Chapter 30 Rada #2
“I don’t want to forget you. I want to have these memories.
I want to know you’re out here waiting for me, even if no one else is.
” Memories of Goran felt like arrows striking my heart.
I didn’t know if I’d ever see him again, or if he’d even consider reconciling.
“If you could make me forget these months, make the ache go away somehow… but only for a while. I have less than six years to get everything done. That’s not that long, right? Then I could come back here, with you.”
“And your other mates, beloved. You know you will have more.” For some reason, when he said it, it didn’t make me want to run screaming to another island. Or swim screaming. Maybe it was the voice, or the way the word “beloved” seemed to hold promises of a love we would discover together.
“Yeah, but none as powerful and sexy as you, right? Who can bring me all the gems I want, and honeyed cakes, and the very sharpest knives?” I lifted an eyebrow and glanced to the chest where he’d had me put my obsidian blade, far from where we slept.
“There aren’t many blades in the world that could kill a creature like me, but that is one of them,” he’d confided.
“I don’t like the way it feels. Like it hungers for something.
” With him by my side, for the first time in my life, I hadn’t felt the need for a weapon, so I’d taken it off.
Of course, I still had plenty close by. I ran a hand over my cloak. And all my poisons, of course.
Lusca pressed a kiss to my forehead, then rose and bowed to me. “I told you, Empress, that anything you ask and that I can provide is yours.”
“With the exception of tentacles and other parts,” I teased, though my eyes were watering again.
He nodded and walked to the water’s edge, reaching down for a long moment. When he rose, he had a shell and something gold in his hand. He returned to my side, sitting cross-legged next to me. “This may take some time,” he said after a moment, his tone grave. Then he sang one word. “Sleep.”
When I woke up, Lusca was beside me as usual, but this time, he was asleep.
He’d never actually slept in the past weeks, saying he didn’t need any more after the last thousand years or so.
In his hand, he held the shell. It was attached to a chain that looked sturdy, but not fancy.
It was actually hard to look at, my gaze sliding off the necklace like it was hiding.
I didn’t realize he was awake until he lifted the pendant.
“I sang a spell of protection and concealment. The pendant will hide itself from the eyes of others, unless they seek it out. It may hide you, somewhat.” I perked up at that; any tool to help me sneak was welcome.
“And it will hide your memories of me and our time here. You may remember the southern Omegas we found, but vaguely. You will not see me in those memories.” He sounded weirdly tired, almost exhausted.
I wasn’t sure I wanted to know what making this had cost him.
My fingers itched both to pick it up and to throw it into the ocean. “What do I have to do?”
“Put it on,” he said gently. “But perhaps it would be best to wait until you are away?”
Away? I sat up. A small, shallow-bottomed boat was in the cove, its sail furled. He’d put supplies in it already. “I suppose if I forget you when I put it on, I wouldn’t know who you were. If you were an enemy, I might stab you.”
We both said, “Again,” together. He pressed one hand to his stomach, rubbing the place where I’d stabbed him with my stiletto dagger. Where he’d let me stab him, I had a feeling.
I was very glad I hadn’t used the obsidian blade.
And maybe it made me a little more than twisted, but I loved a male who could take a solid stab to the gut and laugh about it later.
All at once, like a wave of clarity had swept through my mind, I remembered everything.
All the long, tropical days. The songs he’d taught me, the stories he’d told.
He had a collection of shipwrecks, an odd preference for the stinky durian fruit, and a bad habit of tickling my toes with whatever he could, from his tentacles to stray minnows.
I recalled his adoration and obsession with protecting me.
“Perhaps you should stab me again, beloved,” he said when I broke off the kiss.
“I feel like a fool. I thought I could protect you from a distance, but I’ve been hearing stories of what befell you in the dry.
I came as soon as I sensed the pendant had been separated from you.
But you put it back on so quickly. It hides you perhaps a bit too well.
” His usually gentle smile was falling into angry lines as he held me and took me in. “Who has done this to you?”
I frowned back. I might’ve lost a little weight with all the activity and stress, but I didn’t think I looked that bad. Then he placed his hand on my bare abdomen, below where the pendant hung, and I knew what he meant.
“I sense fire and ice, and taste your pain. Tell me.”
