Those words chased themselves around her head as she realized exactly the sinister game they’d played with him. The bastards had cruelly marked them both. “Sorry.”
With a pained expression, he brushed the hair back from her forehead. “You’ve got to stop looking for my betrayal at every turn. Trust me, I know it’s hard. I’m the one what got binged by me own brother the minute I turned my back on the feckless bastard. But we’re not all here to hurt you, and God knows I would never. Having tasted such unwarranted cruelty, I’m the last one who would do that to anyone, especially you.”
She leaned against him and nodded.
Nibo closed his eyes as he felt her shivering in his arms. He knew how bad it felt to have the betrayal she’d known. That piece of the heart that never fully healed because it wanted to keep its soul from ever being hurt so badly again. There was nothing worse than to let another person in and to know that they were so cold and unfeeling as to come after you when you’d done nothing to them to cause their betrayal. When you’d loved them and cherished them, and they’d repaid your love with selfish cruelty and calamity.
Especially when they were your family. He’d experienced it with Qeenan and she’d been betrayed by her parents. As bad as it was when friends turned against you, blood should be thicker than that. Family ties should mean more.
They should never be broken.
Once severed, it was so much harder to ever put faith in anything or anyone again. He knew that better than anyone. Because when those were the ones who’d come for your throat, you had no belief in anyone else ever again. How could you?
Trust was hard. Treachery seemed to be too easy for most. How could he make her understand that he was different?
“I will never hurt you, Vala.” He just wished that she could believe that. But words were so easy to speak.
And so few people actually followed through on such promises.
He knew that, too. Half his job as a psychopomp was escorting those who’d been killed by those who were supposed to love and protect them forever.
And in the back of his mind, he carried his own doubt. Especially given that she’d just admitted to him that she’d been harboring traitorous thoughts against him. It made it so much harder now to believe in her. Would she be like Qeenan and club him when he turned his back?
Damn. Now that she’d stirred his fears, he wasn’t sure if or when he’d ever be able to lay them aside again. Too much betrayal lay in his own past. Too much hurt.
Too much hate.
It was why he lived the way he did. Superficially. Let no one in. Keep everything at a distance. It was easy not to care when you didn’t.
Damn him and damn his heart that was far too entangled with her now for his liking.
Her eyes were dark and shiny as she looked up and met his gaze. “How well do you know Thorn?”
That hit him like a fist to his gut. Why was she asking that? Was he planning treachery, too? Or was it something even more sinister?
His stomach cramped at an even worse thought. “Beg pardon?”
“I need to know if I can trust him.”
Still not placated by that, he frowned at her. “Vala … word of advice, never talk to a man about another one when you’re naked in his arms. We don’t like that.”
She playfully tugged at his curls. “Stop! I’m not interested in him and you know it. I just want to know if he’ll do what he said.”
Grinning, he kissed her, relieved that it really was what she wanted to know. “Aye, he’s as good to his word as any.” He scowled at her. “What’s this about that has you so upset?”
The teasing died instantly beneath a wave of fret. She dropped her hand to his chest, where she toyed with his necklaces. In particular, she picked up the cross she’d given him so long ago and stroked it between her thumb and forefinger. “Do you think he can release Circe’s son?”
“I don’t know. Agrios’s hubris was extreme. But if you want, we can lend a hand.”
Her eyes lit up. “What?”
“I make no promises. It’s not my realm and I hold no real negotiating power, but we can try. Being what I am, I can get to him and at least see if there’s something we can do.”
“You would do that?”
“Vala … for you, I would do anything.”
“Then why didn’t you offer earlier?”
