The increase in the size of the Liberation Army was seen as a sign to the other cities that freedom hovered close. The Imperial Army began to close ranks tighter around Trinan, stationing all spare units in that location to secure the castle and the Emperor. There were only eight cities left un-liberated in the Empire. Three cities of larger size than Dry Basin, Trinan, and the four checkpoints.
The checkpoints were as yet guarded by the other four Lower Generals. The Liberation Army outnumbered each general's army of eight units, but the individual checkpoints were also secured by other deterrents. Even as Matthias and Tyrian talked strategy for the checkpoints, they were talking strategy for the other three cities. Larksville and Pardue were still last on the list, to be handled after the checkpoints. It was Firmeza that they looked to next. It was fractionally bigger than Dry Basin, but not by much.
"In scope," Thomas said as he stood on a chair to point at the map he had just hung, "we're looking at Firmeza as having about thirty-five." He spoke the number with the understanding that he referred to thousands. "From what Kell and Grace have determined, we can sincerely look at Alphin, the eastern checkpoint, as the next target after Firmeza. It has forty in population. It's guarded by General Alexander Renduex and his eight units."
"Alex gets seasick," Gordon noted. "I never did understand why he ended up with a coastal checkpoint."
Ewan was sitting with his feet propped on the chair that held Thomas. The weight kept the boy balanced. "Someone has a poor sense of humor."
"Fair enough."
Thomas pointed to another city, very happy that he could be helpful in this way. "After that, there's Betane, the southern checkpoint. It has fifty, and it is guarded by General Diamond Cutter."
"That's a good thing, actually," Samantha told Matthias. "If we have Alex on our side before we go after Di, then he will definitely increase our chances of getting in without a fight. Let's put it this way: at their rate, they're going to turn into Kell and Grace."
Matthias hid a smile. The budding romance between the two informants had become a source of much entertainment for everyone over the last week. A new betting pool had even started. Tod was having a grand time flirting with Grace, and Kell was not a happy camper over it. "I see."
"After Betane, there's Gammine, the western checkpoint near the border to Foresalia. General Marcus Quint is guarding it, and it stands at sixty. The last checkpoint is the northwestern Deltine. It stands at seventy-five, and it is guarded by General Vincent Martine." He hopped down off the chair. "Larksville is after Deltine. It has one hundred ten. Pardue is close after with one hundred fifteen. Both are guarded by twenty units each, and these are elite units."
"The Special Forces," Gordon said. "They are the next rank higher than our own units. They're on par with the units that General Southerwind commands. To be honest, I'm surprised that they haven't been recalled to Trinan and replaced by the regular units."
"It might as yet happen," Tyrian said. He was drumming his fingers on the table again. "We can't even hope to guess what Blaine is doing. We still can't even confirm why those units were yanked from Dry Basin at the last minute." He got to his feet, unusually agitated. There was a slimy sensation running down his back, and his relic seemed to be hotter than usual. Something was wrong. It felt as if he was getting excess energy for no good reason.
The others watched him in concern. Tyrian was so calm, so serene. This restless pacing and moving from window to window was very unlike him, and it alarmed everyone. "Tyrian?" Ewan asked softly as he straightened up. "What's wrong?"
"I don't know." He tried to force himself to stand still, but he couldn't. "I feel like I can't sit still. Too much energy." He pressed his hands to his head as a headache began to throb behind his eyes and his stomach rolled. "I feel sick."
"Fetch Lane," Matthias ordered Thomas, who scrambled out the door as fast as he could.
Cassie moved to Tyrian's side and grabbed his hands with hers. "Breathe. Look at me." His eyes met hers, and she could see the darkness swirling inside that was a mark of his powers moving as much as it was a mark of his mood. This restless energy had been happening for two days. There was something indeed wrong.
Lane walked into the meeting room and he was frowning. "What's going on? Why was Thomas so panicked?" He took one look at Tyrian and his frown deepened. "I see." He took a breath and then said bluntly, "Someone exposed to Tyrian for a long enough time has died and their energy has been consumed by the Devourer. As Tyrian is at full strength, it's like overdosing on sugar."
It was an unpleasant and unsettling thought. Worse still, there was any number of people it could have been. Living in Trinan as Tyrian had, he had been around a good deal of people for a long time. It might as yet have been from Ben's time carrying it. There was no knowing.
"Will it burn itself off normally? It's been two days," Kyle said.