“Yeah, I don’t really want to relive it. And I’m afraid I’m the one to blame, at least for the fire. I invited him in, made a shitty bargain. When the guards stripped me back in Mirrenar, they took off the pendant.”
“That should not have been possible,” he snarled.
I knew that now, knew that the pendant I’d worn constantly should have escaped their notice.
A flash of memory, from after my capture, when I’d been knocked unconscious, rose.
The torches in the dungeon where they’d thrown me had sputtered with flames that were redder than blood and darker than they should have been.
“You knew I was being hunted,” I said, and he understood. “He found me. And when I prayed…” I twisted my lips in what was meant to be a smile. “The wrong deity answered.”
“The fire god.” I nodded. His voice dropped until it rumbled. “And the ice? I smell his lust on your cloak as well. Did you invite him in?” He was definitely not happy with that idea.
“Ah, we can talk about that later, hm?” I wriggled to get down, not sure how to explain Skadi to Lusca. I was gladder than ever that Skadi had gone off to wherever. If I could keep these two from meeting at all, it would probably be a good idea.
Lusca did not let me down, only took a few more steps into the land, trailing the boat behind him. Only now, I could see a head above the hull.
“Alexios!” I shouted. “Oh, Lusca, you found him. Thank you, cutie.” Then another familiar head popped up, long golden braids shining in the sun. Goran? I didn’t call out to him; he was busy puking over the side.
Then another head appeared. Dustin? I blinked. Why was he here?
He waved, a wild grin on his face. “My lady! You’re alive. I’m so glad.”
I waved back, confused. “Why are you here?”
He shrugged and yelled, “Better sailor than the Warlord.” I winced. That made sense.
“I like the boy. And your newest mates. Selkies are some of my favorite subjects. Speaking of which…” Lusca reached far out to sea with a tentacle and plucked something from the waves. No, someone. “Stop lurking, young prince. Join her other mates.”
Kellin was in seal form and barked twice before Lusca released him.
Then he swam to the beach and shifted a few paces away from me, tying his pelt around his waist without a word.
He didn’t turn his head toward me, and I pressed a hand to my heart.
I couldn’t feel him inside me, but I almost wished I could. I owed him more than an apology.
Lachlan greeted him, and the two of them hugged.
Then they moved onto the rocky beach, getting out of the way so Lusca could place the boat close enough to the land for the others to disembark without getting too wet.
When they began to slide over the edge, he forced the waves around them to be calm.
“So thoughtful,” I said. “Such a good boy.”
He mock-frowned at me, then scowled more deeply at the beach where he stood. All of a sudden, a small, dark wave rose up, dumping a bucketful of black sand on the sharp rocks before retreating. Only then did he put me down. “Where are your boots?”
“In the sea, probably a thousand miles from here,” I grumbled. “Can you find them for me?”
“Of course,” he scoffed, and sang a few notes. Something far out—an orca, I thought—surfaced, then dove down.
My feet had only just touched the ground when Alexios was there, his arms wrapping around me.
“Trouble really is your middle name, isn’t it, Mina?
” he muttered, wrapping me in a hug. He had his priest’s robes on, and it was a good reminder, or I’d have kissed him.
He set me down, his hands on my cheeks, before he pushed back and stared at me. “Where’s your—ah, thank you, Emperor.”
Lusca had grabbed my cloak off the beach and bundled it around me. “Why is it empty?” he growled, holding up one edge. He leaned down to sniff it. “It smells of pain… and sex.” His face grew even stormier. “You have mated the ice god.”
“Oh, hells no, I didn’t mate that asshole,” I protested when five sets of eyes suddenly bored into me. “I, ah, did mate with Lachlan, but he’s an Omega.”
Lachlan waved awkwardly. I bit my lip to suppress a hysterical giggle at the surge of pride and happiness that I felt in our bond.
“Good.” Lusca nodded to Lachlan, who wiggled his eyebrows at me. “That was expected. But the one who abducted you?”
“Abducted and emptied my damned cloak of anything useful,” I muttered.
Alexios let out a hiss. He should be pissed; half of my poisons and antidotes had been made with his help, and as my valet, he was in charge of keeping everything organized. “I might break my vow of nonviolence for him,” he replied when I told him some of what was missing.