25. It is Time
~ YILAN ~
I stood at the northeastern window of the tower—the windows were now unhexed. I’d told Melek my plan for us to fly from the tower and enter the Palace together, but it wasn’t going well. I stared out over the land beyond and let my frustration simmer, doing war with my unease.
Melek was making sense. But I didn’t like it.
“…If I sneak out of here like some kind of fugitive—even in your presence, even appearing with you—it all implies shame or something dark. Something that needs to be hidden,” he insisted from the other side of the room.
“Not to mention, we’re already fighting the belief that I have somehow magiked or coerced you.
You think that kind of appearance won’t affirm that conviction to those who hold it? ”
Considering what he said, I folded my arms and stared out, watching the afternoon sun descend over the forest that stretched from this side of the Palace, all the way to the walls and beyond.
The dimming sun rimmed everything in gold and rosy warmth, gilding the trees, making the clouds blush…
In the distance was the city. At night, the warm pinpoints of light from homes and businesses would decorate the dark. But now it was only a wide span of boxes and triangles in every shade of brown and red beyond the sea of green forest.
It struck me that each of those shapes represented a life… more than one, most likely. Families. Relationships. Pains. Losses. Vi ctories. Celebrations… The yoke of my people weighed heavily, and yet it was a welcome burden. One I ached to honor.
“Yilan?” Melek said behind me. I tensed.
It was so rare for me to have any time in the Palace to simply stand and watch, a part of me was awed by the beauty of my land. But the bigger part of me clenched with fear at how easily it could be taken. And the number of lives that would be affected—
“Yilan, please,” Melek growled.
I sighed and turned to face him.
He sat in the one chair we’d found that was big enough to seat him, though he still seemed wedged into it, the wide arms a touch too low for his frame.
He was finally dressed properly. Diadre had been true to her word and brought clothing, leaving it outside the door an hour ago.
Now Melek sat, resplendent in fighting leathers that were black as night and riveted in brass.
The neck of the double-breasted leather jacket sat high under his chin and was cut perfectly to emphasize his jaw.
I didn’t know if the seamstresses had done it on purpose or if they’d misjudged his dimensions, but the clothing hugged him like a second skin, the seams at the shoulders cutting right angles to his arms so that somehow, his shoulders seemed even broader.
He’d already secreted the blade I gave him somewhere in it.
The trousers hugged his thighs and knees until they disappeared into the calf-high boots he’d been wearing when we arrived, which had been polished until they shone like new.
Perhaps they were. Perhaps they’d made a new pair. I didn’t know.
I just knew that if I hadn’t been pissed off and nervous, I would have stripped him of that stunning clothing and taken him again.
When he’d first stood in front of me wearing it, the urge had been so strong my mouth had gone dry.
I was proud of my restraint. And annoyed with him. But I couldn’t deny that he looked stunning. Whatever the others thought when they saw him, there would be no humbling.
He was every inch a warrior. Every inch a male to be respected.
My mate was a glowing coal of desire.
And fucking intimidating.
Also irritatingly right. The fighters would have kittens when they saw him prowling the halls of the Palace looking like that.
Unaware of my admiring gaze, Melek ran a hand over his handsome face that was dark, shadowed with the beginnings of a beard because he hadn’t shaved in days.
It made his eyes seem even brighter as he locked on me, and I was reminded of that presence he had…
the sheer force of will that inhabited him so that anyone in his sphere wanted to follow.
It was magnificent.
And quite annoying.
“So, you want to just walk out of here?” I said tightly. “Stretch your wings—figuratively—and just walk out into the halls? Do you have any clue the… the agitation that will create?”
“More than the agitation of your guards and Captain learning I was free without their knowledge?” he asked pointedly.
Unfortunately, he’d been in Turo’s shoes, responsible for the rank and file, as well as the security of the King.
He knew—and had explained in excruciating detail—the immediate response that he would employ if he were to learn that his prisoner was loose, within arm’s reach of the royals, and had managed it undetected.
The speed with which military could issue and follow orders in an emergency, and how quickly the news would spread among the fighters.
He'd made it abundantly clear how rumors would mingle with truth, and the protective reactions the fighters would instinctively have well before we could get ahead of it and soothe them.
Chaos, he’d said, his chin low, but eyes locked on mine. The kind of chaos that gets people killed.
I had rolled my eyes, but I knew he was right.
“How deep does your conviction run?” I asked petulantly, cursing myself for not making the words stronger. “I thought we could leave in the night so fewer people were in the halls and—”
“Yilan,” he said softly, firmly. Why were his eyes compassionate? “If they’re going to see me as an ally and not a threat, we can’t begin in the dark. Surely you can see that?”
I could. But I didn’t want to.
I pursed my lips, fighting the urge to argue just because I didn’t like it.
“So… we’re leaving? Remember, they aren’t expecting me until tomorrow. We could wait—”
“I need to attend that Council meeting tomorrow and prove my worth, not disrupt the entire Palace at a time they had planned to focus and solve problems.”
I turned away from him, back to the window .
Leaving in this way meant leaving soon. It meant being out of here before the dinner hour so that the inevitable disruption could be soothed and I could host him as a guest at the meal.
