39. Brinley
Chapter 39
Brinley
B rinley wasn’t sure she was breathing.
Her grandmother was alive. There were presumably others who had survived, and they had all escaped to this village the scouts stumbled across—Nimiré. Gabriel had led her out to the study to sit on the settee, as if knowing she was about to collapse. She listened to Darren’s explanation but could barely register the words beyond understanding her grandmother wasn’t dead.
“How far?” She didn’t know who she cut off, but the room went quiet. Tearing her eyes from the ornate rug at her feet, she looked at Darren. “How far away is it?”
“In my wolf form, running most of the time, it took almost three days,” Darren said. “So, maybe a week on foot for you.”
Before she could say more, Gabriel’s growl rumbled through the room. “No.”
Her eyes snapped to him. He sat beside her, Darren in the armchair. Pax had left already to return to Rose. Apparently, Darren had found him before they both came for Gabriel, and the other scouts had gone home to rest.
“What do you mean no ?” Her brow furrowed. “I have to go to her. I can convince her to break this curse and?—”
“No!” Gabriel’s deep voice sounded like that of the monsters she’d been taught to fear all her life. But she didn’t fear him. He pushed to his feet and began pacing. “It’s too dangerous. You can’t go to her.”
“She’s my grandmother,” Brinley said. “She won’t hurt me. I can get her to understand?—”
“She hired assassins, Brinley!”
Only the sound of a distant clock whispered through the room. Without a word, Darren stood and quietly exited as they stared at one another. Gabriel’s chest heaved, his claws fully extended. She’d seen him angry, but this was something else entirely. “What are you talking about?”
“That rogue was hired by your grandmother.” He looked as if he was nearly shaking from restraint.
His words registered, but they didn’t make sense. Brinley got up, her mind reeling. “I don’t understand.”
“They were sent here not to bring you home but to kill you.”
Shaking her head, she whispered, “Stop.”
Gabriel stepped closer. “She killed your father, and now she wants to kill you. If it looks like the DeLoup did it, this queendom would go to war with itself, and she knows that. It would give her reason to outright attack us all.”
“She’s my grandmother.”
“Who deeply hates DeLoup, you told me that. And whether or not you want to accept it, you’re one of us.” He retracted his claws and grabbed her hand. “She’s never been all right with that.”
Brinley stared up at him, wanting to deny it. There had always been a distance between her and her grandmother, but she’d blamed it on the fact that she was a busy reigning monarch. She’d never questioned her grandmother’s love.
“She ripped you out of my arms when you were three years old,” Gabriel said, bringing his other hand to her face, “and then again when you were fifteen. I will not let her do it again. I will not let her use you as a pawn any longer, as a sacrifice to justify her actions.”
Her chest ached. She saw the truth in his eyes, the pain that matched her own. Standing on her toes, she pulled him down to kiss him. It was soft, and far too short, but she needed him to really hear her next words. “You have to let me try, Gabriel.” When he opened his mouth, she added, “For Rose.”
He staggered backward, blinking at her in disbelief. As he hit his desk, she could practically see his heart shattering. He slid to the floor in clear agony. But her words had been deliberate. She knew what he needed to hear, what he needed to be reminded of.
“You’re going to make me choose between saving my mate and saving my sister?”
And just like that, her own heart broke into a million pieces. She went to him, collapsing into his lap. His arms encircled her. The back of her throat burned with tears.
“Please don’t make me choose,” he whispered against the side of her head.
“I won’t,” she promised. “Because there is no choice, Gabriel.” Not only would the mate bond not allow him to choose anyone over her—the other half of his soul—but she would never ask him to. The only way to defy the bond was to reject it entirely, and she wasn’t going to lose him again. He’d given so much for her and their people. Now, it was her turn “You said I wasn’t a prisoner.”
He sniffled. Gabriel Ferway, alpha of the Crimson Pack, one of the strongest men she’d ever met, cried into her shoulder. She ran a hand through his hair over and over. Neither of them spoke nor moved. She wasn’t sure how long they sat like that. Long enough for the sun to set and shadows to consume the room.
