With a final kiss pressed to her brow, Cush let himself settle.Elora’s weight was warm and familiar, her trust a gift he would never stop earning.As she slept, he whispered a silent vow to the restless night: whatever shadows came, he would be the shield.And if he had to win her forgiveness every night, then so be it.
He wrapped her in his arms, holding her close, and waited for dawn knowing, deep down, that peace would never last, but love would make every battle worth it.
* * *
The gardens worelate morning like a hush.The sunlight dappled through ash and elm, damp still clinging to the edges of leaves, the air smelling faintly of mint and wet stone.Cassie lowered herself onto the bench beneath the old ash, rolled her shoulders, and told the twist in her stomach to behave.Hunger, nerves, or the thing she hadn’t said out loud, she couldn’t tell.Maybe all three.
Elora dropped beside her, all quick limbs and caged energy.“I needed this,” she said, a declaration more than a confession.“Just us.No kings.No sentient books.No lectures about safety from mates who think we’re fragile dolls.”
Cassie snorted.“You’d break a doll just to prove the point.”
Elora tipped her face to the light, eyes closed, soaking in warmth.“I went back to the training hall.”
Cassie slid her a look.“Seriously?”
A guilty half-smile.“At dawn.Leeland was there.So were Beligand Rin.Sidhion showed up halfway through to critique my footwork like the benevolent tyrant he is.”
Cassie tried not to smile and failed.“And how did our benevolent tyrant fare?”
“I wiped that smug look off his face for exactly three seconds,” Elora said.“Then he reminded me I’m not ten feet tall and sword-proof.”She rubbed the heel of her hand along her forearm as if rubbing out some leftover pain.“Cush wouldn’t have approved, of course.Which is exactly why I did it.Seducing me into silence isn’t a strategy I’m rewarding.”
Cassie snorted.“So you got up and hit people with sticks to make a point.”
“Precisely.”Elora sighed.“He thinks I’m rash.”
“You are,” Cassie said mildly.
Elora’s mouth tipped.“And you’re disloyal.”
They let the ease of it settle between them, the kind of banter that stitched two people together even when life tried to pull the thread.The fountain’s soft hiss filled the pause.A pair of younger warriors jogged past on the outer path; birds flicked through the hedges like thoughts.
Elora angled toward her.“You look tired.”
“Do I?”Cassie tucked a curl behind her ear.She had slept, technically.It hadn’t helped the ache in her chest.
“I’m not Trik,” Elora said.“You don’t have to pretend with me.”
“I don’t pretend with him.”
“You edit,” Elora said, not unkind.“It seems like you’ve been doing that a lot lately.”
Cassie watched a bead of water slide down a leaf and disappear into dark soil.“He’s distant,” she said finally.“Even when he’s in the room.I know he’s worried about the damn book, but it’s driving me crazy.And I don’t even feel like he notices.”
Elora nodded slowly.“I totally don’t understand even though I’m nodding my head.Cush notices everything.”She flexed her fingers, frowned at the faint shimmer under her skin as if daring it to misbehave.
Cassie noticed the movement and looked at her friend.“What’s going on with you?Other than your need to prove to your mate that you won’t break even though we both know every warrior here could snap your bones in seconds.
“I’m ignoring the second statement,” Elora said dryly.“But I’ll acknowledge your question.”She sighed, sounding as exhausted as Cassie felt.“Sometimes it’s like there’s a storm in me and I can’t find the eye.”
“Like static,” Cassie murmured.
“Like I could light a candle by glaring,” Elora said, dry.Then, softer: “I hate that he thinks he has to control me to keep me safe.It makes me want to do the opposite just to prove a point.Which, yes, I hear it.That’s not maturity.”
Cassie bumped her shoulder.“You’re allowed to be frustrated.You just can’t let that steer you.”
Elora huffed.“Says the woman who is letting her fear of her mate’s rejection steer her.”
“Fair,” Cassie said, a ghost of a smile.It slipped.“I feel unsure about us.He used to notice everything.If I breathed wrong, he’d know.Lately it’s like ...I could be screaming and he’d just continue to stare at those pages, waiting for whatever it is he thinks is coming, to happen.”