And that meant we didn’t get another night here, alone. Uninterrupted.
I didn’t hear him move, but suddenly he was behind me, the new leather creaking slightly as he leaned over me and wrapped his arms around me, curling himself to drop his chin and brush his lips against my neck.
“Won’t it be wonderful to be free together in the sight of others?” he whispered. “I am proud to claim you, Yilan. First your people, then mine. Let them all see me and my mate. Let them know she is mine,” he whispered fiercely.
I turned in his arms and had to crane my head back to keep meeting his eyes when he straightened.
“Except, once again, we don’t get to do that. Once again I have to keep some distance from you. Not let them know how connected we are. Deal with accusing eyes and worried whispers. And that doesn’t begin to cover the Council and how they’ll question this.”
“I know, I know. I only meant… days, Yilan. We can count this in days. And until then, we can be in each other’s presence. And face these challenges together.”
I sighed heavily. “I love that idea, but the moment we walk out of here, I’m a Queen and you’re a General—of our enemy. There will be very little togetherness. We will have meetings, and responsibilities, and challenges and—”
“And a son who doesn’t want to speak with me, and a betrothed who wants to save you from me, and wars on the horizon,” he said grimly.
I nodded sadly.
He stared down at me, his expression solemn. “And yet, even in that… together . Right?”
“Right,” I replied tersely.
Melek frowned. “Yilan, I’m not looking forward to it either, but do you see a better way through this? If you do, I’m listening.”
I wanted to argue, but I couldn’t. Instead I just stepped forward and put my head on his chest.
As his arms wrapped around me and we stood there, I prayed that somehow we could find our way through this without the chaos. Quickly. Smoothly. And together .
When my tension had eased some, I straightened to find Melek staring down at me with the hint of a smile on his face.
“What?” I muttered.
“You’re pretty when you’re pouting.”
“I’m not pouting!”
He leaned down quickly and kissed me. “Well, you’re pretty when you’re… doing whatever it is you’re doing right now. Even with your hair messy like that—though you might want to straighten it before we walk out.”
I slapped his chest, but as he grinned, I quickly pulled my hair back and twisted it into a braid. Melek’s eyes dropped to my chest which was raised because I had my arms back and up. He gave a low rumble and slid his hand into the hollow of my waist, but I growled right back at him.
“You don’t get to tell me all the reasons we have to walk away from this solitude, then give me reason to stay,” I muttered as I quickly braided the last length of my hair.
“If we’re doing this, we have to do it before dinner, so things can calm down and everyone can see that you’re not a brute, but a… wait… what are you?”
He frowned. “What do you mean?”
“I mean… are you considered noble in your society?”
His charming, teasing expression faded quickly into sour darkness. “Yes,” he muttered. “But Gall is not.”
Our eyes locked at Gall’s name and I pushed a wave of comfort and reassurance to him through the bond.
We’d both been avoiding talking about the details that would face us personally outside of this room, focusing instead on the immediate priority of getting him free, and crowned.
But I could feel how heavily Gall weighed on him.
“Do you trust that he’ll come around?” I said quietly.
“I don’t have any choice but to believe that I can appeal to him. Perhaps when he sees me, perhaps it will take more than that. But I trust his heart. He is good to his core, and forgiving.”
“I’ll help however I can,” I reassured him.
“You have enough on your plate. Leave Gall to me.”
Then we both went quiet, and it was time. I looked towards the door, chewing my lip.
“Shall we?” I said reluctantly.
But to my surprise, Melek shook his head. “You first.”
I looked at him sharply. “What? Why? You said we had to—”
“They must see me without you, Yilan. Just for these first hours. You go first, give your orders—tell them not to kill me, and give them whatever instruction you want them to have. Then… leave me to deal with them. I will show them who I am,” he said, that powerful gleam in his eye.
My admiration for his courage and strength took another deep surge.
I wanted to throw him on the bed and make him remind me who he was.
But I just huffed a breath out and put my hand to his chest again.
“I love that you are so willing to just walk straight into the fray,” I said quietly. “I admire that about you, Melek.”
His brows rose. “That is… touching,” he said softly, stroking my face with one hand. “And a trait I admire about you, also. When it isn’t getting me drugged and abducted,” he added dryly.
I gave him a flat look, but let the tease pass, and instead stroked the front of his jacket. “Your strength in that way is why I know you’ll be an incredible King,” I said.
He grunted, then leaned down to kiss me—slowly. Softly. His fingers curling into the hair at my nape. But he didn’t deepen it. Just lingered. I had to force myself to only kiss him back, not cling.
When he broke the kiss and stroked my chin with one finger, I turned from him and took a deep breath before marching out of the cell, then yanking open those anteroom doors and starting down the stairs, reaching for Diadre in my mind before I got to the guards.
‘Change of plan, friend. I’ll be needing your unwavering support again.’
I sent her an image of myself throwing open the cell door, and now my view as I descended the stairs.
‘Wait, I thought you were staying until tomorrow?!’
‘No. New plan. Come to the tower as quickly as you can. I imagine I’ll need as much back up as I can find when Turo hears about this.’
There was a beat, then she sent back. ‘I’m five minutes away. Go slowly down the stairs. I want to see their faces when he appears.’