His eyes were wide, and he quickly sent a message to his quarters.Even the massage table was folded and being carried out of the room.
Roar left the rooms, and Ival was smiling.Riimal finished his call to his housekeeper.“Did you know that is what the tattoos do?”
“I did.I also know she can stab with them.”Ival watched one of the tendrils close the door.
He looked down at her.“Ready to come with me?”
“Loaded choice of words.”
“Isn’t it?”He bent and picked her up.
Her grandparents waved as she was carried out of their quarters, just like a caught mate.
She looked at him as they entered the hall, and a few of those they passed smiled, while others looked wary.She didn’t do the royal wave.It felt like a little too much.
Ival leaned against his shoulder.“You feel tense.”
“Still wondering what you are planning to do with my staff.”
She giggled.“So many plans.”
He held her tightly.“I look forward to discovering each and every one of them.”
They continued on their path, and he said, “Why don’t you hate me?”
“Oh.That.There isn’t room in me for hate.If there were, I would have killed myself years ago.I have killed more than I can count because someone thought it would be entertaining to pit a pain-maddened active against me.Both of us fighting for survival and caring less than nothing about the audience.I died; they died.Only I got to come back.”
She looked up at him.“Make sense?”
He nodded.“It does.You can only hate yourself for so long before it becomes permanent.”
“Yup, and once it turns inward, it burns.”She rested her cheek against him.“I stopped letting it in.I accepted defeat as penance.”
His step slowed.“You let yourself be killed.”
“Yeah, but sometimes, I took my opponent with me, not on purpose but trying to save myself.”
“So, you wanted to die.”
“No, I wanted to stop killing.Zukker was a hero, and he taught me about trying to protect those around me.I really tried to hold to that.”
Riimal didn’t say anything; he just held her as he carried her, with her fluffy slippers looking silly, into the royal wing of the stronghold.She kicked her feet gently and waved to the guards as Riimal registered her as an inhabitant of his quarters.
Their expressions were stunned, and then grins broke out.
Ival said, “The people around you seem really happy that you have a woman in your arms.”
He grinned.“You are correct.I have been introduced to more daughters than I would care to count.They look terrified, and I sent them back home and told my brother just to stop.”
“Aw, you waited for me.How sweet.”
He started laughing.“I would have waited longer, but I am very happy that I did not have to.”
She looked up at him.“I miss the special features of the cyborg eye, but looking at you with my normal eyes is nice.”
“What was the red eye?”
“Pain and poison.My system was overloaded.My eye discoloured because of it.”
