When we had disentangled ourselves, Maura made disgruntled noises, even though she also looked as happy as she would allow herself to be seen.
Slightly discombobulated and still grinning, I found myself facing Fear. His gaze was fixed on me, and Dairen’s voice faded even as he was asking, “Is this what I think?—?”
Fear studied me. “You look beautiful, wife. As always.”
“I look safe.” I brushed imaginary specks of dust from the glittering armor. “I feel safe.”
“I imagine that is not because of the armor, but because of the company.” His gaze went from me to Maura. He smiled at her. “I’m grateful to see my wife so well protected.”
He sounded so sincere, so warm and charming. Maura’s face shifted, and for a split second, there was a flash of vulnerability. She did not trust what he said, and yet she wanted it to be true.
“I am grateful to her,” Maura said, and it sounded stilted, but that also seemed right for her.
“Well, I am glad you’re here.”
Fear settled his hand on her shoulder, clasping it briefly, giving her his full warm attention. Anyone would have thought he had always been in on our plot. Anyone would have thought he had given his approval.
“Finally,” Dairen said cheerfully.
It was only later that Fear wrapped his arm around my waist, hugging me into his side. I went to him a little more eagerly than I would have liked to, sliding my hand across the lean small of his back and hooking it above his hip. He pressed a kiss to my temple, then murmured, “Well played, wife.”
The way he called mewifealways seemed barbed.
He used to call meNever.I shouldn’t have missed it.
“I learned from the best,” I reminded him, rising to my tiptoes so I could press a kiss to his jaw.
“Are you sure that you know what you’re doing?” he asked me quietly.
“You don’t trust her?”
“I thought you didn’t trust her. That was enough for me.”
“I want to leave the past in the past.” I studied him, wondering if he was glad to have Maura back in Bismyth. “Did you only keep her out for my sake? Did you want her to come home?”
“I want no one in my life who I cannot trust with my wife,” he said.
I glanced around, but there was no one to hear our conversation. Who was he performing for? “You are maddening.”
Lightbringer helpfully interjected.“You are a pair.”
“Still,” he said. “She saved my life. Not far from here, on the east wall. Starfire was injured saving me. If you trust her, that’s enough for me.”
“So you’re not annoyed with me?”
“Cara, I am sometimes furious with you, sometimes gutted. But never anything as petty as annoyed.”
I had no idea what to say to that. It reminded me of the words he had said when he admitted how badly he had been hurt that I had betrayed him.
Starfire’s armor and Maura’s promise hadn’t been enough for me to entirely forgive, but it had certainly been enough to begin. Feared owed me apologies—and much more—for what he had done to me. And I owed him as well. Whether we were to be mates or not, we certainly would be allies.The best of allies.
When I apologized to Fear, I wanted him to hear me.
Maura had shown me there was already a language. I just had to learn it.
Forty-Nine
Fear