"At this rate, it could be weeks. Whoever it was had a lot of life energy." Lane tucked his hands in his pockets, wishing there was more he could do. "I'm not a doctor, but I've watched assorted relic users over the centuries. Tyrian's under a lot of pressure to begin with." He still had the aches to prove he had gotten the wrong end of Tyrian letting off steam. He looked at Matthias. "Call it for today. Let him be."
Matthias nodded instantly. "There's nothing we can do like this." He looked at Cassie. "Take him to your tower so he can have some peace."
Cassie hauled Tyrian toward the door, and the Kaiten muttered distinctly, "As if I'm not even here!" He didn't bother to resist. The nausea had faded back into the agitated feeling inside. The headache kept coming and going.
When they got into the tower, he shrugged off Cassie and began to pace back and forth across the floor. Even with boots on, his feet stayed soundless. His body moved with sleek danger and rippling power. Just watching him made something hot and needy clench inside her body. She never stopped wanting him. What was it about him that pulled at everything inside her?
He suddenly looked at her and his eyes darkened with fierce hunger. With a predatory stride, he walked toward her. "I think I know how to get rid of the energy." The words were little more than a rumble.
She stopped breathing entirely as she watched him approach. Hunger swelled fiercely inside until she burned with agony for him to touch her. His hot hands closed around her arms, and the magic of his relic hand blasted all the way into her soul. It was both relief and desperation entangled. There was something inside him that she had never seen before. Something that tore past all layers of civilization, all the years of self-control and holding herself back emotionally. She had thought she was free in his arms, but the side of herself that she saw then had been so deeply buried that she had never known it was there.
The sudden rush of blue taking over the black in her eyes was highly erotic. He fisted a hand in her hair and dragged her up for a bruising kiss. Her lips parted eagerly as a low moan caught in her throat that seared every nerve. His hands streaked down her body, curved around her perfect bottom, and dragged her against his aching body. In response, she grabbed his shoulders and hoisted herself with a sexy surge of strength until her legs could wrap around his waist.
He whirled and dropped her on the top of the table. He couldn't release her mouth long enough to remove her tunic so he simply ripped it from her body instead. Her hands yanked at his shirt in response and it too tore as they wrested it off. Her hands were everywhere, her nails scraping over his skin.
She felt frenzied in a way she never had before. If she didn't hold him inside her body, she was going to fade away. The blind leap into mindless craving was shocking and thrilling and wonderful. Some instinct swelled inside and she grabbed his relic hand. She pressed a kiss directly to the relic mark and his entire body shuddered. "The most sensitive place," she teased huskily as she hotly caressed his hand with little kisses and nips of her teeth.
His green eyes glowed like gemstones. "Not the most sensitive place." He lifted her and scraped his teeth over the curve of her breast. When she moaned, he captured in his mouth the tight nipple desperately begging for attention. She burned inside him like a light inside his darkness. "Mine!" It was barely more than a snarl. "I want you to be mine!"
"I'm not?" The words ended on a sob of need as his relic hand caught her other breast and the magic teased her as terribly as his touch. She was going to burn alive. She couldn't burn hot enough, fast enough. "Tyrian!"
He dropped her back down on the table and nearly tore away what remained of her clothes. Her black hair was wild and rumpled, her skin flushed with desire. He had never wanted or needed anything more. The energy that drove him was life energy, and there was no life for him without this woman. Damn the curse of the Pure Relic. He wanted to see her holding their child, wanted to watch her be the incredible mother he knew she would be. "Mine, Cassie! No one else will ever have you!"
Half-mad with desire, she could only lie there as he tried to remove what was left his clothing. He couldn't get his pants off all the way, but that didn't matter. The sight of his fiercely aroused body sent another wave of need through her body. He was so beautiful, so starkly and impossibly beautiful!
He dragged her to the edge of the table and buried his throbbing erection deep inside her body. The hard thrust dragged a cry from her lips that thrilled him. He drove into her again and again, harder with every thrust, needing her to go out of control, needing to know she wanted him as badly as he wanted her. Eternity. He felt it looming on the horizon. An eternity of love and laughter if she was there. "Marry me, Cassie."
Her eyes opened, dark and shocked. "What?" It ended on a gasp as he dragged her up and buried his mouth against her hammering pulse, his hips stopping entirely so that he stayed motionless within her aching body. Ecstasy hovered and beckoned but there was no end to the terrible pleasure. Her nails bit into his shoulders in pleading.
The hot suckling kisses moved up her neck to her ear. His breath was heated and sultry, his voice a rasp of sin wrapped in velvet. "Marry me."
