“Besides the obvious?” Dianna all but seethed.
I knew Dianna’s jealousy was a living flame. Even knowing how committed I was to her, she struggled with anything that threatened her claim on me. I had not given her any reason to doubt, to spark this rage in her. Stepping into her space, I snaked my hand over her hip and slipped it lower. I cupped the center of her ass, the tips of my fingers teasing at the heat between her legs. I pulled her closer, pressing her chest flush with mine. Her heart was galloping, but I knew it was more than lust or arousal. I knew my Dianna, and I could almost taste her rage.
“Sami,” she breathed, setting my whole body alight.
“Do you need to claim me?” I whispered against her lips. “Will that douse your ire?”
Her nostrils flared, a hint of smoke curling around us as she exhaled and bared her teeth at me. “Yes, but that’s not what’s wrong with me. Not completely.”
I held her gaze, watching the wounded, damaged part of her raise its ugly head. I knew it fed off her fear that she wasn’t good enough and could be replaced. She lowered her eyes, but my mouth found hers before she could withdraw from me. All thoughts of diplomacy or being in enemy territory fled before my need to care for her. Without our rings, she could not know my feelings, emotions, or mind, and she needed to know that it was always going to be her, kingdoms and politics be damned.
“I love you.” I pulled back, my lips only a breath from hers. “Only you. Until there is nothing left of me, and even then, my soul will still know yours.”
Her body relaxed against mine, and I tasted her relief as if this was what she’d needed from me. It was such a simple and easy thing, and I was privileged to be the one to provide it to her. “I know,” she said, pushing away from me, but she kept her hand splayed on my chest.
“Talk to me?” I asked, entwining her fingers with mine.
She shook her head. “It’s not important. We have—”
“Dianna.” Steel laced my voice as I pulled her back to me.
She bit at the corner of her lip as if searching for the right words was hard. “It’s just Kaden gets under my skin. He always has. Spend a thousand years with someone, and they know all your tics, everything that makes you squirm.”
My eyes narrowed ever so slightly.
“Not like that,” she quickly reassured.
“But it is like that. As much as it pains me to admit out loud, he had you first, and as you said, you spent a thousand years together.”
She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. Our one year has been better than a thousand years spent with him.”
“And we’ll have an eternity,” I said smugly, my temper slowly deflating.
“Exactly.” She smiled at me. “I think I’m stressed with everything that’s happened, that’s happening, and then I was worried about you. I had a fight with Kaden before I made it here.”
“Did he hurt you?” This time, I couldn’t keep my voice from rising. My eyes scanned her, searching for any mark on her skin.
“Not physically.” Her lips formed into a thin line as if holding back a flood of emotions.
“What did he say to you?”
Her eyes met mine, and my gut clenched when I saw the soft shine of tears. Right then and there, I swore to all the old gods that when we removed the death mark from them, I would skin him alive.
“I haven’t forgotten her, you know? Gabby. Her death is a wound that will never heal. Some days it doesn’t hurt, others it is agony, and he knows just where to strike to make me bleed.”
Rage seethed like a living beast beneath my skin. I was going to kill him. Slowly.
“He spoke about Gabby?”
She nodded. “Yes, and about you. How reckless I am when it comes to the both of you. And truth be told, he’s not wrong about my love for the two of you. When you are threatened, I am not in control, just as I wasn’t with her. I can’t help how I love. I know I do the absolute worst, and it makes me a fool. But—”
“My beautiful, beautiful, akrai.” My fingers brushed beneath her chin, tilting her face to mine. “There is nothing wrong with you or how you love. It is a gift I treasure more than a kingdom or a crown. So if you’re a fool, then I am as well. There’s no limit to what I’d do to protect you or your heart.”
“Fools, it is then.” A small sound escaped her as a broken smile broke across her face. Dianna nodded, and a tear slid from her eye, followed by another. My hands cupped her face, wiping them away.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t there.”
The dam she had held, that impenetrable wall in her mind, came crumbling down. She bit at her lip, holding back a sob. Dianna practically fell forward, wrapping her arms around me. I could feel the emotions threatening to pull her under. Kaden had brought every one of them back with the words he’d hurled at her like weapons. How could he claim to care about her, yet still do this to her? He had no idea what she had gone through on the remains of Rashearim, but I would never forget the horror of the pain she had endured in order to even stand here right now and think of anything but her grief. We had worked together to pull her out of that dark pit she’d been living in, but it hadn’t disappeared. It had shrunk, but it waited to consume her again.
