”
Darion recalled the words he’d said to her not long after they’d met. He told her he believed she was lonely more than evil. He hadn’t meant it as a barb, but now he could see the wound had been festering inside her ever since.
“Selene, when I said that, I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
“You were right. Back then, before the wave that destroyed my paradise, there was a man. A human. He fell off a boat in the midst of a storm and he’d been drowning just off our shores. I couldn’t bear it. I sent a crew out to rescue him. They brought him through the veil, to our island. He was a shepherd from the mainland, and his name was Endymion. I was besotted with him, so much so, I let him stay in Atlantis for months after he recovered. I trusted him. Worse, I let myself believe we were in love.”
“I know his name,” Darion said. “Cass hid the crystal he took inside a sculpture for more than twenty years after he fled with Jordana. It was a piece depicting a shepherd boy who fell in love with the goddess, Selene. A shepherd named Endymion.”
Selene exhaled a soft, wry laugh. “Cassianus always did love his art . . . and his irony.”
“I’ve heard some of what Endymion did,” Darion said. “He stole two crystals and escaped with them. Then he gave them to the Ancients who used them to send a tsunami to destroy Atlantis.”
She nodded. “There’s a part of me that wishes I had perished along with the majority of my people. We had survived so much to flee our home and make our new one here, only to see it annihilated because of me.”
Darion cupped her cheek in his palm. “No, not because of you. Because someone else used your love against you for his own gain. It’s not your fault.”
“Tell that to the dead. Tell it to the survivors who still blame me for what happened, even if they won’t say it out loud as Taebris did.”
“Take nothing he says to heart,” Darion snarled. “The man is a coward. If you hadn’t schooled him with your light, I would’ve done it with my bare hands.”
She smiled. “You would defend my honor, Darion Thorne?”
“Any minute of any day, Your Grace.”
She held his solemn stare, her enchanting blue eyes searching his gaze. “You are a good man.”
“Took you long enough to admit that.” He leaned forward and kissed her, just the barest brush of his lips against hers. A thought had been nagging at him for a while, and before he fell any further he needed to know where he stood. “Tell me about Sebathiel. He’s not only your High Chancellor and adviser.”
Not a question, yet he still felt a small kick to his gut when she shook her head.
“No, Seb is not only that.”
“Are you in love with him?”
Her eyes went wide. “No. I never have been.”
“I think he’d like to change that if he could.”
“He’s my . . . friend.” She let out a quiet sigh. “He is also Jordana’s grandfather. Soraya was our daughter. Before you ask, no, Seb and I were not lovers. Not like that. After Endymion’s betrayal, I couldn’t trust anyone. I couldn’t risk misjudging someone’s heart again, and I refused to let any man seduce me with pretty lies or flattery. So, I remained alone. For a long time, I convinced myself I was happier that way. But being alone meant never knowing the joy of a child. That was one yearning I couldn’t bear.”
“So, Sebathiel generously volunteered to assist?” Darion didn’t want to imagine any other male’s hands on Selene, but especially not the tall, golden Atlantean she seemed to trust more than anyone to this day. “How noble of him to offer his services to his Queen.”
Selene tilted her head. “Is that a note of jealousy I hear?”