A shudder went through her entire body that made her clench around him. The green of his eyes seemed to disappear as his pupils expanded. Unable to bear any of it—the plea, the demand, the desperation—she managed to say, "Yes! So, please . . . !"
He drove into her fiercely and the tension snapped wildly. Ecstasy roared down through her body, her soul, emptying her until there was nothing left but the desperation to hold him close. She wrapped her arms and legs tighter around him, holding him as he held her, clinging on when the world melted and dissolved around them until only they remained, drowning in wicked pleasure.
After, there was only the sound of them trying to catch a breath. Not only was the excess energy gone, he didn't think he had any energy at all left. All he could do was brace his hands around her hips on the table and try to stay on his feet. Her body quivered as hard as his did, and the little aftershocks rippled through them both.
It took a few moments for her to find her voice, and when she did, it was still husky. "Did you propose to me in the middle of all that?"
"I did." He tasted the curve of her neck and lingered. His tongue soothed a little mark he had made unintentionally. "You said yes. You can't go back on it."
"I would like to note that I have no intention of going back on it, but being proposed to by a man who didn't remember to take his boots off before he made love to me was not in my list of wistful fantasies." She paused and then said, laughter in her voice, "My imagination was never that good."
He lifted his head and smiled at her. "Admit it. You never expected to marry at all."
"I admit it." She framed his face in her hands. "I could never have possibly thought up anything that has happened." She softly kissed him and smiled. "Do I get a ring?"
He brought her fingers to his lips. "Since you accepted my proposal, yes. You'll get it when I find one that won't get in the way of how you fight." He slowly and reluctantly withdrew from her body and then pulled his pants back up before removing his boots as he should have before. "My boots are off so I can make love to you again properly. But I will never look at that table quite the same way again."
She wouldn't either, that was for certain. She got to her feet and winced wryly as muscles protested. "I'll feel that for a while." She looked at the tattered remains of her clothing and hastily gathered them up. "I'll throw these away. I'm not sure Merilyne could handle the shock."
As he sat down at the table, he watched her with a slow smile that brought in a fresh surge of heat to her body. His smile just increased as if he knew. "Someday we'll live hidden away and go naked all the time."
She contemplated that. "As long as wherever we are doesn't have mosquitoes." He laughed, and her heart fluttered. It was his first laugh in quite a while. She went over to him and slid onto his lap to cuddle close. "Do you feel better?"
"The excess energy is certainly gone, but my relic still feels warmer than usual. And I still feel that odd sense of dread."
A heavy fist suddenly pounded on the door. "Tyrian!" The voice was Kyle's. "You need to hurry! Come down to the city! Hurry!"
Cassie leapt to her feet and grabbed the first clothes she found. Tyrian yanked on a new shirt but didn't fasten it as he ran to the door. He also forgot his shoes, but the urgency in Kyle's voice meant that whatever had happened was seriously bad. If he had to fight, he would just do it barefoot.
The elevator seemed to take forever, but Tyrian and Cassie shortly left the castle and ran out into the city. There was a crowd gathered near the gate, which was lowered, and Tyrian felt his stomach clench with dread for the worst. He shoved his way through the crowd, expecting to see someone dying, yet that was not at all what he saw.
He saw a tiny little girl with delicate Faerie wings sitting on a horse that wore Imperial colors. She was barely more than six, if that, and her pale mossy colored hair hung in a messy braid. Her eyes, one blue and one green, seemed too old and serious in her tiny face. She looked at him and her lower lip quivered . . . and he fell instantly in love. "Hi," he said softly as he walked closer. "I'm Tyrian."
Raven looked at him closer and was instantly intrigued. There was something about him that made her want to protect him and make sure he was happy. Yet there was something else as well. Something that made her feel safe too, and it wasn't a familiar feeling. "Hi," she said softly, and the sweetly innocent cadence to her voice belied her bloodline as surely as her wings. "I'm Raven."
He looked at her iridescent black wings and found the name very apt. He held up his hands, and when she leaned down, he lifted her off the back of the horse. She curled her arms around his neck and burrowed closer, unintentionally burrowing into his heart. She felt impossibly tiny, and sudden terror gripped him. "How did she get here?" he asked Kyle.
His friend shook his head. "We don't even know, Tyrian. The guards spotted the horse before they saw her. As soon as they realized there was a baby on its back, they rushed to get her inside."
"I'm not a baby!" came a fierce and stubborn mutter against Tyrian's neck, making several people smile.