Eventually, they got up and went downstairs to gather dinner on trays that they then brought upstairs to Rose and Paxton. The solemn night bore on, as if the other two knew what had transpired. As if they knew what tomorrow would bring.
Before leaving the solarium, Brinley hugged Rose for a long minute. The friend she hadn’t remembered. The one who deserved so much more in this life.
Paxton pulled her into his arms next and whispered, “Thank you.”
Brinley nodded, unable to speak. She knew how much this meant to him.
When she stepped away and took Gabriel’s hand, Paxton held his gaze. He dipped his head, and Brinley knew it was because he understood how difficult this was for their alpha. Gabriel would have to sit by as his mate faced the most powerful witch in the queendom. He would have to watch as she purposely faced danger, faced the one who’d cursed them and twisted her memories.
But Brinley had no qualms about going. She was terrified, yes, but for her friends, her new family, she would do whatever it took.
Without another word, Gabriel led her downstairs and to bed. They quietly undressed and lay down together. As they moved as one, joined like perfect soulmates, she knew she would do everything in her power to help him and his people.
She would tell her grandmother the truth—that her heart belonged to this alpha, her mate—and she would get her to break both curses.
With each step closer to the gates, Brinley’s chest tightened more. Her heart was beating out of control, and she honestly thought she might be sick. Near the opening, Daciana and Joel stood with Stella saddled and ready to go for her. Gabriel stripped down to his underwear, still not looking at her as she clasped the red cloak he’d given her that morning around her shoulders. A reminder of the first time they’d saved each other two and a half months ago.
He stared out at the forest. His shoulders lifted as he took a deep breath. But as he made to step past the barrier, Brinley grabbed at his arm. “Wait!”
He didn’t fight her, instead turning to face her. She pulled him farther from the invisible line.
“What, bijou?”
She stared into his bright blue eyes. Sliding her hand up his chest and around to the back of his neck, she tugged him down as she stood on her toes to press her lips to his. Gabriel made a sound of approval, his own hands going to her back. He hauled her up against him as she wrapped her arms behind his head and parted her lips. His tongue brushed hers, and she let out a soft moan.
Slowly, he lowered her feet to the ground and broke the kiss. He put his forehead against hers, his ragged breath mingling with hers as he continued holding her. Before she could stop herself, she whispered, “I love you.”
Gabriel straightened, jerking away from her with wide eyes. At his sudden retrieval, her brow furrowed. Had she been wrong? She truly thought he felt the same.
“I… I’m sorry.” She crossed her arms over her stomach. “I just, I thought—never mind.” She started to turn back toward the gates. At least they wouldn’t be able to talk on this trip.
He hooked an arm around her waist, stopping her. “Do you mean it?”
The words were so quiet. Facing him again, she nodded.
“Brinley, I…”
Tears welled in her eyes, and she hated it. She never wanted to be the woman who cried over a man, but it felt as if her heart was cracking in half. “You’re going to reject the bond? After everything?”
“What? No.” Anger filled his voice. He let go of her and ran a hand through his hair with a frustrated groan. “But I can’t…”
When his words trailed off again, he looked as if he wanted to kill something. Or someone. She didn’t understand.
“It doesn’t make sense, it should’ve—Fuck!”
“Gabriel, what’s happening? You’re scaring me.” She hadn’t been frightened around him in so long.
As if finally hearing her, his features softened. “Oh, no,” he said, closing the distance between them and pulling her into a hug. “No, bijou. I’m sorry.”
He gasped and leaned away, only to grab her hand. He held it up between them.
“Ask me,” he said.
And suddenly, she knew. “The curse?”
His thumb tapped her palm. Yes .
But she still wasn’t following. She shook her head. “I don’t know what you’re trying to tell me.”
Gabriel placed his other hand on her cheek and held her gaze. “Did you mean it?”
“That I love you?”
“Yes.”
She licked her lips and nodded.
“All right, what happened after you told me?” he asked slowly, clearly trying to get her to put something together.
“You got mad.”
“Before that, Brinley. Right after you said it.”
