My heart squeezed again.
“Are you pleased with yourself, Kimber?” He whirled and stared at me.
“No. What makes you think I’m happy with this?”
He crossed the room in just three strides. “You got our mates killed.Killed. Men I have spent my life with, men I loved. They are part of me, and you got them killed because you’re an impetuous child!”
A loud gasp escaped me with the tears I couldn’t stop. “I didn’t get them killed!”
“Did you run into the line of fire? Or did you stroll casually into the mess? Did you make them follow? Or were they struck by you that they just went along with your insanity?”
“I didn’t make them do anything! Dorian, please—”
“I hate you so much right now, Kimber. They were my mates for centuries longer than you have drawn breath, and I shared them with you because I could see that they loved you as much as I did. They wanted to protect you!”
“Dorian—”
His hand slashed the air, cutting off my words. “No. The blame for their deaths lies squarely on you.”
“No.” Aiko voice snapped through the air. “It does not. No one could have guessed what was going to happen.”
Stabbing a sharp finger at Aiko, Dorian turned his anger on him. “You. Why didn’t you just die at Kapustin Yar? You had so many chances to just die and not be my problem.”
“I’m a warrior, Dorian! I’m a trained soldier! Of course, I was able to keep myself alive. And would you really want that? I know you don’t like me. I don’t even know why. But I also don’t care because I’m not here because of you. I am here because of Kimber. I didn’t mean to love her, but there it is. And there it’s staying. If your love for her is half as strong as mine—or indeed Rilen and Roran—you know what you would do to get back to her, in her arms, and into her bed!”
“I should shoot you myself.”
“Dorian!”
Aiko stepped between us. “How dare you blame her for this, for any of this, when all you have done is to keep her in the dark! When something happens, you blame her. How can she be left clueless and the cause of all the problems? What is your purpose in leaving the Breaker in the dark? I am not in a position to draw the answers out of you. I’m an interloper, but Kimber is your mate, and you owe her the respect due to that position!”
“Aiko, please.” I tried to pull him away from Dorian.
Dorian advanced on him in the small space left between them. “She gotmy twins…killed.”
“I didn’t! It was their idea!”
His gaze snapped to mine. “What?”
I walked to the bed, slumping down to sit. “They volunteered to go out and fix the shield.”
He just stared.
“When the bombing started, Lord Cato pulled us out of the room, which was already collapsing. He wanted us to go down to safety, but Rilen and Roran said they could get the shield either fixed or rebuilt. Iwasgoing to volunteer to do it, but they said that their mirrored magic would be faster and stronger…and that mine was still unstable, which was true.
“I went with them. I had a sniper rifle to keep them safe. That was my duty. Keep them safe.”
Tears escaped when I didn’t want them to.
“I failed. But no one could have seen the grenade that Lebedev lobbed at the mountain, breaking it and…”
I choked.
“They…” Dorian stared at me.
Desperately, I tried to contain my tears and regain my composure. “They volunteered. They were mad that the lords had not thought to reinforce the shield after the death of the druid who erected it.”
“Bel…”