Kyle wasn't one of them, and the sight of his face made Tyrian tense for the worse. "What else, Kyle?" he asked softly.
"She was wrapped in this cloak." Kyle held out the black velvet material. "There's a note inside it."
Tyrian almost didn't need to see the note. He recognized the cloak instantly as one of his mother's favorites. Hands trembling slightly, he handed Raven to Cassie and then took the cloak to retrieve the note.
Raven rested her head on Cassie's shoulder and closed her eyes, content to be held by the pretty lady with the blue-black eyes. She felt safe and warm, just like Tyrian did. She almost didn't believe they were real. They were so much like the parents she had secretly dreamed of finding. She hadn't liked the Emperor, and she really hadn't liked Lady Blaine. She had wanted to be adopted to leave the stuffy palace. She had known someone needed her.
Tyrian slowly opened the note and recognized Annareal's handwriting. The sight of it was painful nostalgia, and as he read, the pain slowly spread.
My beloved Tyrian,
I'm sorry. The words are inadequate, but they're the only ones I can find. If I could go back in time and take back what I did, I would do it instantly. Tell Kyle Raitels that when the war ends, he may choose to take my life if he wishes as payment for what I did. I have earned whatever judgment the gods may bring.
The girl is named Raven. She is a ward of the Empire. Her parents were, obviously, Faeries. Forest and Water Faeries, to be precise. I have been caring her for these last few months. She reminds me so much of you at that age. Serious and smart and so curious for the world.
When the war reaches the castle, Blaine will kill her. I know she will. There is much power inside Raven's body, and her life, short as it has been, is full of energy and spirit. I send her to you on the fastest horse, praying the stars will lead her to you safely. The stars blessed you, Tyrian. And they blessed me to be your mother. I only pray that someday you will ever forgive me.
Your loving mother, Annareal Southerwind
The pain seemed to be slowly welling up from the depths of his soul. She had learned. She had understood. She had given back a life in payment for the one she had taken. She had made atonement for the children she had traumatized. He needed to tell her she was forgiven, that all he had ever wanted was for her to realize what she had done. There had to be a way to get a message to her!
The sound of a cane on stone preceded Matthias. His face seemed older suddenly, and there was a palpable heavy air around him. Grace and Ted were at his side, and both seemed to look their age for once. "Lord Tyrian?" Matthias asked softly.
Tyrian looked at him. "My mother sent Raven to me for her own safety. She knows what she did to Ophelia was wrong."
"Yes." Matthias' eyes closed. "And so, it would seem, does the Empire know." He took a deep breath. "She was executed for treason two days ago."
The words fell like stones into the silence. The note slid from Tyrian's fingers and softly fluttered to the ground. Two days. "Treason?" His voice sounded eerily calm to even him. Inside, screams slowly built as the pain tore at his soul.
"She was caught trying to send you a message. We don't know the contents. But Ted just received the notice, and Grace's contacts in Trinan confirmed it. Without telling anyone beforehand, the Emperor had her executed. Death by beheading as a traitor to the Empire. General Southerwind was not even notified until after the event occurred."
There was a roaring inside Tyrian's ears. Two days ago, his mother had been murdered for trying to help him. It was a bitterly ironic ending for the woman who had murdered another whose only crime was helping others. And because she had been with him all those years, been with Ben, been exposed to the power of the Devourer . . . her life energy had been consumed by the relic.
Somehow, he held onto his strength. Somehow, he held onto his composure. He handed the cloak to Winifred and said, "Please preserve this." His voice was still unnaturally calm. He looked at Beatrice. "Tend to the horse."
"What of Raven?" Kyle asked softly.
"She's a Destined Star." The roaring was getting louder. It almost seemed as if he couldn't hear what anyone said. "Let me be." He walked calmly, evenly, serenely, back toward the castle even though every instinct urged him to run. Run and never stop running.
Cassie handed Raven to Laia and rushed to Tyrian's side. Other Stars closed in as well, intently watching him as he walked into the courtyard. There was terror inside all of them as they recognized he stood again at the edge of the breaking point.
His strength lasted until he was on the elevator, and he did not say a word as Cassie and Liang got on it with him. When the doors closed, the strength left his body all at once. It was only Cassie and Liang's speed that kept him from falling on the ground. The pressure of the pain was swelling inside, but it wouldn't break. Why wouldn't it break? He could feel the tears but they never reached his eyes. He wanted to cry. He wanted to scream. He didn't want to be strong.
