Chapter 29 #4
“If death is your sentence, it will be immediate. I won’t allow you to unbind from Kara. You’d never plead for leniency for your own life, but will you do it for hers?”
Cirrian’s confident appearance fell as he looked at me, a concerning amount of desperation in his expression. He glanced over his shoulder at the door. Without a doubt, I saw fear.
“I ask that you preserve her life,” he whispered, his head bowed.
“That is a request, not a plea. Another clemency for your rejection of our rules would require that much. If you won’t do it for yourself, do it for her sake. If I find it worthy, I’d even be gracious enough to extend you another Quelling.”
He looked pointedly at the ground.
Cirrian grimaced, screwing his eyes closed.
Seeing what it took from Cirrian, Zyran grinned and stepped back to give him room to kneel.
My heart wrenched in my chest, feeling his humiliation and frustration as if they were mine.
Sayier cutting her eyes in my direction made me reconsider my impulse to go to him.
Nahela’s head shake kept me immobile. Tears pricked at my eyes.
Color flushed his skin. Empty eyes looked at me once before he started lowering to his knees.
I would never forgive them for this. Their eyes danced with a diabolical glint.
These were deities with a moral compass or ego no higher than those from my realm who exploited their own privilege of power.
They were drunk on their influence and the awareness that they were about to force the submission of their most defiant subject by making him bend the knee and beg for mercy.
The unnecessary and excessive cruelty made my stomach curl.
The door to the atrium exploded open, and Larkin entered with a disgruntled Magnus padding next to him. Larkin’s eyes quickly scanned the room, landing on Cirrian. A look passed between them, Larkin forcing a hold on Cirrian. Cirrian nodded to him and mouthed something that I believed was thanks.
Larkin’s brows inched together, his face displaying a series of emotions but none of the disappointment and anger he had at my house. A slow scowl crept over his features at Cirrian half kneeling in front of Lord Zyran.
Assurance brightened Cirrian’s face as he stood, tracking Magnus, who appeared even larger than I remembered.
Silence overtook the room. The guards gave Magnus a wide berth, eyeing the wolf as he made his way to me at a determined trot, nails clacking against the floor.
When he sidled next to my leg, I crouched, sinking my fingers into his thick fur.
He eased into my touch. Could wolves sigh? I was certain he did.
“Hey, Magnus,” I whispered. The serenity his presence brought was surprising. I tilted my head to make space for his face that he rested in the crook of my neck.
Mine. Mine. It became a loop in my head. Continuous and persistent.
“Lycan.” Lord Zyran’s whisper cut through the silence. Smiling, he took a step toward us but reconsidered it. Unable to pull his eyes from the wolf, he said, “He wasn’t trapped.”
Cirrian shook his head. “I don’t think there are others.
Which is why he seemed so determined to prevent me discovering him.
” He turned to me. “You kept mentioning a wolf that appeared when I wasn’t around.
It took a moment for me to put it together.
” Cirrian’s eyes dropped to the wolf. “You didn’t want me to find you.
” His voice held the same warmth and rueful sympathy Terran’s had when he’d determined Magnus had retreated into his wolf.
“You couldn’t. Not before you’d completed your goal,” Cirrian added to himself.
The wolf’s piercing eyes moved from me to Cirrian.
“You thought I’d bring you back here, if I knew of your existence?”
The wolf nodded.
“Do you have the confirmation you needed?” Cirrian asked the wolf.
Instead of responding, Magnus pressed even closer to me, nudging my hand deeper into his fur.
His body rose into the inhalation and sank into relaxation next to me.
I looked up from Magnus to find awe and intense scrutiny on the face of the people in the room.
Everyone’s attention was firmly set on me.
The Bavelon, Legion, and even Larkin bent into a reverential bow.
My mouth parted, but the words wouldn’t come. Stop. It played on a loop in my head but the words were stuck. Nothing. I couldn’t even request an explanation.
Several long moments passed when a wispy “No,” spilled from me.
I wasn’t sure how much of the strange situation I was declining, but it certainly started with the intense reverential looks and the bowing. Definitely the bowing.
My heart pounded. I looked from them to Cirrian, who was slowly moving toward me. Smiling wide, his eyes were lit with emotions I hadn’t seen in him before. The vast intensity of them couldn’t be defined, nor the way the people of Umbryth were regarding me.
Cirrian’s voice boomed in the thick of the strained silence.
“I didn’t bring an ephemeral to Umbryth. I’ve brought Goddess Annessa home.”