“Can we use the scry stone to find the Thegn?”
“We won’t need to, not once he begins using the amulet.” Warden glowers back at the fortress. “We’ll know exactly where he is.”
“The Thegn can use the amulet?” I fire at him. “I thought it was supposed to kill it or something, not be a weapon against us.”
“That’s how most things in the Yeavering work,” Linton says, pulling out each needle-sharp dagger on the bandolier across his chest and inspecting them one by one. “It kills you or it kills you.”
I look up at Warden. A muscle jumps in his jaw and his skin is tight.
“What are you not telling me?” I ask.
“He’s not telling you about the…”
Warden’s hand clamps around Linton’s throat.
“How about you go look for any signs as to where the Thegn has gone,” he snarls.
Linton blinks at him. Warden’s arm trembles ever so slightly.
“Okay.” Linton backs away as if Warden didn’t have hold of him at all. “I’ll see what I can find. But I’m not licking any rocks.”
“First time for everything,” Warden grumbles as Linton unfurls his wings and launches himself into the sky with a single powerful downstroke.
“What is it?” I ask again. “What is it you’re not telling me?”
Warden studies my face.
“All of this is my fault,” he says. “I started everything.”
“You said the Thegn wanted me because I was mated to you. That isn’t starting anything. You are entitled to lose your heart as I am to lose mine,” I respond, cupping his cheek gently. “Love isn’t forbidden for anyone, and I don’t care we’re in the Yeavering because that’s how it works anywhere. The Thegn issimply an unpleasant creature who wants power, and we do have those everywhere.”
“I started all of this when I made my pact with the Thegn.” Warden draws in a deep, shuddering breath. “Because I wanted to mete out to the Faerie what they had done to my fellow monsters, those in the Yeavering, and to avenge the death of one of our own.”
“A monster died?”
“Burde Ellen. She was a great warrior. A Silkie, with all the power of the night,” Warden says. “She asked for my help, but I was too busy pursuing another Faerie Lord and she was killed. I vowed revenge.” He closes his eyes. “I got it, but it cost me my mortality and my future.”
“Why do you think you did wrong?” I brush my thumb over his soft beard.
“I should have helped her in the first place, not been so damned self-centred,” Warden growls through his teeth.
“And what’s to say she wouldn’t have died anyway, or she wouldn’t have wanted it any other way, Warden?” I put my other hand into his hair, around the base of his horn, and he closes his eyes at my touch. “You were fighting, you were battling, and you didn’t have the luxury of thinking about every single decision.”
“You talk as if you were there,” Warden murmurs.
“I was, or at least the sword was.” The thing tingles at my side. “I think I understand my nightmares more now. I see them clearer. I see the blood which was spilt and the pain which was caused. I see more than I should.” I grit my teeth at the flood of memories. “Even if I don’t see myself.”
“Sweet mate.” Warden puts his hand around the back of my neck. “No one should have to see those things.”
“But you did, and I can share your burden, if you’ll let me. But I can’t share it if you continue to blame yourself for something you didn’t start and you couldn’t control.”
His dark eyes study mine for what seems like a long time.
“I don’t deserve you, my lady. I don’t know why the Yeavering chose to give you to me.”
“Maybe the Yeavering had nothing to do with it,” I suggest. “Maybe this time it’s fate. After all, apparently the Yeavering gave my sister Linton as a mate.”
Warden lifts his head and stares over me. “That is very true. And he’s currently over there on some rocks.”