They helped him into the tower room, and he sank down to sit against the short wall. He buried his face in his hands and said raggedly, "Leave me be."
Cassie knelt and wrapped her arms around him, and he buried his face against her breast. A single bloody red tear slid down his cheek though he did not truly cry. He simply held onto her, his only sanity, with all his strength. If she let go of him, then he would break into a million pieces. He just couldn't handle this event on top of everything else.
Liang sat down without a word; he refused to leave Tyrian's side through this lowest point. He felt sick to his stomach with the knowledge that it could, and likely would, get worse yet. There was no knowing what would happen with Donald. If this event drove him to leave the Empire, what would Blaine do to him?
It seemed to be forever until Tyrian relaxed in Cassie's arms. As he did, she let out a soundless breath of relief. The worst had passed. He was clawing his way back from the edge again, but he would never return to where he had begun. The breaking point would simply move further out.
It was obvious to both Cassie and Liang that Tyrian had exerted all his will on keeping his mind blank. He didn't say anything at all, though he remained aware of their presence. Liang glanced at Cassie and she nodded. He left the tower without a word to tell the others Tyrian would be fine.
Tyrian stirred and slowly pulled back from Cassie though his hands didn't let go entirely. She said nothing as she helped him get to his feet. She smoothed his hair out of his eyes and then cupped his cheek. "You don't have to see anyone just yet," she said softly. "You're in no condition to talk to anyone about anything."
His eyes focused on her. "How is this fair, Cassie?"
"We believe in an eye for an eye among the monks. The instant she committed murder, she set herself up for celestial payback. Her understanding of what she did, her regret, means she will have a chance to be reborn." She sighed softly as she urged him around the wall and made him sit on the bed. "Would we be talking about this if it had been an assassin doing the deed? No, because that is what they do. Ophelia wanted a non-violent end to things, so her assassination would have been wrong either way. But it wouldn't have been murder."
It was little comfort, but he accepted it because he had to. His biggest pain, and he was sure Cassie knew, was that he had not gotten a chance to talk to Annareal before she died. He had lost her as his mother months before and had moved past. That grief was done. He grieved now for the lost chances at the future.
The rest of the day stayed quiet at the castle. People spoke in murmurs and children were unusually somber. Tyrian's pain had rippled into every one of his Stars and then it had rippled further. Slowly but surely, this fight for independence was becoming personal to the Kaiten Star, and that made it personal to everyone. It had gone past the simple tyranny of a foolish emperor.
Even late that night, Tyrian was still not able to sleep. Cassie was snuggled into his arms, and he took what comfort he could from having her there. At a soft fluttery sound, he lifted a brow. He gently disentangled himself from his fiancée's arms and got out of bed. He grabbed the first pair of pajama pants he found and pulled them on.
On silent feet, he crossed to the balcony doors. He knelt down and then peeked the curtain aside. He was promptly nose-to-nose with a little girl wearing a pink nightshift. "Gotcha," he said softly. He opened the door further so that she could scoot inside out of the cold. "What are you doing, Raven?" He ushered her over to the fireplace for warmth and sat down beside her. "Did you fly up here?"
She nodded solemnly and rubbed at her eyes. "I can't fly far," she admitted. "But I can fly up and down. I can't go sideways yet. I start doing circles."
At six, her wings were still developing just like everything else about her. He scooped her up and settled her on his lap where she could snuggle close. The way she spoke was far advanced compared to her age, and he was reminded of not just himself, but of Cassie as well. That willingness to confront her own shortcomings even if she was afraid. "You could have used the elevator." He rubbed his cheek over her soft hair.
"I didn't know if the guards would let me in." She rested her cheek over his heart and the beat sounded comforting. "I had a nightmare. The monsters were chasing me again."
Not for the first time that day, terror prowled through him at the very idea of her having made it from Trinan to the base by herself. A week, out alone, unprotected. The packs on the saddle had held plenty of food and water, but there had been nothing and no one there for her in the night. No one to protect her. "Did they chase you a lot?"
She nodded. "Lady Anna said they would, but if I was brave and thought about you, I would be okay. So I was brave, and I thought about making it here. The horse ran fast when he saw monsters, and I held on." She frowned suddenly. "When can I learn to fight so I can protect myself?"
A moment of déjà vu made him nostalgic in a good way. He remembered saying those exact words to Liang and Donald in response to being kept from doing the things he wanted because it wasn't safe. Donald had promptly started him training with a staff. "What do you want to learn?"
