Ryder gripped his hand. “If I had gotten to you, would you have woken up?”
Daemon was silent, but then he said, “Yes.”
Ryder rested his head against Daemon’s. Tears were streaming down his face. His skin felt hot and tight. He let out a burbling laugh.
“You would have woken. You would have come back. You would have,” Ryder found himself saying over and over again. “I’m glad I didn’t make it.”
“Why?”
“Because you would have been in even more pain than you were when you went to sleep,” Ryder said. “There would have been no Julian there to comfort you.”
Daemon’s hands tightened on his shoulders. “You needed me.”
“We will always need you.”
“I let you down.”
“It was us who let you down,” Ryder corrected. “Seeyr knew that we were not worthy of you. We needed to make our mistakes. We needed to face the consequences. And then… we were brought back.”
“To suffer more?” Daemon let out a harsh breath. “When I think of what happened to you with Lawson and Balthazar with Roan and Caemorn with Artemis and Fiona… You all continued to suffer. I can hardly bear it.”
“We needed to go through it,” Ryder said, honestly believing it. “It was wrong for me to want to wake you and have you fix everything for us yet again.”
“I am your king.”
“And we are your subjects. We have a duty to you just as you do to us,” Ryder said.
“But I have been rewarded for my dereliction. Julian woke me. My beloved fledgling. Everything I hoped for and more,” Daemon murmured, his love evident in every word.
“You have Julian to sweeten what is a very sour situation,” Ryder said. “Your Immortals scattered. Countless Vampires ruined. The humans are untrusting, but more sophisticated than when you last knew them. The challenges are extreme.”
“They are, but that makes it interesting,” Daemon chuckled.
Slowly Ryder turned to face Daemon. The Vampire King stood tall and broad behind him. He wore his favorite wolfskin coat that fell all the way to his feet, which were bare. His chest was bare too. Other than the coat, he had on a pair of black, leather pants. His toes scrunched against the cool stone floor.
“Did you shift with Julian?” Ryder asked.
A nod. Those red eyes–like banked coals–glowed hotly with pleasure. “He is doing so well. He flew with the raven he restored to life. It hardly leaves his side, but to perch in a nearby tree or at the end of our bed. Waiting for him.”
“Does he have a bird form? Fantastic!” Ryder enthused and meant it.
He was utterly fond of Julian and looked forward to the Vampire Prince joining in on some of the pack activities. And not just Julian, but Daemon too. They needed to run as one again. It had been too long, even before Daemon went to sleep.
Another nod. “I believe he will have a form for every type of terrain and element. Ever Dark and earthly as well. Since you helped him, he has been improving with his Weryn gift every day.”
“Not a surprise considering who his Master is.” Ryder smiled broadly. “He’s perfect for you.”
“And I for him.”
“Yes, sometimes we get the Children we deserve,” Ryder sighed as he thought of Legion, but then he thought of Siban. They were a treasure. But had they been made in spite of his intentions?
“I could take the gift of Vampirism away from Legion,” Daemon offered.
Ryder’s head snapped up and his mouth formed an “O”. He had forgotten that particular ability Daemon had. Daemon’s particular gift that none of them had. It had been already used once when Daemon had retaken the Spire.
“Being a Vampire means everything to Legion,” Ryder admitted. “It allows them to be on the outside what they are on the inside.”
A nod. “You gave them that gift, Weryn. You think that you failed them. But the truth is that you gave them something utterly precious that they had no right to.”