She thought about the pain threatening to cave in her chest. “N-nothing.” Her voice cracked. “You didn’t say it back.”
With a sigh, he nodded. “Exactly.”
He tapped her hand a couple times, and her eyes widened in realization.
“That’s part of the curse?”
Tap.
“You can’t say it?”
Tap.
Her mind reeled. Why would that be part of the curse? “Can you say it to others?”
Tap.
“So, it’s just me?”
Tap.
Brinley stared up at him, her heart swelling with hope as she whispered, “Do you love me?”
This time, he didn’t tap her palm. He lifted it to his lips and kissed it. She let out a shaky breath, somewhere between a half-laugh and half-sob. His hand slid to the back of her neck as he kissed her again. Thoroughly.
Somewhere in the back of her mind, she knew they were likely causing a scene. It wasn’t everyday their alpha was almost naked, kissing a witch in the streets. But she couldn’t bring herself to care.
After a too-short moment, she broke away, needing more questions answered. “You couldn’t say you love me because of the curse, and then you got mad. You said, ‘it doesn’t make sense, it should have…’ Should have what?”
“Fixed. It.” He said the words one at a time, as if testing them out.
“Fixed it?” she repeated before it dawned on her. “It should have broken the curse?”
Gabriel tapped her hand again.
“That’s why you kept asking if I meant it.” She shook her head, the fresh tears now falling for a whole new reason. “But I do, Gabriel. I love you.”
He kissed her once in response. “I’ve waited so long for this moment, but it didn’t work. I don’t know what to do now.”
Neither did she. His pain only made her own sadness stronger.
A thought dawned on her, twisting her stomach. “You can’t say it aloud, just like you can’t talk about the curse.”
His tongue darted out to wet his lips as he nodded.
“Because she didn’t want me to figure it out,” she said. “She did everything in her power to keep us apart, but she also made it impossible for you to tell me these things… because she knew it would make me love you and your people.”
“I’m sorry, bijou.” He laced their fingers together while using his other hand to brush the dampness from her cheeks.
“But… you can talk about my father.”
“Six years ago, when you were taken and everything happened, she was emotional,” Gabriel said in a soft tone. “You were rendered unconscious before… and I think she was just too volatile to think it all the way through. If I had to guess, she was so focused on the present that she forgot to include him in the restrictions. Or maybe she thought you’d never believe us.”
“She made me hate you so much.” Brinley still didn’t understand how she’d been able to loathe them all to that extreme. One thing was for certain though: her grandmother never would have just forgotten to include something in a curse. Brinley didn’t tell him that, however. She couldn’t. Not right now. She needed to hold on to that little bit of hope she had that she could convince her grandmother to help.
And if she wouldn’t help, maybe Brinley could figure out how to break it herself a different way.
“All right, we continue as planned,” she said as he swiped away the last remaining tears from her face. “I’ll find my grandmother and tell her everything. She’ll be able to help; I know she will. If I can’t break the curse, she can.”
“Brinley,” he whispered with a sigh.
“She’ll help us.” Brinley raised her chin with confidence she didn’t truly feel. “We’ll break the curse, free your people, and heal Rose.”
“And then?”
She smiled, leaning in close. “And then, I’ll come home.”
Gabriel’s jaw visibly clenched, and she realized he was trying to hold back his own emotions. “Home?”
“Zareia is my home now; you are my home, Gabriel. You’re my mate, and once this curse is broken, I don’t plan on ever leaving you again.”
She’d barely spoken the last word before he lifted her into the air, spinning in a circle as he hugged her tight and pressed kisses against her neck, her jaw, and finally, her mouth.
“All right, all right,” a voice called out. Daciana. “Either go back to the house or get going.”
“Let them have their moment,” Joel said.
Gabriel laughed and set Brinley down. As they approached the wall once more, he held her against his side. “I wish I could say it. For the record.”
“Soon.” Brinley grinned. Taking a deep breath, she let go of him and mounted the horse. Gabriel walked out of the gates, shifting as he went. And then, they were off to search for the one person in the queendom who might be able to help them.
So long as Brinley could convince her to do so.