Warrior's Dawn (Fire and Tears) (17 page)

Althir finally sat on the bed. “Seems your people are making an impact.”

“Thanks to you.”

Her comment surprised him so much he could only blink at her.

She shifted in her seat again and picked at the chair’s armrest. “I…I wanted to apologize for…earlier. I was angry about… Well, anyway, I was tired and not thinking clearly enough, and I let my temper get the best of me. No matter what you’d intended when you joined with the traitors, your information since turning yourself over to the Sinnale has been invaluable. I shouldn’t have disregarded that.”

He narrowed his eyes as he studied her. “I’ve figured out this was your former home,” he said quietly. “I imagine that didn’t help your state of mind.”

“No,” she said with a harsh snort. “No, it didn’t. How did you know?”

“There’s a picture of you and your family in one of the rooms.”

She pulled in a deep breath and held it before letting it out slowly, audibly.

“Why did you bring us here if being here is so hard on you?”

“Because it was familiar and I hoped it would be safe.” She shrugged. “I didn’t anticipate my reaction to coming back would be so…extreme.”

“When were you last here?”

“We left during the first weeks of the invasion, and I haven’t been back since.”

“Your family was killed then?”

“No. Just my mother.”

He watched her throat work as she swallowed. Every part of him wanted to go to her and pull her into his arms. Instead, he stayed where he was, afraid to break the truce they’d managed to strike.

She shrugged and looked out the window rather than at him. “My father…” Another deep breath. “Not long after the traitor elves joined the Sorcerers, my father was taken by one of them, lured across the border and into Sorcerers’ hands.”

Althir held himself very still as her words washed over him, realizing now why she harbored so much hate for the traitors—why she’d hated him so much at their first meeting.

“After he was taken, my brother decided he could rescue him, that the point of luring him using elven magic was to use him as a sacrifice—he was too old to make a good minion. Tom insisted there was time to get our father out. So long as he was still alive, there was time.”

Her mouth trembled. “None of us took the loss of my mother well. Tom maybe worse than my father, though, because he’d been so close with her. I don’t think he could tolerate the idea of losing our father too.”

“So he went after your father. Alone?”

She nodded.

“He was taken too.” Althir didn’t have to ask. She’d already told him her family was dead.

“I didn’t hear from either one of them for three weeks. And then I saw Tom again.” Her breathing shook now, and a gleam of moisture filled her eyes. “He’d been turned into a minion. I watched him march right past me, while I was pretending to be a kitchen wench. He already had the first stink of rotten meat, the faint hint of red in his eyes.”

“I’m sorry.”

“That wasn’t the worst moment.” She scrubbed her eyes with her palms. “The worst moment was facing him in a skirmish. I was on my way back to Sinnale territory, in Noman’s Land with a Sinnale patrol when the minion patrol found us and attacked. Tom was among them. He looked right at me, stared me right in the eyes. And tried to stab his sword through my chest. I was so shocked I probably would have let him but one of the other soldiers intercepted his blade. I just stood there. Watching them fight, watching as my rescuer sliced my brother open, spilling his guts onto the cobbles.”

Her entire body was trembling now, and Althir couldn’t keep his distance any longer. He snatched her out of the chair before she could protest, returned to the bed and sat with her in his lap, holding her close and rocking her gently. He expected her to push him away. He had no right to presume he could comfort her. Instead, she clutched his shirt and curled against him, pressing her face into his chest.

“My last view of my brother was of his eyes clouding over. And then we were running for the border, most of the minions left dead. I never did see my father again. Something I’m actually very grateful for.”

He pressed her close until he felt her deep sigh and her shivering subsided. Then he said into her hair, “You didn’t have to tell me that. You didn’t need to relive it for me.”

“I’m reliving it just being here,” she murmured. “And I owed you.”

He pulled back enough to frown down at her. “Owe me for what?”

“After I left, after I had a chance to think more clearly, I realized what it meant…you telling me about what you’d been trying to do when you turned traitor. Or pretended to be a traitor.”

His frown twisted.

“No one else knows what you were trying to do, do they?”

“I wish you didn’t know either.”

She snorted a soft laugh. “I thought you’d feel that way. You have no reason to. I promise I’ll keep your secret as long as you want me to.”

“That’s not why I wish you didn’t know.”

She nodded. “You feel like you failed and don’t want anyone to know about it.”

With a sigh, he tucked her head under his chin again. “You are far too clever sometimes.”

“I feel too worn out to be clever right now. Anyway, when you brought up my family, since you figured out this was our home, I figured I owed you a truth for a truth.”

“The reason you hate the traitor elves so much.”

“With a passion I can’t even begin to describe.”

“You don’t have to. I understand.”

“Having you here… Before hearing your story, having you here was almost as painful as being back.”

“Because I was a traitor, one of the ones who destroyed what remained of your immediate family.”

“I reacted from that anger earlier. When we first met.”

He smiled at the memory. “Threatening to kill me.” He felt her cringe, and his smile widened. “You weren’t the first to tell me you wanted me dead, you know.”

“I know. Still…”

“You believe me, then. That I wasn’t really a traitor?”

She was silent for long enough that his frown returned.

Finally, she said, “I’m still having trouble trusting you, Althir. Even though you’ve proved I can several times now. My feelings for the traitors make it more difficult for me to allow myself to see the man I think you really are under all that arrogance and rude behavior.”

He chuckled at that, accepting it as a just statement.

