“I’m sorry, Xuri.”
He pulled back with a frown. “For what?”
“For being the one who didn’t see you.”
He frowned at her. “I don’t understand.”
Valynda kissed his lips as she felt her heart breaking at a truth she should have realized sooner. “I asked for more than you could give me.”
Nibo froze as he heard the pain in her voice. That was the last thing he wanted while he made love to her. “Nay, Vala. You never asked that. I’ve given you everything I have.”
She placed her hand over the opening in his shirt that he hadn’t bothered to remove. “Nay, love, you didn’t.”
Biting his lip, he swept his shirt off over his head to show her a small red vèvè of roses and skulls he’d tattooed over his heart. Similar in design to his own personal vèvè, this one was different. Taking her hand, he ran her fingertips over the design. “I merged us, Vala. Don’t you understand?”
Tears welled in her eyes as she saw what he’d done and realized its significance. “But you didn’t defend me to the others.”
“Because they would have gone after you. And they did.” He swallowed hard. “They kept me locked out so that I couldn’t help you.”
In that moment, she saw him desperate at the gates while she’d been killed. Heard his screams as he tried to break through so that he could help her.
He was inconsolable in his grief and rage.
And then she saw what no one had told her about that night.
Thorn.
The two of them had met in Thorn’s hall on the Nether Realm of Azmodea. Nibo had been uncomfortable but determined. What he did was against all the rules. Had he been found there, he could have been destroyed.
For her, he’d risked the wrath of multiple gods. He’d risked his own existence.
“You know there’s nothing I can do.”
“I don’t give a fuck, Leucious. And I know better.”
Thorn had grimaced at his real name that he despised, as it gave Nibo as much control over him as it did whenever someone used Xuri for Nibo. “Well, Xuri, I have nothing with which to bargain, and how can I bring back someone who has no physical remains? Of all creatures, you know what you’re asking is impossible.”
Nibo’s eyes had flickered red in the darkness of Thorn’s office, where a bright fire burned in a black fireplace. “Maman can fix that.”
“Brig?” Thorn had burst into laughter as he sat in his throne-like chair, watching Nibo pace before his hearth. “You’d have me negotiate withher?”
He paused to arch a brow. “That a problem for you?”
“Little bit, aye.”
“How so?”
His eyes haunted, Thorn had clutched at a peculiar pendant he wore about his neck. One of a three-headed dragon. “We have a past I’d rather not discuss. Suffice it to say, we’re not friendly … unless you plan to offer her my testicles. And for the record, those I’m not willing to give up.”
Nibo’s eyes widened. “You’re the husband she speaks of?”
Laughing bitterly, he shook his head. “Nay. I’m the one sheneverspeaks of.”
“Yet you will do me this favor.” Not a question. Nibo had demanded it.
Valynda saw that now. He hadn’t betrayed her or forgotten her, after all. For her, he’d defied them all.
She felt terrible for ever doubting him. For allowing others to put such treachery in her heart. But it was easy to let others plant those seeds of doubt. Especially given her past, when she’d been told repeatedly that she was unworthy of love or affection from anyone. When not even her own parents had cared what happened to her. How could she believe someone as wonderful as Nibo could want or love her when they didn’t?
