Chapter 17 #3
“He admitted it, yes,” she said. “But I’ve suspected for a while there was something between the two of you.
It’s why I came to him looking like you that time.
I took it further than I should’ve, but he all-but admitted he’d fucked you then.
Something about having Lord Bressen’s permission to touch you. ”
My jaw hung open as I listened. I knew Talyn had been watching us closely, but it unnerved me to think my involvement with Samhail was obvious enough to see.
“How many times?” Talyn asked, snapping me back from my daze. “Do you take him to your bed regularly?”
“No,” I answered quickly. There was something in her tone, and for reasons I didn’t understand, I felt the need to reassure her. “Only twice, and it’s over now. Samhail and I became very close due to…certain circumstances. We’re still close, but our last time together was the end.”
Talyn cocked her head in interest. “Why?”
Gods above. I had no idea how to answer that without giving her the whole sordid tale, and I had no intention of doing that. I thought for a moment before I finally said, “From what I understand, gargoyles can have sexual relationships without getting emotionally attached. I can’t.”
A complex cocktail of emotions passed across Talyn’s face that made me wish I’d been reading her mind.
“You don’t believe Samhail has an emotional attachment to you,” she concluded, and I wondered if I imagined the relief in her voice.
“Samhail cares for me and always will,” I said, “but he’s not in love with me. According to him, gargoyles don’t fall in love in general.”
I knew I should’ve stopped a sentence earlier as Talyn flinched. She quickly masked her reaction, and I wondered if she knew she was falling in love with Samhail. The emotions I saw on her face were barely there, and she had her mind shield up, but I was certain of her feelings for him.
I hadn’t observed Samhail as closely, but I now suspected I’d see something similar in him. He’d tried to shield this woman from Bressen’s wrath, and that spoke volumes.
I was surprised to realize that the idea of Samhail and Talyn in love with each other didn’t upset me as much as I expected.
Strangely, I found it easier to accept that Samhail might spend the rest of his life with one woman than to think he’d continue to fuck whoever struck his fancy.
Three hells, perhaps I’d even take credit for making him realize he could care for a woman beyond the bedroom.
“Would you really have killed me and Bressen that night you tried to get into our bedroom?” I asked suddenly.
Talyn was as surprised to hear the question as I was to speak it.
She smiled. “Him, easily.” She paused. “You would’ve been harder.”
I wasn’t sure if she was kidding about Bressen. Her skin didn’t show any sign of a rosy hue, but I couldn’t believe she would’ve killed him.
I started to ask a follow-up question, but the flap of the tent opened then as Bressen, Aidan, Samhail, and Maziren reentered.
“Everything alright?” Bressen asked as he strode straight for us, and I saw the relief on his face. I’d closed my mind off to him during my conversation with Talyn so he couldn’t hear what we’d said.
“Perfectly fine,” I said. “Talyn and I were just catching up while I took care of her wounds. Neither were anything serious.”
“That’s good,” Samhail said, eyeing us as if he was terrified by what we might’ve said to each other while he was gone.
I supposed he should be a little scared.
“And what about you?” I asked him as I looked for visible injuries.
“What about me?” he asked.
“Were you injured? Any wounds I can heal?”
“I’m fine,” he answered quickly. Too quickly. “No injuries.”
I started to nod, then paused as a slight rosy glow tinted his skin. I looked him over again but didn’t see anything obvious.
“Are you sure?” I asked.
“I wasn’t injured in the battle,” he corrected himself. “I let the beast out to play for a while, and you know he doesn’t bruise easily.”
I noted his careful wording and decided I probably didn’t want to know. At least I was getting more adept at discerning when people were attempting to skirt my truth seer powers.
Glenora’s words came back to me then, and my stomach dropped. I dreaded the first time I might catch Bressen trying to carefully word an answer to my questions.
“Is there anyone else that needs to be treated?” I asked, turning to Bressen and Aidan. “Dare I even ask what it looks like out there?”
“It’s probably best you don’t,” Bressen said. “I haven’t checked to see if anyone is still alive, but I can do that now.”
“I meant to leave one or two alive for questioning,” Samhail said, “but things didn’t go as planned.”
Bressen paused to let his mind powers search the camp for survivors, and I did the same. I did sense a few people alive beyond the tent, but only just barely, and none were conscious.
Near the tent I sensed nine consciousnesses, but something cold trickled down my spine when I counted only eight of us, including Surgeon and Serise just outside. Both Bressen and I looked in unison toward a cabinet in the corner when our powers zeroed in on the ninth consciousness.
“We’re in luck,” Bressen said. “One person survived the slaughter, and he’s been here in the tent with us this whole time.”
Tandem Read: Go to Clash of Stone and Steel (Bk 3), Chapter 31