“But I wouldn’t have told you about my brother if I truly thought you were a traitor. I believe you were trying to do good, even if your motives are suspect.”

He raised his brows. “Suspect?”

“Sibling jealousy? Hardly a good reason to risk everything.”

He rolled his eyes, glad she couldn’t see his face. When she put it like that, it was even more humiliating than a simple failure. “You haven’t had to live with Ulric for more centuries than I care to count.”

“I don’t know him very well, so I can’t really judge that. But I do know you had a good underlying reason for your actions, to help your people. I can’t blame you for that, or for the fact that you were thinking of your people before mine. It was unfair of me to expect you to care about us more than you do your own.”

“Not unfair. I didn’t think enough about your people. My intentions to end the war would have ended it for you as well as prevent my city from being invaded, but that wasn’t my major concern.”

“It’s okay, Althir.” She patted his chest. “We get that List back to my people, and the war will end. We’ll get the result we all want.”

“There’s an arrow,” he blurted. Then sighed. It really was better she didn’t know this if she was captured. But he felt like she needed this truth now.

“An arrow? You mean the shrapnel arrows Glengowyn is trading with us now?”

“My cousin makes those. She’s the only one who can. And she’s recently invented another type.”

He’d talked the details out of the council before agreeing to tell them about the List. They’d been so desperate to find out if there was a way to get the Sorcerers’ real names, they’d answered his questions. He’d pushed them, played on their fears, and in that moment, they forgot he’d agreed to give them information in exchange for his life. They weren’t required to give him answers. He wondered later if they regretted telling him the truth. Not that it mattered. He’d gotten what he wanted.

“Only a very, very small number of people know about them—”

“Wait.” Mina stopped him. “You shouldn’t tell me. Until we’re safe inside Sinnale territory.”

“If you prefer.”

Her nod rubbed her face along his chest, and a frisson of desire warmed his blood.

“Just knowing you’d trust me enough to tell me is…nice? Stupid word. You know what I mean.”

He stroked a long line down her spine and back up again, savoring the feel of her in his arms. He felt the first stirrings of the
Shaerta
and wanted to curse the damned pheromone. While it would make the sex between them phenomenal, it also reminded him that they had very little time together.

“I do know what you mean. And I do trust you, Mina. Probably more than I should.”

“Now there’s something we can agree on.”

“That I shouldn’t trust you?” he teased.

She laughed. “That too. But that I might also trust
you
a lot more than I should. We have that in common.”

Her statement made his pulse kick over with emotions he didn’t bother to analyze. She made him feel better in the midst of all that was wrong with the world. That was enough.

He slid his hand up her spine and stopped when he got close to her wounded shoulder. “How is this doing now?”

“Better. The sting stopped. The Chemist is some miracle worker.”

“Are we safe here for the night? I want you to take more time to heal before we try for the border. And don’t argue. We won’t make it if you’re dragged down by injury.”

“I think we’ll be safe enough. The fighting is keeping everyone occupied. Those that know the List has gone missing will probably be looking for the thieves to make for the border sooner rather than later. And to be honest, I’m not sure if the fighting will make for good cover to reenter Sinnale territory, or if we risk getting caught up in it and killed.”

“We’ll consider our options in the morning. Then we’ll make a plan. Right now, you need to rest and heal.”

“And you?”

He hugged her closer because he couldn’t seem to help himself. “I’m doing what I need to do right now.”

“Althir…”

Her voice was so quiet, if he didn’t have elven hearing, he wasn’t sure he would have caught her whispered word, so full of question and trepidation.

“The elf-fire… That part of what you said to the Sorcerer was true. It… It means…”

“Yes. It means. And for now, I don’t want to think about it.” He stood, still cradling her and turned to lay her down on the bed. “You did good today, my little spy.” Pushing her hair back from her face, he held her gaze. “It’s my turn to take care of a few things.”

She grabbed his hand. “What…?”

“I’m not going anywhere. Just to scrounge us up something to eat. Then you need to sleep.” The circles under her eyes made his chest ache. “The outside world, all those decisions we have to make, can wait a few more hours.”

She released his hand. “There’s more to say.”

“And we’ll have time for that too.” He’d make sure of it.

Chapter Fifteen

Mina woke to the soft feel of Althir’s lips on her nape. She knew it was him without having to see him. Though she should probably protest, she didn’t feel any need to do so. The effects of the elf-fire were already humming in her blood. Each featherlight touch of his mouth against her skin sent a cascade of chills and heat over her body.

He was lying behind her on the bed, the full length of him a seductive warmth along her spine.

“What time is it?” she murmured, then arched her back so her ass pressed into his groin. The feel of his erection made her moan quietly.

“You’ve only been asleep for a few hours, don’t worry. It’s still early in the night.”

“Full dark?”

“Full dark. But we’re not going anywhere tonight.” He settled his palm low on her stomach, keeping her pressed against him to make his point.

She wasn’t inclined to argue.

She’d changed from her dress to a tunic and trousers to sleep in and kept her hair tied in a bun—old habits in case she had to wake and move quickly into a fight, or run. But she hadn’t bothered to belt the tunic so when Althir began to lift the material over her hips, there was nothing to get in his way. The heat of his palm on the bare skin of her stomach shot another wash of shivers through her, and she ground back against him harder. He nipped at the skin low on her nape in response.

When she would have rolled to face him, to touch in return, he kept her in place with that insistent hand on her abdomen. Again, she didn’t argue because the feel of him along her spine, the hard length of his cock against her ass, all felt delicious. And right.