Chapter 61 #3
“Because you and I have somewhere else to be. It’s not far, and I told Alixe where we’re going. If there’s a problem, Sorae can have us back in minutes.” I squeezed her hand again. “Trust me. You’ll enjoy it.”
Cursed Kindred, I prayed that was true.
She tried to back away. “If the others want to have fun tonight, then fine, but I can’t. I’m the reason they’re here.”
“I will give you credit for many things, my Queen, but this war is not one of them. It started before anyone here was even born.” I tugged her back and slid a hand beneath her jaw, gripping her chin gently but firmly.
“If you had not shaped its course the way you have”—I turned her face toward camp, where Descended, mortals, and half-mortals danced together among flowers and bonfires, sharing wine as freely as friendship— “they would be lining up on opposite sides of a battlefield, instead of preparing to fight together on one.”
Her eyes shadowed as she watched them, and I wondered if the more treacherous battle we faced was the one waging inside her.
The rhythmic thumping of gryvern wings filled the air as Sorae burst through the clouds. I fired another burst of light to catch her attention, then she banked and soared our way.
“What would you choose to be, if you weren’t Queen?” I asked Diem.
“A healer.” She said it quickly, no hedging, no hesitation.
“Then why did you quit?”
“I thought I wasn’t worthy of it anymore. And I thought the healer part of me belonged to my mother. I think I had to walk away to realize it belongs to me, too.”
“Do you still feel unworthy?”
Diem’s heavy, sunken expression gave me the answer she wouldn’t.
“Lily said something similar,” I said. “She told me her guilt was getting in the way of her training to help wounded soldiers in battle.”
“Guilt for what? Lily’s a good person. She’s done nothing.”
“That’s the problem. She always knew things were bad for the mortals and half-mortals, but she didn’t do anything for them before.
Do you think that makes her unworthy to heal them now?
” I cocked my head. “Which is worse—trying to help, even if you make some mistakes along the way, or doing nothing at all?”
The old Diem I knew would have scowled. Her adorable nose would have scrunched and her eyes would have rolled with an overdramatic sigh, even as the corners of her lips fought their way upward. You’ve made your point, Prince, she would have huffed, refusing at all costs to admit I was right.
Gods, I loved that Diem.
But this Diem, the one I’d been learning, the one I was finally beginning to understand—the one I loved not a single heartbeat less—simply stared at me. Empty.
“Do you know what your mother told Lily?” I raised my chin into a stubborn jut and pulled my shoulders back, infusing my voice with my best Mortal City accent.
“Healing is not about what the healer deserves, Lilian. The question is: What does the patient deserve?” I arched a brow. “How’s my Auralie impression?”
I could have slayed Ophiucae and his gryvern with my bare hands, and I wouldn’t have felt as proud as I did of the tiny smile Diem cracked.
“Frighteningly accurate,” she said. “I think my mother’s growing on you.”
“She is,” I admitted. Sorae thumped onto the soil, and I tugged Diem toward her.
“I think she feels guilty for accusing me of wanting to do vile, unspeakable things. She’s a surprisingly good listener when she’s not threatening me and bossing me around.
I might have known that if I hadn’t spent so many years doing the same to her.
” I took Diem by the waist, lifting her onto Sorae’s back.
“Let’s hope she never finds out the truth. ”
“What truth?” Diem asked.
My hands burrowed beneath her skirts, skating up her bare legs and gripping the warm flesh of her upper thigh. “When it comes to you, I absolutely want to do vile, unspeakable things.”
Red flushed her cheeks. I smiled smugly as I walked to Sorae’s ear and whispered my request, which she accepted with a blue-flamed snort, then I mounted behind Diem.
I looped an arm around her waist and pulled her hips hard against mine.
Her soft noise of surprise went straight to my cock, leaving me picturing the other things I could do to elicit that sound again.
One hand slid up her ribs and over her breast, palming its swell.
“Luther,” she protested, though she arched against me.
My shadows skated up the long lines of her throat and gathered like a blindfold over her eyes. “Remember what happened the last time I surprised you like this?” I murmured in her ear. “Can you trust me that way again?”
Her answer didn’t matter. I was following through on my plan, even if I had to throw her over my shoulder and drag her there to do it.
But I did so love it when she chose to obey.
“Tell Sorae to fly,” I ordered.
“Fly where?”
“She already knows. Give the order, Diem.” My fingers tightened on her hip. “Then I’m the one in charge.”
“Fly,” she breathed.
Sorae’s wings slammed down, and we took flight into the midnight sky. “That’s my girl,” I said proudly as I held her against me.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
I smiled to myself.
“Home.”