Chapter Ten #2
I truly could not picture myself doing that. Because if he didn’t feel the same? The rejection would break my heart.
“I’m going to use the washroom,” she said. “I’ll be back. I feel like I have to urinate every half hour now.”
There was a slight edge of exasperation, but her tone was mostly just joy.
When she left, I heard the front door open downstairs and then Thrax’s voice greeting Basileia. I understood that to be my cue to leave. I went downstairs to join Thrax and his sister.
He had his ever-delighted grin on his face. “Lia! I didn’t know you were here. I was just with Xander in the weapons quarter and took a break to come home and check on Quynh. I can go if you’d like to keep visiting.”
That was thoughtful of him to offer. “I have so much that I need to do. I should be going.” I would have loved to sit there all day and talk to Quynh, but I had to learn and practice and fight and prepare. “She’s in the washroom right now.”
“Something that’s become a regular occurrence,” Basileia said while twirling a dagger on the table.
I turned toward Thrax. “Can I ask you something?”
“Anything.”
“Why do you always look so amused when you see me? It feels like you’re laughing at me.”
“Not at you, never at you. It’s because it gives me endless pleasure watching my stubborn brother, who said he had no room in his life for someone, who after having every woman in Ilion throw themselves at him, finally fall under the thrall of a woman who would torch his palace down around him.”
“I wouldn’t do that,” I protested. Not now, anyway. “I wouldn’t let my adelphia or Quynh get hurt.”
His eyes twinkled. “Quynh, who no longer lives there, and your sisters. They’re the only ones you’re concerned with.”
Thrax and Quynh really were perfect for each other. “Xander is not under my thrall.”
“Disagree.”
Everyone spoke as if I had some sort of power over Xander, when it felt the other way around to me.
I decided they were entitled to their opinions, no matter how wrong they might be. “Thrax, you and I are going to be friends. And family.”
“We are?”
“Yes. And you are going to treat my sister like the princess that she is and you’ll never let her be unhappy. You will love and adore her every day of her life and you will keep her safe.”
His face went serious, which was so unlike him. “I swear to you that I will.”
“Good. And congratulations on the baby.”
Basileia suddenly spoke up. “You should make him kill a boar and bring it to you. It’s what the men in my clan do when a man desires to marry a woman—he delivers a boar he’s hunted.”
Xander had told me all about boar hunting and how dangerous it was. A boar could easily run Thrax through. While that would have appealed to me before, it didn’t now. Quynh and the baby needed him. “I wouldn’t want him to get gored.”
“Why not?” Basileia asked. “A little goring is good for men. Keeps them humble.”
“It sounds like you might need to be gored,” Thrax replied with a laugh.
She pointed her dagger toward him. “It is a good thing I love you, because you are the only person that I allow to tease me. I do not care for it. And my humility is fine. I’m the most humble person I know.”
Thrax laughed before turning back to me. “Can I ask what brought this on?”
That was probably a fair question. “When you marry Quynh, which you will, you’re going to be my brother.”
“Lia,” he said with a soft smile, “you’re already my sister. You have been since the day you married Xander. I would protect you like I would him. Or Quynh.”
That unexpectedly made tears spring to my eyes, which surprised me. I was saved from anyone noticing when Quynh appeared at the top of the stairs. “Thrax!”
Her entire being lit up at seeing him, as if the light I felt inside her were coming out through every pore in her skin. She practically flew down the stairs to his open arms.
“What did I tell you?” he asked while cradling her close. “I don’t want you to run down the stairs and fall.”
She pulled back so that she could peer up at him. “I am not going to fall, you overprotective oaf. You are not going to wrap me up in linen until the baby comes. You can’t make the world stop turning to try and keep us safe.”
He lovingly stroked the side of her face. “I will fight the entire world to protect both of you.”
This was what I had to protect. Quynh deserved this happiness. I would make sure that she got it by keeping Ilion safe.
“I am drowning in sentiment!” Basilea declared with disgust.
Both Thrax and Quynh laughed, and when they had finished, I said, “I should be going.”
Quynh managed to let go of Thrax long enough to come over and hug me. “Be safe. And think about what I said.”
I worried that it would be all I thought about. I said goodbye to the others, and Basileia offered to walk me out.
When we got onto the porch, I said, “If you ever get a break and want to spar, come to the palace and find me.”
“I think I would squash you like a bug,” she said.
“You might be surprised at how well I can hold my own.”
She looked at me appraisingly. “Perhaps I will. I wouldn’t want my skills to get rusty. You are married to my brother’s brother, and now your sister will marry my brother. We are also family.”
“We are,” I agreed. Quynh had been right. I was going to get more people to love.
And more people I had to keep safe.
I told Basileia goodbye and she went back inside, closing the door. I looked around, expecting to see Rokh waiting for me, but he wasn’t here. He was probably off kissing Ahyana somewhere.
Xander wouldn’t like me going back to the palace without Rokh to watch over me.
But I didn’t want to go home.
Despite feeling sensitive and nervous, I was struck with an overwhelming urge to see my husband. He was the person I wanted to tell about the things I’d just learned.
So I headed off in the opposite direction to find him.