She thought about it. "I like watching berserkers and how they swing axes."
The thought of a tiny Faerie trying to swing an axe was both amusing and frightening. "Let's start small and work our way up." He held out his hand and she placed hers on top of it. Her whole hand was smaller than his palm. "When your fingers can touch mine," he said, "then you can try an axe. Well, if your parents want you to. You'll be adopted after the war, I'm sure." It was a painful thought, more than Kami and Mikey. He wanted them to find families. He didn't want to share Raven.
It was a mutual thought. She held onto him tighter and said intensely, "I don't want another family. Can't you adopt me? You could be my dad. Cassie could be my mom. I don't want to be adopted by anyone else!"
"Shh." Emotion closed his throat and the well of love seemed to erase the lingering grief that had held him all day. That dangerous edge of no return moved further away. Annareal had given back far much more than she had taken. She had made amends for everything. "If Cassie wants to be a mom, I would like to be your dad."
"I could be persuaded," Cassie said softly from where she leaned against the short wall and watched them. She wore the other half to the pajamas that Tyrian wore, and the ends of the shirt went to her knees. Her heart ached as she watched them. They were wonderfully beautiful together. It seemed impossible to think she had an entire family right there before her. A daughter, of all things. "Do you think Liang will be surprised to be a grandfather at his age?"
Tyrian smiled. "He was a father to me when he was barely sixteen. I think he can take it in stride." He released Raven when she straightened and smiled as she crossed over to Cassie. He had wanted to have a child with Cassie, and he had been given that gift.
Cassie knelt down and lifted Raven into her arms. The little girl cuddled close and wrapped her arms around Cassie's neck. There was something really safe and secure about Cassie that Raven loved. She was warm and smelled like what Raven had always thought a mommy should smell like. She couldn't describe it, but Cassie just smelled like a mommy, just like Tyrian smelled like a daddy. Feeling safe for the first time in a long time, Raven fell asleep with the ease of a child who trusted implicitly that the one who held her would protect her.
Cassie looked at her contented face and fell hopelessly in love. Her lips trembled as she looked at Tyrian with tears shimmering across her eyes. It was a terrifying feeling to love so much so fast for someone so small and fragile. It hadn't been that frightening to love Tyrian, and he was arguably just as fragile if not more. "How is it possible?"
He got to his feet and walked over to draw them both into his arms. He softly smoothed Raven's hair out of her face. "You've never told me what eternity is yours to claim," he said softly. "But I am fairly sure if I guessed, I would be right. Even if we removed that from the picture, I bear a Pure Relic. The damage has been done. Even if I somehow took off this relic, I will never have children of my blood. We could never have a child together, no matter how we wished. Enter Raven."
Cassie softly rubbed her cheek over her daughter's fine hair. "Not ours by blood, but ours the same. Oh, Tyrian. She's just like you! She's so intense and serious and smart."
He smiled. "But she has her mother's fearlessness. Rather than take the elevator, she flew on barely-grown wings to a several story high balcony."
"Let's call that stubborn more than fearless."
"As I said, she's just like her mother." He cupped Cassie's cheek and leaned down to kiss her softly. "Should we take her back to her room?" he asked softly.
"She could sleep with us tonight. It wouldn't hurt her, would it?"
"Why should it?"
Neither had ever gotten the chance to sleep in their parents' bed after a nightmare, though for differing reasons. They knew what it was like to be young and afraid and alone. There was no need to make her go back to her room by herself when she was no doubt sleeping truly for the first time in a long time.
They tucked Raven into bed between them where she was safely snuggled against them both. Her wings had folded against her back, evidence of a deep and true sleep. As she was drifting off herself, Cassie murmured, "We're going to need to sleep in pajamas from now on. I get this feeling she'll sneak in through the balcony more than once."
"Like I said." Tyrian softly smoothed his hand down both of their hair in turn. "She's like her mother." With a sigh of contentment, he closed his eyes. It was constant ups and downs. In the space of one day, he had been up, then down, then up again. There would be another down around the corner, and if the pattern held true, it was going to be worse still.
Cassie was thinking the same thing, and a certainty had gelled inside her heart. It was time for her to return to the Monk Clans. She would demand their promised aid in battle, and she would claim the legacy that was rightfully hers. Any fear of the trials she would face was completely eclipsed by the fear she had felt as she watched Tyrian hover at the edge of breaking. Lane had told her what she needed to do. She was going to do it.
Period.
©Stacy J. Garrett. Do not reprint or redistribute without permission.
